Rudolf Laban

Rudolf Laban, a dance artist and theorist, whose work laid the foundations for Laban Movement Analysis, and other more specific developments.

Laban's parents were Hungarian, although his father's family came from France, and his mother's family was from England. His father was a field marshal who served as governor of the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was born in 1879.

Laban initially studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and became interested in the relationship between the moving human form and the space which surrounds it. He moved to Munich at age 30 and under the influence of seminal dancer/choreographer Heidi Dzinkowska began to concentrate on "Bewegungskunst", more commonly called Ausdruckstanz, or the movement arts.

Laban established the Choreographic Institute in Zürich in 1915, and later founded branches in Italy, France, and central Europe. One of his great contribution to dance was his 1928 publication of "Kinetographie Laban", a dance notation system that came to be called Labanotation and is still used as one of the primary movement notation systems in dance. His theories of choreography and movement served as one of the central foundations of modern European dance. Nowadays, Laban's theories are applied in diverse fields, such as Cultural Studies, Leadership development, Non-Verbal Communication, and more.

In addition to the work on the analysis of movement and his dance experimentations, he was also a proponent of dance for the masses. Toward this end, Laban developed the art of movement choir, wherein large numbers of people move together in some choreographed manner, but that can include personal expression.

This aspect of his work was closely related to his personal spiritual beliefs, based on a combination of Victorian Theosophy, Sufism, and popular fin de siecle Hermeticism.By 1914 he had joined the Ordo Templi Orientis and attended their 'non-national' conferencein Monte Verita, Ascona in 1917, where he also set up workshops popularizing his ideas.

From 1930 to 1934 he was director of the Allied State Theatres in Berlin, Germany. In 1934, he was promoted to director of the Deutsche Tanzbühne, in Nazi Germany [* [http://www.laban.org/php/news.php?id=20 Rudolf Laban] -extensive biography from "official" site] . Some of his disciples believe he took a less active role when the Nazis took power, but in fact he directed major festivals of dance under the funding of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda ministry from 1934-1936. [Manning, Susan. "Reinterpreting Laban" a review of "Body-Space-Expression: The Development of Rudolf Laban's Movement and Dance Concepts" by Vera Maletic. "Dance Chronicle", Vol. 11, No. 2 (1988), pp 315-320] . Laban even published racist viewpoints during this time noting, "We want to dedicate our means of expression and the articulation of our power to the service of the great tasks of our "Volk". With unswerving clarity our "Führer" points the way" [Rudolf Laban, "Meister und Werk in der Tanzkunst," Deutsche Tanzzeitschrift, May 1936, quoted in Horst Koegler, "Vom Ausdruckstanz zum 'Bewegungschor' des deutschen Volkes: Rudolf von Laban," in Intellektuellen im Bann des National Sozialismus, ed. Karl Corino (Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe,1980), p. 176.] . Several similar allegations of Laban's attachment to Nazi ideology have been made, for instance that as early as July 1933 he was removing all non-Aryan pupils from the children's course he was running as a ballet director [Karina, Lillian & Kant, Marion (Translator: Steinberg, Jonathan). "Hitler's Dancers: German Modern Dance and the Third Reich" (New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2003)] . His falling out with the Nazi regime culminated in 1936 with Goebbel's banning of "Vom Tauwind und der Neuen Freude" (Of the Spring Wind and the New Joy) for not furthering the Nazi agenda. [Kew, Carole. "From Weimar Movement Choir to Nazi Community Dance: The Rise and Fall of Rudolf Laban's "Festkultur""."Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research", Vol. 17, No2 (1999): pages 73-96]

By 1937 he had left Germany for England. He joined the Jooss-Leeder Dance School at Dartington Hall in the county of Devon where innovative dance was already being taught by other refugees from Germany. He was greatly assisted in his dance teaching during these years by his close associate Lisa Ullmann. Their collaboration led to the founding of the Laban Art of Movement Guild (now known as The Laban Guild for Movement and Dance) in 1945 and the Art of Movement Studio in Manchester in 1946.

Whilst in the UK, he re-directed his work to industry, studying patterns of movement, the time taken to perform tasks in the workplace and the energy used. He tried to provide methods intended to help workers to eliminate "shadow movements" (which he believed wasted energy and time) and to focus instead on constructive movements necessary to the job in hand. After the war, he published a book related to this research entitled "Effort" (1947). He continued to teach and do research, exploring the relations between Body and Spatial tensions until his death in the UK. But his work lives and grows through the work of his followers around the world.

Among Laban's pupils were Mary Wigman and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

External links

* [http://www.laban.org/php/news.php?id=20 Rudolf Laban] -extensive biography from "official" site
* [http://www.laban.org/php/news.php?id=11 LABAN] -information about the BA (Hons), MSc, MA and PhD degree programmes at the Laban Centre in London
* [http://www.limsonline.org] Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies - LIMS NYC
* [http://laban-courses.org.uk/aboutlaban.html About Laban] Biographical information taken from A Movement Perspective of Rudolf Laban by Sam Thornton - website of LInC (Laban International Courses) in UK.
* [http://www.labanproject.com/bios.html Short biographies of Laban and some leading Laban practitioners] -website of Laban Project
* [http://www.ickl.org/ring.html Laban Ring] -a community of webpages with Laban-related content

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