Karen, Laura, Cat and Esther began teaching together as a group in the LIMS Weekend Module Program at the University of Maryland in 2010. Individually and collectively, we have taught workshops and LBMS movement analysis programs in Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, and Spain. Ali assisted Karen and Laura on the Moving Forth LBMS program in Scotland 2011-13. She has taught with Cat, Laura and Karen in various training programs in Belgium, China, Italy and the Netherlands, and joined WholeMovement in 2023.
A learning community
Our approach emphasizes a rich learning community model that includes faculty, assistants, students and translators (in some international programs) in a collaborative learning and teaching “think tank” process. Such a process not only pushes the curriculum and the faculty to be the very best they can be, it also has led to new developments in the material, notably in Motif and Space Harmony.
Dissemination through publication
As we push forward with the curricular material, we have developed published materials to support and disseminate our work, including the book, Everybody is a Body (2013) by Laura Cox and Karen Studd, in its second expanded edition with a forward by noted dance educator, Bill Evans. Cat Maguire and Amy LaViews published Making Meaning With Machines (2023) that elaborates LBMS in/for the field of robotics. We also use the Blog section of our website to share ideas and developments with specialist and general audiences.
Interconnections and affiliations
As individuals, we continue to be affiliated with LIMS, our “mother” organization, as teachers, members and alumnae. At the same time, WholeMovement gives us an independent vehicle in which to develop the community learning model with its emphasis on recognizing the voice of teachers in the field and students in the classroom, as well as fostering our continuing evolution of the LBMS material. Though we have been contributing to ISMETA-approved movement analysis programs for several years (e.g. with EMOVE Institute in the Netherlands), from 2024 WholeMovement offer our own ISMETA-Approved Training Programs.
Legacies and contributions
While we all hail from dance backgrounds, WholeMovement does not see promotion of the arts and dance as part of its essential role, nor has it taken one region over another as its focus. WholeMovement is investing in the global potential of movement awareness education through the unique Laban/Bartenieff Movement System. The brilliance of Laban’s Space Harmony theory and practice, coupled with Bartenieff’s expansion and applications, has not yet claimed its vital place in the world. WholeMovement promote LBMS through education in the US and internationally as a tool for movement analysis in multiple applications, as a worldview that promotes understanding of self and other, and as a practice for personal growth and the development of the body/mind.