Laban, Rudolf
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Laban's parents were [[Hungary|Hungarian]], but 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 (region)|Bosnia]] and [[Herzegovina]]. He spent much of his time in the towns of [[Sarajevo]] and Mostar as well as the court circle in [[Vienna]] and the theater life of Bratislava. He was educated in both western and eastern cultures. | Laban's parents were [[Hungary|Hungarian]], but 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 (region)|Bosnia]] and [[Herzegovina]]. He spent much of his time in the towns of [[Sarajevo]] and Mostar as well as the court circle in [[Vienna]] and the theater life of Bratislava. He was educated in both western and eastern cultures. | ||
| − | Rejecting the military career planned for him, he became an artist. Through his studies of architecture at the [[Ècoles des Beaux Arts]] in [[Paris]] he began observing the moving form and the space surrounding it. | + | Rejecting the military career planned for him, he became an artist. Through his studies of architecture at the [[Ècoles des Beaux Arts]] in [[Paris]], he began observing the moving form and the space surrounding it. At age 30, he moved to [[Munich]], the art center of [[Germany]]. There he focused on revolutionizing ''Bewegungskunst'', the movement arts, spending the summer months at his Arts School on Monte Verita. |
| − | + | Laban established the Choreographic Institute in [[Zürich]] in 1915 and over the next ten years he created 25 Laban schools and companies for the education of children, amateurs, and professional dancers in [[Latvia]], Zagreb, Paris and Germany, always retaining a 'movement laboratory' for his own research. | |
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| − | Laban established the Choreographic Institute in [[Zürich]] in 1915 and over the next ten years he created 25 Laban schools and | ||
One of his greatest contributions 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. | One of his greatest contributions 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. | ||
| − | + | He was appointed director of movement and choreographer to the Prussian State Theatres in Berlin in 1930. In 1934, in [[Nazi Germany]], he was appointed director of the ''Deutsche Tanzbühne''. He directed major festivals of dance under the funding of [[Joseph Goebbels]]' propaganda ministry from 1934-1936. It is alleged 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<ref>Karina, Lilian, and Marion Kant. ''Hitler's dancers: German modern dance and the Third Reich''. New York: Berghahn Books, 2003. ISBN 1571813268</ref>. | |
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| − | He was appointed director of movement and choreographer to the Prussian State Theatres in Berlin in 1930. In 1934, in | ||
| − | + | However, his fell out with the Nazi regime 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.<ref>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</ref> | |
| − | + | In 1937, he left Germany for England. He joined the [[Kurt Jooss|Jooss]]-[[Sigurd Leeder|Leeder]] Dance School at [[Dartington Hall]] in the county of [[Devon]] where innovative dance was already being taught by other refugees from Germany. During these years, he was assisted in his dance instruction 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 of Movement and Dance]]) in 1945 and the Art of Movement Studio in [[Manchester]] in 1946. | |
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| − | + | At the age of 60, supported by Ullmann, he started a new phase in his career. He worked in industry, introducing work study methods to increase production through humane means, and greatly influenced the movement education culture in Britain opening. Studying patterns of movement, he observed the time taken to perform tasks in the workplace and the energy used. He tried to provide methods intended to help workers eliminate superfluous "shadow movements" (which he believed wasted energy and time) and to focus instead on constructive movements necessary to the job at hand. After the war, he published a book related to this research entitled ''Effort'' (1947). | |
| − | + | In his last years, he concentrated on movement as behavior, studying the behavioral needs of industrial workers and psychiatric patients. This enabled him to lay the technical basis for what is now the profession of movement and dance therapy, and a basis for the expressive movement training of actors. | |
| − | + | Laban was in poor health most of his life suffering from what would probably be diagnosed today as bi-polar disorder. He was poor throughout his career, and never owned a home or possessions beyond his working papers. He married twice and fathered nine children, but his family life virtually ceased when his career took off in 1919. He developed and relied on a series of apprentices to follow through his ideas, among them [[Mary Wigman]], [[Sophie Taeuber-Arp]], and [[Marion North]]. | |
| − | + | He continued to teach and do research, exploring the relations between body and spatial tensions until his death in his late 70s in 1958. | |
==Work and Its Influences== | ==Work and Its Influences== | ||
| − | Laban's ideas were heavily influenced by the social and cultural changes of the time and the contexts that he worked in. The traditional constraints against showing feeling were being questioned, opening the way for a freeing of the feeling body. Laban believed the best way to advocate this freedom was by mirroring it in dance and the movement arts. | + | Laban's ideas were heavily influenced by the social and cultural changes of the time and the contexts that he worked in. The traditional constraints against showing feeling were being questioned, opening the way for a freeing of the feeling body. Laban believed the best way to advocate this freedom was by mirroring it in dance and the movement arts. [[Freud]]’s theory of the [[psyche]] opened a previously closed door which meant that the body’s naturally [[sexuality]] need no longer be hidden. The movement arts were thought to be a great medium to express this new freedom, by men and women dancing barefoot and in little clothing. |
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| + | In Paris and Munich (1900 - 1914), Laban acquired his spiritual attitude of valuing an individual's own choice of movement and self-initiated vocabularies. Laban witnessed the response to cultural changes by visual artists such as Klimt, Kockoshka, Shiele, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Kandinsky. He asked himself what was the equivalent of the visual arts revolution for the movement arts? | ||
| − | + | He abandoned the constraints of traditional steps, the reliance on music to inspire and structure dance, and the need to mime a story. They body was freed to find its own rhythms, create its own steps and revel in the medium of space. His search for the basic vocabulary of expressive movement identified the basic factors of movement flow, with weight, embodying time and space. | |
| − | + | Laban wrote articles and books and formed dance choirs of young male and female performers in his endeavor to introduce a contemporary mass dance culture for urban populations. He created dance works of a celebratory and participatory nature which often dealt in abstract terms with a social and spiritual agenda to educate socially aware dancers. | |
| − | He | + | He removed the hierarchical system of ballet companies and replaced it with the more democratic ensemble. Together with his pupil Kurt Jooss, he made dance into a social force. His association under the Hitler regime notwithstanding, he created political anti-war ballets and anti-poverty ballets in the 1930's, ultimately leaving Germany once the tensions between his artistic values and those of the Nazi regime reached the breaking point. |
==Legacy== | ==Legacy== | ||
| − | Laban's theories of choreography and movement served as one of the central foundations of modern European dance. Today, Laban's theories are applied in diverse fields, such as | + | Laban's theories of choreography and movement served as one of the central foundations of modern European dance. Today, Laban's theories are applied in diverse fields, such as cultural studies, leadership development, non-verbal communication, and others. |
| − | In addition to the work on the analysis of movement and his dance experimentations, he was also a proponent of dance for the masses. | + | 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 the [[movement choir]], wherein large numbers of people move together in some choreographed manner, which 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 | + | This aspect of his work was closely related to his personal spiritual beliefs, based on a combination of Victorian [[Theosophy]], [[Sufism]], and popular [[Hermeticism]]. |
By 1914, he had joined the [[Ordo Templi Orientis]] and attended their 'non-national' conference | By 1914, he had joined the [[Ordo Templi Orientis]] and attended their 'non-national' conference | ||
in Monte Verita, [[Ascona]] in 1917, where he also set up workshops popularizing his ideas. | in Monte Verita, [[Ascona]] in 1917, where he also set up workshops popularizing his ideas. | ||
| − | Currently, major dance training courses offer Laban work | + | Currently, major dance training courses offer Laban work in their curricula. However, he maintained that he had no "method" and had no wish to be presented as having one. His notation system, however, is still the primary movement notation system in dance. |
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
Revision as of 03:31, 22 December 2007
Rudolf (Jean-Baptiste Attila) Laban, also known as Rudolf Von Laban (December 15, 1879, - July 1, 1958, Weybridge, England) was a notable central European dance artist and theorist, whose work laid the foundations for Laban Movement Analysis, and other developments in the art of dance.
One of the founders of European Modern Dance, his work was extended through his most celebrated collaborators, Mary Wigman, Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder. Through his work, Laban raised the status of dance as an art form, and his explorations into the theory and practice of dance and movement transformed the nature of dance scholarship.
He established choreology, the discipline of dance analysis, and invented a system of dance notation, now known as Labanotation or Kinetography Laban. Laban was the first person to develop community dance and set out to reform the role of dance education, emphasizing his belief that dance should be made available to everyone.
Biography
Laban's parents were Hungarian, but 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 spent much of his time in the towns of Sarajevo and Mostar as well as the court circle in Vienna and the theater life of Bratislava. He was educated in both western and eastern cultures.
Rejecting the military career planned for him, he became an artist. Through his studies of architecture at the Ècoles des Beaux Arts in Paris, he began observing the moving form and the space surrounding it. At age 30, he moved to Munich, the art center of Germany. There he focused on revolutionizing Bewegungskunst, the movement arts, spending the summer months at his Arts School on Monte Verita.
Laban established the Choreographic Institute in Zürich in 1915 and over the next ten years he created 25 Laban schools and companies for the education of children, amateurs, and professional dancers in Latvia, Zagreb, Paris and Germany, always retaining a 'movement laboratory' for his own research.
One of his greatest contributions 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.
He was appointed director of movement and choreographer to the Prussian State Theatres in Berlin in 1930. In 1934, in Nazi Germany, he was appointed director of the Deutsche Tanzbühne. He directed major festivals of dance under the funding of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda ministry from 1934-1936. It is alleged 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[1].
However, his fell out with the Nazi regime 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.[2]
In 1937, he 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. During these years, he was assisted in his dance instruction 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 of Movement and Dance) in 1945 and the Art of Movement Studio in Manchester in 1946.
At the age of 60, supported by Ullmann, he started a new phase in his career. He worked in industry, introducing work study methods to increase production through humane means, and greatly influenced the movement education culture in Britain opening. Studying patterns of movement, he observed the time taken to perform tasks in the workplace and the energy used. He tried to provide methods intended to help workers eliminate superfluous "shadow movements" (which he believed wasted energy and time) and to focus instead on constructive movements necessary to the job at hand. After the war, he published a book related to this research entitled Effort (1947).
In his last years, he concentrated on movement as behavior, studying the behavioral needs of industrial workers and psychiatric patients. This enabled him to lay the technical basis for what is now the profession of movement and dance therapy, and a basis for the expressive movement training of actors.
Laban was in poor health most of his life suffering from what would probably be diagnosed today as bi-polar disorder. He was poor throughout his career, and never owned a home or possessions beyond his working papers. He married twice and fathered nine children, but his family life virtually ceased when his career took off in 1919. He developed and relied on a series of apprentices to follow through his ideas, among them Mary Wigman, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Marion North.
He continued to teach and do research, exploring the relations between body and spatial tensions until his death in his late 70s in 1958.
Work and Its Influences
Laban's ideas were heavily influenced by the social and cultural changes of the time and the contexts that he worked in. The traditional constraints against showing feeling were being questioned, opening the way for a freeing of the feeling body. Laban believed the best way to advocate this freedom was by mirroring it in dance and the movement arts. Freud’s theory of the psyche opened a previously closed door which meant that the body’s naturally sexuality need no longer be hidden. The movement arts were thought to be a great medium to express this new freedom, by men and women dancing barefoot and in little clothing.
In Paris and Munich (1900 - 1914), Laban acquired his spiritual attitude of valuing an individual's own choice of movement and self-initiated vocabularies. Laban witnessed the response to cultural changes by visual artists such as Klimt, Kockoshka, Shiele, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Kandinsky. He asked himself what was the equivalent of the visual arts revolution for the movement arts?
He abandoned the constraints of traditional steps, the reliance on music to inspire and structure dance, and the need to mime a story. They body was freed to find its own rhythms, create its own steps and revel in the medium of space. His search for the basic vocabulary of expressive movement identified the basic factors of movement flow, with weight, embodying time and space.
Laban wrote articles and books and formed dance choirs of young male and female performers in his endeavor to introduce a contemporary mass dance culture for urban populations. He created dance works of a celebratory and participatory nature which often dealt in abstract terms with a social and spiritual agenda to educate socially aware dancers.
He removed the hierarchical system of ballet companies and replaced it with the more democratic ensemble. Together with his pupil Kurt Jooss, he made dance into a social force. His association under the Hitler regime notwithstanding, he created political anti-war ballets and anti-poverty ballets in the 1930's, ultimately leaving Germany once the tensions between his artistic values and those of the Nazi regime reached the breaking point.
Legacy
Laban's theories of choreography and movement served as one of the central foundations of modern European dance. Today, Laban's theories are applied in diverse fields, such as cultural studies, leadership development, non-verbal communication, and others.
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 the movement choir, wherein large numbers of people move together in some choreographed manner, which 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 Hermeticism. By 1914, he had joined the Ordo Templi Orientis and attended their 'non-national' conference in Monte Verita, Ascona in 1917, where he also set up workshops popularizing his ideas.
Currently, major dance training courses offer Laban work in their curricula. However, he maintained that he had no "method" and had no wish to be presented as having one. His notation system, however, is still the primary movement notation system in dance.
Notes
- ↑ Karina, Lilian, and Marion Kant. Hitler's dancers: German modern dance and the Third Reich. New York: Berghahn Books, 2003. ISBN 1571813268
- ↑ 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
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Dörr, Evelyn. Rudolf Laban : the dancer of the crystal. Scarecrow Press, 2008. ISBN 9780810860070
- Hodgson, John. Mastering movement : the life and work of Rudolf Laban. Routledge, ©2001. ISBN 0878300805
- Von Laban, Rudolf. Laban's principles of dance and movement notation. Plays, inc., 1975. ISBN 082380187X
- Von Laban, Rudolf and Lisa Ullman. The mastery of movement. Plays, inc., 1971 ISBN 0823801233
- Von Laban, Rudolf and FC Lawrence. Effort: economy in body movement. Plays, inc. 1974 ISBN 0823801608
External links
All links Retrieved December 13, 2007.
- Rudolf Laban Extensive biography from "official" site
- LABAN information about the BA (Hons), MSc, MA and PhD degree programs at the Laban Centre in London
- Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies LIMS NYC
- About Laban website of LInC (Laban International Courses) in UK
- Short biographies of Laban and some leading Laban practitioners
- Laban Ring
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