As a military cadet, Laban was assigned to the railway workshops to learn to handle machinery. Initially thrilled by the power of the locomotive, his sentiments soon changed – “I saw with growing clarity how man will come under the domination of the machine.” For the rest of his career, he was concerned to differentiate natural human action from mechanical movement.
For example, Laban recognized that human movement is a psychophysical phenomenon – a coming together of intention and action, mind and body. Through observing repetitive labor on factory production lines, he detected that an action became mechanical when there was a lack of “inner participation” on the part of the mover. Musing on the difference between stilted and convincing acting, Laban discerned that a movement only appeared “natural” when some part of it was spontaneous; that is, not overly controlled or consciously calculated.
What would Laban think of today’s robots? Some can move amazingly well. Their actions are dance-like in the sense that they are coordinated and rhythmic. But they are not harmonic. Of necessity, robotic movement can only be produced through conscious calculation of every detail. A robot cannot of its own volition move spontaneously. And the more it is consciously calculated, the less natural a movement appears.
To harmonize is human. Find out more in The Movement Harmony Project: Part 1.