Laban's Choreutics

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WARM UP

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STRETCH

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Activity 1

REVIEW: LEVELS & DIRECTIONS

FOCUS

COMBINING ALL

IV

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.

V

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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VI

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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VII

Choreutics / Space Harmony

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.”

ACTIVITY 2

Create movement that illustrates the trace forms described by Laban.

VIII

However, in keeping with its Pythagorean roots, Laban’s Choreutic theory goes beyond mere descriptions of natural movement to designate harmonic spatial sequences analogous to musical scales.

Source: https://movescapecenter.com/whole-body-movement/

ACTIVITY 3

II. After learning about the music scales, create an equivalent set of 8 movements. Students who are making up, please record your set of 8 moves and post it on Discussion Board.