Mastery of Movement Takes Off

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laban movement theoryI launched the new MoveScape Center correspondence course, Mastering Rudolf Laban’s Mastery of Movement, with 19 reading companions on five continents (North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia).  In early April we plunged into the first chapter.

In his Introduction, Laban covers a dizzying array of topics, addressing animal and human movement; playing, dancing, and acting; humane effort; movement thinking; dance as a civilizing force; and more.  Yet how he delineates virtuosity and artistry seems to have provoked the most heated responses from my fellow readers.

According to Laban the virtuoso employs the “mechanical perfection of speech and gesture” to mirror “man’s happiness, folly and misery.”  By representing “the more external features of life,” this actor entertains, allowing the audience “to find comfort and relief from its workaday sorrows.”

On the other hand, there is another kind of actor, one who pays “little attention at first” to skillful physical representation.  Rather this actor concentrates on mirroring “the hidden processes of the inner being.”  As Laban sees it, a different kind of contact with the public results, one that he sees as being on a higher rung.

Not all my reading companions agree with Laban.  And I’m delighted to see that a close reading can trigger reflection and critical response.  The whole experience is making me think more about the relationship between virtuosity, artistry, and mastery.  That’s what I like about Laban.  Even if one doesn’t always understand what he means, he encourages thinking about the many dimensions of embodiment.

Effort Shape and Individual Difference

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movement pattern analysisLamb affirmed that “effort goes with shape organically.”  Yet careful study of an individual’s movement pattern will reveal an emphasis on effort more than shape, or vice versa.   Lamb came to feel that this difference was fundamental and significant.

For example, he observed that an emphasis on effort reflected an Assertion-oriented approach to decision making.  Such a person is driven, applying his or her energies, both physical and mental, to make things happen.  This decision-maker gets results by focusing, applying pressure, and setting the pace.

An emphasis on shape reflects a Perspective-oriented approach to decision making.  An analogy to drawing is helpful here.  If I’m drawing an apple, and I change my position relative to this object, my view and perspective also changes.  Thus shifting places and shaping the body allows the decision-maker to see the situation from different angles, broadening the scope, gauging value, and projecting the steps needed to reach a goal.

Recent pilot studies have shown that the relative emphasis on either Assertion or Perspective is predictive of how much information and how much time an individual needs to make a decision.   These results demonstrate the validity of movement  analysis when compared with other established criteria for discerning individual differences in decision making.

There is, of course, much more nuance in a Movement Pattern Analysis profile.  From a research perspective, however, it is vital to test the most global factors first before digging deeper.  With positive results to date, research efforts can continue.  There is still much to be learned!

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!

Laban and Embodied Cognition

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movement theory analysisRudolf Laban’s use of movement-based observational techniques anticipated the notion of “embodied cognition” by several decades.  In his writings in the 1940s and 50s, Laban already had identified “mental efforts” — namely those of giving attention to what must be done, forming an intention to act, and finally taking decisive action — as stages of “inner preparation for outer action.”

Laban went on to associate each of these mental efforts to one of the motion factors, according to the following scheme:

“The motion factor of Space can be associated with man’s faculty of participation with attention.  The predominant tendency here is to orientate oneself and find a relationship to the matter of interest either in an immediate, direct way or in a circumspective, flexible one.”

“The motion factor of Weight can be associated with man’s faculty of participation with intention.  The desire to do a certain thing may take hold of one sometimes powerfully and firmly, sometimes gently and slightly.”

“ The motion factor of Time can be associated with man’s faculty of participation with decision.   Decisions can be made either unexpectedly and suddenly … or they may be developed gradually.”

Building on Laban’s correlations, Warren Lamb extended and refined the linking of movement factors with mental processes.  Find out more in the next blog.

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.

A Life for Dance

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human movement danceLaban’s autobiography, A Life for Dance, is a curious book, but one that reveals a great deal about his creative vision and theatrical activities.  As he notes in the letter to his publisher that opens the book:

“I recount in my book how a human being makes his way through thousands of circumstances and events.  Since this person happens to be a dance master or even a dance-poet, the book will frequently speak about the precious little-known art of dance.  The whole kaleidoscope of events, both gay and serious, revolves around dance dramas, plays, and festivals which that dance master has invented.”

Laban wrote the book in the early 1930s, after an injury ended his performance career.  It is a summing up of his own career in dance, and in that sense, a kind of farewell.  On the other hand, the third part of the book goes beyond the personal to address the roles that dance might play in contemporary social and cultural life.  Thus the book also looks forward.

Laban is particularly hopeful about what he calls dance-drama – a “completely novel dramaturgy” that “leads to a new perception of life which tells us of the inner path taken by a character.”  The dynamic and partially abstract nature of dance moves beyond being merely a representational narrative of characters and events.  As Laban writes:

“Merely to witness incidents does not force us to look too deeply into the nature of events.  Only the portrayal of the peculiar fusion of spiritual nobility and human passion which sets external happenings in motion compels us to experience that kind of involvement through which we come nearer to the deeper meaning of experience.”

Laban’s own dance-dramas often involved fairy tale figures, historical characters, or archetypes such as “joygrief,” “lovehate,” and death.  His work was not meant to be escapist, however.  Rather, “it is a turning to reality, where the meaning of the development of the hero’s true being is found, both in his nature and in the experience of his inner struggles.”   As he notes, “in the characters of a military leader such as Agamemnon, a Don Juan, a Savonarola, or in the comic and tragi-comic figures of a jester, a Casanova, and other historical and archetypal personages, I saw not so much the victims of fate, but more the embodiments of ethical values and attitudes.”

Thus his later work, Mastery of Movement, is not just about the acquisition of theatrical skills.  It speaks more deeply to mastery of a dynamic self –one that is not only bound to respond to events out of habit, but also capable to transcending habitual reactions by means of humane effort.

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.