Laban: Kinesphere and Trace Forms

 I

 

 Framing our Practice

 

 

II

 WARM UP

III

STRETCH 

IV

 

Activity 1

REVIEW: LEVELS & DIRECTIONS

FOCUS

COMBINING ALL

V

Review

 

Short Bio 

 

Rudolf von Laban, also known as Rudolf Laban, was an Austro-Hungarian dance artist and theorist. He is considered as one of the pioneers of modern dance in Europe and as the "Founding Father of the Expressionist Dance" in Germany. 

Rudolf Laban (1879-1958) was was a dancer, a choreographer and a dance / movement theoretician. Being one of the founders of European Modern Dance, his work was extended through his most celebrated collaborators, Mary Wigman, Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder.  

Laban was a visionary, humanist, teacher and theoretician, whose revolutionary ideas bridged the gap between the performing arts and science.

 

 

 

 

 

VI

CONCEPTS

Laban's Choreutics

Laban links his modern studies of movement to Pythagorean mathematics, notably musical scales and the “harmonic relations” of geometrical forms such as the right triangle and circle.

Laban appears to have coined the term Choreutics from two Greek root words: “khoreia” (dancing in unison) and “eu” (beautiful, harmonious).

Laban goes on to define Choreutics as “the practical study of harmonized movement.”

Latter day colleagues of Laban’s, such as Valerie Preston-Dunlop and Vera Maletic, have delineated Choreutics respectively as the “spatial organization for dance” and “the theory and practice of ordering movement in space.”

Choreutics, then, deals with the spatial aspects of movement, with its organization and order.

 

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VII

Analysis

Students go back to their groups from the previous class and discuss the concept of choreutics based on the question below. Then, they answer the question together and post their answer on Discussion Board. 

QUESTION 1

I. Explain the meaning of choreutics in your own words. 

Students who are making up, please post your answer on Discussion Board.

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VIII

 Concepts Developed by Rudolff Laban:  

Choreutics / Kinesphere / Trace Forms

 

 

Choreutics: Laban defined choreutics as “the practical study of harmonized movement.” Latter day colleagues of Laban’s, such as Valerie Preston-Dunlop and Vera Maletic, have delineated Choreutics respectively as the “spatial organization for dance” and “the theory and practice of ordering movement in space.”

 

Kinesphere: “the sphere around the body whose periphery can be reached by easily extended limbs without stepping away from that place which is the point of support when standing on one foot” (1966, p.10). This spherical space around our body shifts as soon as we shift our weight. It is also the first area of movement exploration before going into “space in general”. It follows anatomical limitations, being actually more elliptic than spherical as constitutionally, the average body has a wider area of reach forward than backward.

Visibly speaking the kinesphere stays invisible until the moment we move within it and make it tangible by leaving our trace-forms, the spatial consequences of our movements (Preston-Dunlop, 1981, p.27).

 

As an analytical study, choreutics delineates the natural paths that the limbs of the body trace on the space around the body. Laban calls these paths “trace-forms.”

Source:

https://thespaceintherelationship.wordpress.com/kinesphere/

ACTIVITY 2

Create 8 movements to illustrate the trace-forms described by Laban.