Demons Into Goddesses Through Effort Magic

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Laban personifies each of the eight basic actions in Mastery of Movement. He characterizes Floating (all indulging qualities of Weight, Time, and Space) as the Goddess and Punching (all fighting effort qualities) as the Demon. He goes on to note that it will not be difficult for the actor or dancer to depict these characters, for we “remember the age-old symbolism of love’s soft floating movements, and of the violent and abrupt movements of hatred.”

During the recent MoveScape Center Mastery of Movement Beautiful girl following butterflies on a mountaincorrespondence course, Rebecca Nordstrom created a sequence of basic actions and imagined this movement sequence as a scenario involving the Demon and the Goddess. It is a beautiful example of how imagination can bring Laban’s effort theories to life.

 

Becky has graciously allowed me to share her scenario….

Scale of moods order: Punch, slash, wring, press, glide, dab, flick, float.

A demon looks at the large oblong object that mysteriously appeared in his lair. First, he strikes it with his fist, punching repeatedly to try to break it open. He then slings it violently and repeatedly around the room sending it crashing into the walls, floor, and ceiling (slashing). When that doesn’t work, he grabs it in his hands and tries to twist it open with great force (wringing). Lastly, he leans against it with all his force trying to crush it (pressing). Exhausted, he collapses into a heap and falls asleep.

Out of a hole at one end of the object a veiled figure slowly, gently and steadily emerges (gliding). Once free of the object the figure quickly but gently pokes at the surrounding veil with long delicate fingers and toes (dabbing). Once loosened, the veil is gently but quickly tossed aside with flicking gestures.

Now completely free of the veil, the figure begins to spread its wings and gently, delicately rises. As the butterfly goddess knew, she was only able to emerge from her chrysalis cage with the help of the unsuspecting demon. She hovers over his sleeping body to whisper her thanks before floating gently out of his lair and into the bright sunshine.

Laban’s Eight “Basic Actions”

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Anyone with even a brief exposure to Rudolf Laban’s work will be familiar with the eight Basic Actions – float, glide, dab, flick, punch, press, wring, and slash. These functional actions are the bedrock of Laban’s effort theory.

As Laban noted, humans move to satisfy needs. Some needs are tangible – food, shelter, rest, and physical safety. This is where the basic actions come in – we employ these when working with material objects to achieve material needs.

Handyman with tools

Movement occurs in sequences, and these basic actions can be arranged to create a “scale of moods.” In the recent MoveScape Center correspondence course, “Mastering Rudolf Laban’s Mastery of Movement, we played with creating sequences of basic actions to see what kind of situations these effort changes might suggest.

In Mastery Laban notes that the “chemistry of effort follows certain rules because the transitions from one effort quality to another are either easy or difficult. In ordinary circumstances, no sane person will ever jump from one quality to its complete contrast because of the great mental and nervous strain involved in so radical a change.”

Consequently, my correspondence students were instructed to shift from floating to its dynamic opposite, punching, by only changing one effort quality at a time. It’s a great challenge — and one that takes you deeper into understanding effort.

Find out more in the upcoming MoveScape Center workshop, “Expanding the Dynamosphere” in New York City, July 29-30.

Lamb and Embodied Cognition

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Laban correlated physical efforts with mental efforts, relating Space effort to Attention, Weight to Intention, and Time to Decision.  Warren Lamb added shape to this scheme, noting  that “We cannot move in making an Effort without an accompanying movement of Shaping.”

movement pattern analysis

The paths traced by the moving parts of the body lie predominately in one of three planes – in the horizontal or table plane, in the vertical or door plane, or in the sagittal or wheel plane.  Lamb related these movement patterns to cognitive processes in the following way.

He noted that “horizontally-oriented movement puts the performer in touch with what is going on around him.”  Thus shaping in the table plane relates to giving Attention.

Vertical orientation then emphasizes where the person stands “in relation to whatever he is in touch with.”  That is, shaping in the door plan relates to forming an Intention.

Finally comes the sagittal orientation, Lamb writes,“a form of decision to advance or retire from the subject matter.”  Consequently, shaping in the wheel plane is linked to making a Commitment.

Interestingly, this progression also underlies motor development.  The infant first learns to roll over (horizontal plane).  Then he pulls up to standing (vertical plane).  Finally, he walks (sagittal plane).  Perhaps these early development phases provide the sensorimotor foundation of our decision-making processes!

Assertion and Perspective in Making Decisions

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movement pattern analysisA Movement Pattern Analysis profile reflects how an individual balances Assertion (the exertion of tangible movement effort to make something happen) with Perspective (positioning oneself to get a better view of the situation).  In the pilot study group, some individuals emphasized Assertion, while others favored Perspective.

The hypothesis was that those high on Assertion would need less information and come to a decision more quickly than those high in Perspective.  And this proved to be the case.  With regard to these two dimensions, the MPA profile showed predictive validity.

This pilot study focused on the utility of using movement-based observational measures to capture individual difference in decision-making.   Wide use of MPA profiles in business (where some companies have employed it in management teams for two – three decades) has established face validity of the profile.  That is, MPA profiles appear accurate and practically useful.

This more recent study has implications for applying movement-based observational methods in a broader context — to the investigation of experienced military and political leaders.  Find out more –   http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00658/full.

Testing Movement Pattern Analysis

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movement pattern analysis rudolf labanOver the past six years, I have been part of an interdisciplinary research team testing Movement Pattern Analysis (MPA).  The team consists of movement analysts, political scientists, and psychologists.  We have been comparing the Movement Pattern Analysis profiles of a participant group of military officers with their performance on a set of decision-making tasks completed in a laboratory situation.  Our aim is to assess how well their MPA profiles correlate with their decision-making behaviors in the lab.

Existing research has highlighted two dimensions representative of individual differences in decision making – how much information a person needs and how long it takes for the individual to come to a conclusion.  The laboratory protocol designed for this experiment allowed the participants partial control of the amount of information sought and the total response time as they worked their way through four hypothetical decisions.

In the experimental results, participants showed definite individual differences in terms of the total number of information draws and the total response time.

Find out how these behaviors correlated with their MPA profiles in the next blog.

Movement Study at the Cutting Edge

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laban movement analysisMovement Pattern Analysis is based on the premise that patterns of body movement reflect cognitive processes involved in making decisions.  This premise usually is met with skepticism, for at the level of popular consciousness, mind and body are still separate entities.

However, mind and body are no longer being viewed as separate entities in many academic disciplines.  “Embodied cognition” – the notion that moving and thinking are intertwined – is gaining traction among philosophers, linguists, developmental specialists, and neuroscientists.

The interconnectedness of thinking, feeling, and moving has long been obvious to movement specialists – at least experientially.   The gradual cultural turn that is occurring now validates what we “know in our bones” and takes it to a new level.

For example, developmental specialists have been aware of links between motor and cognitive development in early childhood.  Now, however, it is recognized that delays in early motor development can impact later cognitive functioning as well – even when the movement deficits have been overcome.

Support for these observations are coming from neuroscience research that is revising the way the function of the cerebellum has been viewed.  In the past, this part of the brain was thought to be “just about movement.”  More current perspectives situate the cerebellum as an essential connector linking sensorimotor and cognitive functioning.

Consequently, recent research has put Movement Pattern Analysis  on the radar for social scientists.  Find out more in the next blogs.

Observing Movement, Observing Life

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In Mastery of Movement, Laban asks readers to observe a person in everyday life, a person portraying a character in a mime scene, and a dancer performing a national or period dance.  Observers are to analyze the use of the body, along with the use of space, time, and weight.

movement dance

This is a useful exercise for any actor; it is also a task that Laban set for himself.  In his autobiography, Laban describes his first experiences as a young and very idealistic artist-to-be.  His first port-of-call is Munich, where he has been provided with various letters of introduction, and through these meets a fashionable society woman and her circle of admirers.  They set out to educate the naïve youth in the ways of the world, taking him to various entertainment venues and sending him on errands into the poorer sections of the city.

“So I began to acquaint myself more closely with other aspects of city life,” Laban writes.  In contrast to the elegant restaurants and night clubs patronized by his fashionable sponsors, Laban went to the stock exchange, to meetings of communists, to low-class cabarets.   “I got to know certain quarters of the city where crime was the order of the day” he recalls, “and I caught glimpses of the dark recesses of the souls of many apparently well-bred citizens and saw the inner wretchedness of the wealthy.”

Laban drew on these experiences 20 years later, in an evening long dance-play titled “The Night.”  Performed at the first Dancers’ Congress in 1927, the piece was a critical flop, and Laban freely admits this in his autobiography.  Nevertheless, his description of the experiences that led up to this dance-play provides insight into his desire to become acquainted with a wide range of human affairs.

Laban went on to distil these observations into movement.  This is what he continuously encourages the reader to do in Mastery of Movement.

Find out more in the Octa seminar, April 1 – May 6, 2017.

Laban’s Dramatic Imagination

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rudolf labanOne challenging aspect of Laban’s Mastery of Movement is his description of many dramatic scenes meant to be embodied by the reader.  These scenes involve multiple characters, various dramatic conflicts, and several changes in mood on the part of all the characters involved.

Laban wants the reader to get up and mime these scenes, thinking about how the body would be used, where movement would go in the space around the body, and what kind of efforts would appear and change.   It’s a tall order, one requiring a rich imagination.

I’ve written elsewhere about the necessity of using imagination to bring Choreutic forms to life.  But it is equally clear that using effort to embody various characters and dramatic situations requires imagination.  Laban’s scenes demand great effort variation, but can easily stray into stereotypic or melodramatic choices.   To avoid such regrettable diversion, Laban wants the reader to “think in terms of movement.”

Just as Laban was concerned to identify organic movements from place to place in the kinesphere, he was equally concerned to find natural sequences of effort change in the dynamosphere.  His guidelines on effort patterning in Mastery are a bit sketchy, so I intend to integrate more detailed approaches for “thinking in terms of movement” in the forthcoming Octa seminar. To do so I’ll be drawing on several models of effort relationships that I uncovered during my research on unpublished theoretical materials in the Rudolf Laban Archive in England.

To find out more, participate in the spring correspondence course, “Mastering Rudolf Laban’s Mastery of Movement.”

Gods, Goddesses, and Demons

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movement theory analysisIn Mastery of Movement, Rudolf Laban invokes gods, goddesses, and demons in his discussions of the “chemistry of human effort.”

“Gods as conceived by primitive man were the initiators and instigators of effort in all its configurations,” writes Laban.  “The strange poetry of movement that has found expression in sacred dance enabled man to build up an order of his effort actions, which is valuable and understandable to this day.”

Laban goes on to describe floating and gliding goddesses, divinities of joy that flick and dab, gods that wring, slash, and press, and demons that punch.  C.G. Jung would certainly see these mythical beings as archetypes with profound psychological significance.  But it takes an imagination like Laban’s to relate these figures to equally archetypal aspects of human effort.

These surprising combinations make Mastery of Movement a complex and nuanced work.  Find out more in the forthcoming Octa correspondence course.

Rudolf Laban – Man of Theatre

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rudolf laban theaterLaban’s life work was to create a rich palette of movement options from which a performer could draw.  By the time he wrote Mastery of Movement, he had a lifetime of experience observing movement and working with dancers and actors, which he distilled into this intriguing work.

Ironically, Laban’s own creative methods and experimental dance and theatre works are little known.   However, recent re-creations of work mounted by Valerie Preston-Dunlop, Alison Curtis-Jones, and Melanie Clarke provide glimpses of his work and methods that are useful in illuminating aspects of Mastery of Movement.

In particular, re-creations based upon repertoire of the Kammertanzbühne Laban reveal Laban’s theatrical vision.  Housed in an exhibition hall at the Hamburg Zoo, this small company performed several times each week for subscribers who came again and again in the mid-1920s.  As Preston-Dunlop notes, the company concentrated on four types of dance:  “ornamental, ecstatic, grotesque” and national folk dances.   The grotesque, “covered dances that were dramatic, odd, funny and made people uncomfortable, curious, amused, flabbergasted,” in other words, more theatrical than the other three types, which were respectively attractive, solemn, and colorful.

Laban and his assistant, Dussia Bereska, choreographed works, as did members of the company.  Much of the movement material was improvised, then shaped, as Preston-Dunlop notes, “through bodily, choreutic, and eukinetic articulation.”   As Laban notes in his autobiography, “familiar characters came into being, who were welcomed by the audience as old acquaintances just as in the medieval theatre.”

“For example,” Laban continues, there were “the jester, the juggler, obstinancy, rage, playfulness, the dandy, the tyrant, death, and many more.”  Some of these characters make repeat performances in the many dramatic scenarios Laban provides to stimulate readers’ movement imaginations.

Give your own dramatic imagination some food for thought in the forthcoming correspondence course, “Mastering Rudolf Laban’s Mastery of Movement.”