front is front

Laban inspired by the extraordinary movement pathways of chamois/snakes/eagles and by Platonic ideas about geometry reducing all four natural elements to tangible triangles from which four perfect solids were formed, tabulated the immensity of human movement within a space-conscious syntax of eight basic ‘efforts’1 i.e. the WHERE/WHEN/WHAT/HOW of muscular energy, not perfunctory but revelatory of felt inner impulses/tensions. Amodal per se (i.e. applicable to differing expression modes) these coordinates affect the semantics of movement within our kinesphere, our imaginary scaffolding of personal space within our reach. From the taught vocabulary we chose movements which resonated deeper with each one of us. We worked abstractly with no explicit imagery attempting to bound each phrase organically in the piece’s overall structure. Laban tried to recover the lost body language of man’s rhythmic instinct: scooping, a possession gesture, from the periphery of the surrounding space inwards to the bodycentre, and scattering, a repulsion gesture from the bodycentre outwards, two core action-shapes (em)powered by two primitive urges. In performing ‘gathering’ we felt under the skin why there is no such thing as dead/empty space while in scattering we experienced an explosiveness, Lecoq’s ‘éclosion’ (82). The kinetic sensing of these two spatial attitudes is a flowing bidirectional riverstream of communication running outwards to the periphery of our kinesphere and inwards to our centre. Through its everted and inverted coursing we establish a relationship with the inner/outer space. The sequence illustrates beautifully the effect of movement on the breath: breath out stooping down to gather and breath in lifting to scatter, a constant brain-diaphragm dialogue; as in music phrasing relates to breath, breathing this phrase is better than beat-counting. We then transitioned into the Gondoliers exemplifying Laban’s tenet about arc-moving bodyminds/‘Gestalts’. A successive upward arc-drawing movement around the vertical axis transfigured into a powerful fluid structure through visualised kinexperience of the contact between a pole and the ground bouncing us back, giving a subjective, psychosomatic colouring of movement rather than an objective/task-like. In the geotropy of movement the focal point here is feeling the movement in the softened sternum, the centre of levity (Laban 58). Stressing the successiveness further onto Sideways on the Door Plane, proceeding out monolinearly of the middle torso into shoulder, upper arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, hand, fingers, with the flow influenced by the order in which these parts are set in motion, first with a Glide (Direct-sustained-Light), sending/projecting the movement out into the space, then by changing the weight on R foot and the weight of the movement into a Press then a Float. Changing weight and direction the head turns engaging eyes and imagination (reminiscent of Feldenkreis), movement journeying beyond the fingertips. Introduced by Delsartes successions are of the highest expressivity, a wholeheartedness of movement which extends its spatial journey, its sensation of fluency well beyond its stopping/pausing, unfolding-folding the life-death cycle, involving the imaginary/physical/physiological body. Finding the spatial pathways in stance first with eyes closed we discovered that it unlocks the doors to expressivity as in the icosahedron, related to the Dim Scale, transubstantiating this harmonised sequence and counter-movement into an entire movement phrase. The icosahedron urged us beyond the kinesphere with a labile off-centre experimentation. The twelve points of all three planes corresponding with the 12 points of the icosahedron, Laban discovered it followed the ideals proportions encountered in the pyramids, the Parthenon but also in plant life and the human body. A press-glide-flick led us seamlessly to a ‘bomb and explode’, the expressivity from the outer limit of ‘bombing’ impulsing our exploding onto the wave, a 3D successive spatial exploration involving knees/hips/chest initiated by a pressure felt by the footsoles; performed in duets required attuning our shared transition from pressing back to lifting forward facilitated by an abdominal contraction/breathing out. At the heart of this sequence is the spine, affecting both shoulder and pelvic girdles, Lecoq’s ‘ondulation’ (82). Swinging also featured in the synchronised sequence experiencing the expressive quality of width which led us into a closed circle2, then an extended occupation of space in an L-shape arrangement followed by a solo areal movement informed by a selected body area and its skin surface. Renouncing psychologism Laban’s science and feeling for gesture and its dual (motion-emotion) as well as triadic (desire, feeling, knowledge) quality reintegrated movement- and word-thinking. His kinetography wording the unworded, resulting from a penetration into the world of silence can be seen/heard/imagined, an invaluable kinespheric ‘grammar’ and a metaphor for acting/dancing generating the invisible finer movement conversations. In mathematics/computing an algorithm is an effective problem-solving method using a finite sequence of well-defined instructions. Laban’s allocentric spatial approach (front is front) with its combinatorial set of possible permutations of the eight efforts is an algorithm for choreutic phrasing revealing the inner life shadowing movement, not its external shape-rhythms; the poetry of its diversified shades and undefined longings.

References

Laban, Rudolf, The Mastery of Movement on the Stage, London: McDonal & Evans, 1960. Lecoq,

Jacques, Le corps poétique, Actes sud-Papiers 1997.

McCaw, Dick, Making an effort, unpublished paper.