The Body Universal

For Laban, the body and the space immediately surrounding it are closely related, for the center of the body is also the center of the bubble of personal space called the kinesphere.

Moreover, the body and kinesphere are also related to general space.  While general space may appear to be a “void in which objects stand and – occasionally – move,” Laban asserts that “empty space does not exist.”

Instead, space is a superabundance of simultaneous movements, a matrix of forces and vectors.  The human being stands at the center of this universal flux, not isolated but embedded. Thus the body is not only personal but also universal, for as Laban writes: “Innumerable directions radiate from the centre of our body and its kinesphere into infinite space.”