MPA and Acting

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

By Alison Henderson, Registered Movement Pattern Analyst

One problem for an actor is character similarity — does each character portrayed exhibit the actor’s habitual movements? Having a Movement Pattern Analysis profile gives the actor an understanding of his own thought process so he can see how it differs from his character’s process. Moreover, he can learn his personal movement characteristics/habits that arise from this thought process.

Until now, movement training has looked at body habits separate from the thought process, rather than connected. Actors are taught to go to a “neutral” place devoid of natural habits rather than understanding their organic movement in the deep way that comes from the MPA profile experience.

As an actor and director, I saw a direct relationship between MPA and character development early in my own MPA training. MPA bridges the psychological and physical. By analyzing a text for a character’s thought process (psychological motivation of the character), the type of movement shape and effort qualities from the MPA framework that will match the thought can be utilized by an actor for physical character transformation. With his MPA Profile, he will know which movements from his habits match the character and what he needs to change. As Laban stated, “It is of the greatest importance for the actor-dancer to recognize that such habitual inner attitudes (i.e. Decision-Making Preferences uncovered by MPA) are the basic indications of what we call character and temperament” (parenthetical phrase mine).

Finally, MPA can smooth the transition for actors between movement in the studio and movement on the stage. By changing the intensity of the effort and shape discovered through MPA-based text analysis, actors can be fully embodied on stage in every genre without the fears of movement appearing “put on” or work in the studio not transferring well to “realistic” acting. My own MPA Training for Actors called TYPE (Transform Your Predictable Expression) is still in development. However, I see a future where movement directors are part of every production because movement is crucial to creating the world of the play—moving all theater to include physicality rather than confining movement to the separate genre of “physical theater.”

MPA and Collaborative Choreography: Creating The Black Sea

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

By Laurie Cameron, Registered Movement Pattern Analyst

My choreographic process has always involved collaborative research – studio time in which “problems” that I have invented (usually based on a theme) are solved in various ways by the artists who will eventually perform whatever eventually materializes. As the director of the process, my job is to organize and orchestrate largely improvised material into some kind of coherent, presentable form.

With strong motivations in both Timing and Anticipating, it has always been important to me to move the process toward a “finished product” in a timely fashion, assuming that all involved trusted me to make sound artistic decisions and hoping to avoid hours of grueling studio work that might not necessarily produce more interesting results.

During my Movement Pattern Analysis training, I had the opportunity to profile three movement artists – a traditional, highly trained modern dancer, a B-Boy, and a Corporeal Mime practitioner. I was impressed by the diversity of their skills, their interest in self-growth, and their willingness to dive headlong into the choreographic unknown with me. I was even more intrigued by the profile initiatives that they shared, particularly high Investigating and Evaluating, and low-to-moderate Commitment. At the time I anticipated the challenge of moving them out of the Attention and Intention stages to commit to a final product. I did not expect to lose control of the process in such a meaningful and productive way.

I had anticipated three months of studio research followed by an informal showing, more editing, and eventually a fully realized performance about six months later. Instead, the energy to dig deeply, evaluate, reinvent and reimagine took over. All three performers seemed perfectly happy to mine material and critically assess for hours at a time with no performance agenda in sight. For me, the satisfaction of watching the work grow deeper and more refined validated the assessment process. I found my own moderate Evaluating being nourished while my urge to push the piece to completion seemed to relax. We worked in the studio for more than a year before my urge to set a finished piece took hold.

Of all the works I have directed, I am proudest of this. The images suggested by the myths of the Black Sea are, to me, fully realized, and the performers are deeply in tune with each other and with the material they grew with for so long. This process would likely have followed the same course regardless of my knowledge of MPA, but the awareness I now have of the potential for fruitful creative interaction based on decision-making preferences can inform my choreographic process in ways I had never predicted.

Movement Pattern Analysis – Business and Beyond

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Carol-Lynne Moore

In the 1940s, Rudolf Laban took his dance theories into the world of work, addressing issues of efficiency, job satisfaction, and reduction of fatigue on the factory floor.

In the 1950s, Warren Lamb took Laban’s methods of movement analysis into the executive suite, discerning how patterns of movement reveal unique decision-making processes. He applied his Movement Pattern Analysis profiles to thousands of senior executives in businesses around the world.

Today, Movement Pattern Analysis (MPA) is being applied to new arenas of human endeavor.

In the series of blogs that follow, three registered Movement Pattern Analysts – Laurie Cameron, Alison Henderson, and Madeleine Scott — describe how they have applied MPA respectively in creative work for dance, the theatre, and teaching at the university level.

MPA is not just for business – decisions are made in all kinds of enterprises and activities. You can find out more about your own decision-making processes in the upcoming Tetra seminar, Introduction to Movement Pattern Analysis.

Movement Health – Laban-style

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

As the benefits of physical motion are gaining recognition and undergoing further scrutiny, it is interesting to see how Laban characterized movement health. He wrote, “A healthy human being can have complete control of his kinesphere and dynamosphere…. The essential thing is that we should neither have preference for nor avoid certain movements because of physical or psychical restrictions.”

Clearly, Laban views movement as healthy for both the body and mind. He prescribes a rich range of motion, noting “we should be able to do every imaginable movement and then select those which seem to be the most suitable and desirable for our own nature.”

When I did my Laban Movement Analysis training in the mid-1970s, the faculty used to give individual “movement prescriptions” in the middle of the year. These were meant to be fun and usually aimed to encourage exploration of less preferred movement elements. However, the underlying rationale was not made transparent to students, who were sometimes left guessing as to why they received a certain prescription.

Warren Lamb took a more direct approach in the hundreds of individual movement tutorials he taught in the late 1950s and early 1960s. First he assessed the individual’s movement patterns. Then he worked with their effort and shape preferences, gradually building less preferred qualities into a unique movement sequence that the person could continue to practice and refine.

Want to find out more about your own movement patterns? Join the “Introduction to Movement Pattern Analysis” course, March 17- 19, 2017.

Mixing Business, Physical Exercise, and Creativity

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

The Wall Street Journal has also been covering the health benefits of walking, notably the walk-and-talk business meeting. According to their September 13^th article, “the health benefits are real for people who take walking meetings; their work gets more creative, too.”

These walking meetings are typically held with two or three people over a set route and period. Given mounting research on the health benefits of being more mobile at work, the walking meeting provides a way to integrate movement with other work activities.

There is science behind the walk-and-talk. For example, one study found that the more people engaged in moderate physical activity at work, the less likely they were to phone in sick. While standing desks have received positive attention as an alternative to sitting all day at work, walking burns more calories than just standing.

More intriguingly, a 2014 study at Stanford University found that walking increased creative output. Study participants were given a standard creativity test – to think of alternate uses for a common object. When participants were walking, they produced more original responses that no one had thought of when the group was merely sitting.

So don’t just sit there, stand up. Better yet, take a five minute walk!

Good News for Movement Analysts

Posted on December 13, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Good news has been scarce in this election year. But don’t despair, movement analysts, for the benefit of movement is gaining traction in the national press!

Time magazine, for example, featured “The Exercise Cure” as its cover story in the September 12^th issue. The writer notes that doctors have been advising patients to exercise for some time. But the prescription has been generic. Too much repetitive motion can be damaging, but too little movement is also unhealthy. So what kind of movement is healthy and how much exercise is “just right?”

Fortunately, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will launch a massive study next year to detail what happens inside a body in motion. According to Time, the study aims “to prove that exercise is medicine” and ultimately enable physicians to provide patients with detailed exercise plans tailored to their specific physical needs.

Current research is also encouraging, for it shows that some of the best exercise doesn’t require a gym membership. The amount of exercise recommended by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has increased to 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity weekly and twice-weekly muscle strengthening. But quotidian activities such as walking, biking, gardening, and doing housework count. And a cheap pair of weights or resistance bands can be used for weight training.

More exotic forms of movement, like Tai Chi and Yoga, are also being touted for their health benefits. Despite the fact that the U.S. is not a dancing culture, dancing is healthy. So I hope dance will also find a place in the future of American medical practice, when exercise is prescribed with much more specificity.

Beyond First Impressions

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

first impression The very first time we encounter a stranger, we derive an impression based on the person’s physical attributes and body language. Then rapidly and without conscious or logical control, we form a judgment – is the person positive, negative, or neutral?

The capacity to make snap judgments is probably essential to our survival. Yet first impressions are notoriously unreliable and often prejudicial. The real character of an individual is revealed over time – not in a single encounter, not in a single action, but in a moving pattern and embodied way of being.

To me the genius of Warren’s Lamb’s Movement Pattern Analysis has to do with its emphasis on discerning patterns of movement behavior. Movement is so slippery, disappearing even as it occurs. I think this is why most movement perception occurs below the level of conscious attention. However, although it is ephemeral and slippery, movement occurs in patterns. And if we take the time to pay conscious attention, we can detect these patterns and begin to make judgments that go much deeper than the first impression.

Want to find out more? Join the Introduction to Movement Pattern Analysis course beginning in March.

Movement Patterns, Expression, and Meaning

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Movement occurs in patterns, and these patterns are both expressive and meaningful. In 2017, MoveScape Center’s Red Thread offerings focus on the patterned aspects of movement behavior – in everyday activity, in effort, and in space.

Everyday patterns. The Red Thread journey begins with the Tetra seminar, “Introduction to Movement Pattern Analysis.” Based on the work of Warren Lamb, this three-day course, scheduled for mid-March in the Denver area, demonstrates how movement patterns reveal individual decision-making processes. Participants learn how to observe and interpret movement patterns. Moreover, by having their own profiles made by the instructor, participants emerge with deepened self-knowledge that can be used productively for career development and more effective collaboration with others.

Effort patterns. The Red Thread program continues with the Octa seminar, “Mastering Rudolf Laban’s Mastery of Movement.” Mastery of Movement is Laban’s most accessible and complete exposition of the movement elements of body and effort. During this six-week correspondence course, offered in April and May, participants read selected parts of Laban’s treatise on movement for the stage. Each week a set of study questions and movement explorations are provided. When the assignment has been completed, participants receive additional comments designed to elaborate on Laban’s stated aim, that “every sentence is written as an incentive to personal mobility.”

The Red Thread journey culminates in the Ico workshop, “Exploring the Dynamosphere.” This three-day movement workshop, scheduled for mid-July in the Denver area, provides rich expressive experiences and new perspectives on Rudolf Laban’s effort patterns. Workshop material includes effort phrasing, effort states and drives, effort modulation, and effort knots.

Space patterns. In late summer and through the autumn, MoveScape Center will be offering correspondence courses and movement workshops exploring the many spatial patterns of movement that Laban discerned and designed. But this is the subject for future blogs!

“Summer of Dance” Revisited

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

In my September blogs, I praised the Denver Art Museum’s “Summer of Dance” – four separate exhibitions all focused on American dance. However, I noted that the Denver Post’s art critic disagreed, claiming that dance was a far too trivial topic for a “serious museum” to tackle.

I suggested that the critic’s dismissive comments sprang from the fact that the real value of dance is best understood by dancing. And dance is not really embedded in the lives of everyday Americans.

The Denver Art Museum found a clever way to bridge this gap with its Dance Lab, one of the “Summer of Dance” exhibits. This locally-created interactive installation spans the gap between being a spectator of dance and a dancer.

The spectator enters a long, dark room. Various images of people dancing are projected along one wall. These projections are randomly edited with animated blobs and colored zigzags flashing intermittently across the dancers’ bodies. In an adjacent space, the spectator can become a performer by standing in front of a central pillar on which an outline of the body is shown. When the individual matches his body position with this outline, a video camera is triggered, and the museum-goer can create a two-minute solo.

Shortly thereafter, the solo will become one of the projections in the adjoining space. It is shown several times, at different positions along the wall.

I revisited the “Summer of Dance” with a colleague, and we had a ball creating solos and even attempting a duet. We were not alone. Other visitors wandered in and seemed to enjoy becoming dancers for a moment as well.

So hats off to the Denver Art Museum and its “Summer of Dance!”

Laban and Range of Motion

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Laban’s Choreutic forms both mirror and challenge the natural range of motion of the human body. As Laban was designing these movement sequences, he drew upon his first career as a visual artist. It’s clear from his figure drawings that he had studied anatomy. And he applied this knowledge in theorizing the shapes the moving limbs can trace in space.

As I note in The Harmonic Structure of Movement, Music, and Dance, Laban does not distort the proportion of the body itself. His figure drawings faithfully adhere to a classical canon and his drawings are realistically anthropometric.

I’ve always been fascinated by this. Laban’s first career in art straddles three modern art movements – Art Nouveau, abstract expressionism, and Dada. Realistic representation of the human body does not characterize these movements. Why then was Laban so faithfully realistic?

Quite simply, Laban was interested in the relationship between the body and space. If he distorted the body’s proportions, he would also distort the trace-forms of moving limbs. To capture the shapes of trace-forms accurately, he had to preserve normal bodily proportions and grasp joint structure and function.

Irmgard Bartenieff came to appreciate Laban’s anatomical grounding when she started to work as a physical therapist. As she noted, “Laban’s exploration of spatial possibilities deeply affected the way I worked to stretch my stiff patients.”

There is still much to be learned from Laban’s exploration of spatial possibilities. That is why MoveScape has offered a series of Red Thread programs this year. The final workshop is Advanced Space Harmony workshop, December 3 and 4. There is still time to register.