With deep sadness, we share the news of our colleague Laura Cox’s death (Feb 4, 2025).
Laura was one of the original founders of WholeMovement. A complex, multifaceted person interacting in the world in many capacities, Laura was a dancer, a movement educator, LBMS practitioner, Registered Somatic Movement Educator/Therapist (ISMETA), animal lover and an avid Renaissance Festival fan. Her favorite holiday was Halloween.
Students and colleagues will remember Laura for the joy and energy of her teaching and for her fierce devotion to the power of LBMS to transform people and the world we interact in.
Laura’s international presence in the LBMS community included serving as a core faculty member in two Scotland training programs as well as helping to establish the first WholeMovement training program in Rome. She co-authored (with Karen Studd) EveryBody is a Body, a guide to human movement from an LBMS perspective, which is used in training programs worldwide.
Laura was a bright and inspiring presence who has affected so many people in the movement community.
It was one of Laura’s final wishes that those who might want to honor her memory could make a donation to WholeMovement. Such donations can be made through our fiscal sponsor, Dance Box Theatre.
Mourning this sad loss to our teaching coterie and to the larger community,
Ali, Cat, Esther and Karen
For All donors:
Dance Box Theater is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization that serves as the fiscal sponsor for WholeMovement. Your contribution to Dance Box Theater is earmarked and dedicated to WholeMovement, and is tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
For donors by check:
To make a contribution to WholeMovement by check, please make your donation payable to “Dance Box Theater,” with “WholeMovement” clearly noted in the memo line. Send your check to: Whole Movement, 6502 Westmoreland Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912.
For online donors:
To make an online contribution to WholeMovement, please visit https://danceboxtheater.org/wholemovement.html and click on the link to be directed to Dance Box Theater’s Network For Good donation page. Please enter your donation amount and enter the words “WholeMovement” in the Designation line.
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In WM we have been exploring the development, shaping and sharing of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) Motif. We see Motif is a tool, a practice and a creative process as a part of LBMS. Engaging in it stimulates creative approaches to learning, and opens the door to further choice-making, new experiences and refined perception. The development of Motif has been occurring through faculty discussion and in the context of the classroom.
The Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (which is what we mean when we say LBMS – a whole, so not BF and LMA) is a comprehensive system used in understanding multiple aspects of human movement patterns. Its methodology incorporates a theoretical framework and language for movement including LBMS Motif, the symbolic representation of parts and patterns of movement. The system is used to identify, record and interpret both macro and micro aspects of human movement. As a system of movement analysis, LBMS is unique as it identifies and codifies both the qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of movement. To use the words of one of the Themes of LBMS, the system takes into account both Functional as well as Expressive content of actions.
WholeMovement faculty are connected to one another through a learning community model approach to teaching. We are generally present in all classes not just the ones we are teaching. We reference and build on what has occurred in other’s classes and in addition often co-teach. We engage in collective reflection on ourselves and our work, with a shared philosophical and pedagogical approach.
We use LBMS Motif in ways that have emerged from conversations around the dissatisfaction with fragmentation of educational praxis in which different parts of movement are differentiated but often not sufficiently synthesised – connected to the context of the whole. In teaching, we teach by foregrounding different parts at different times – this is of course curricular content , but always with the whole as the container in mind. In LBMS as Motif reflects the whole system, we interweave the practice of Motif throughout essentially all classes, and not a separate idea.
The incorporation of Motif addresses crucial aspects of Movement Analysis training, including choice and consensus in capturing and interpreting movement. And the Pattern of Developmental Progression of the system is built in through how we use Motif as a reflection of this pattern. Through the processes of analysis and synthesis, we acknowledge the complex nature of movement and that there is a multiplicity of meanings, unfolding in ongoing complex ways.
Motif is an idea or a way of rendering the significant essence of a concrete experience or the abstraction of an idea through image or sound or structure. Motifs are generally brief or succinct elements that represent a perceivable pattern. This is a common part of many forms of expression – notably in the visual arts as well as in literature, music etc. In other words, Motif is not an idea limited to the body of knowledge/inquiry that is movement analysis but is seen across disciplines as an expression of what is essential. Metaphor is often linked to Motif as it paradoxically links the simple to the complex through associations of concrete/literal to the abstract and the possibility of multiple and multi layered interpretations.
As many of you are probably aware, the roots of Motif go back to Kinetography Laban and has its origins in the 1930s from Laban’s work and the work of his collaborators/associates Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder, developing into Labanotation, developed further by Ann Hutchinson Guest. Thus, contemporary LBMS Motif is an example of the pattern and usual progression in which an initial idea or inspiration is taken up by and added to by others in the progression of the development of all bodies of knowledge.
In contrast to Labanotation, LBMS Motif is not in any way linked to the art of recording dance for archiving and recreating, but rather deals with movement as a much broader phenomenon and applicable in all movement contexts. Recording the specificity of movement is not the primary intent of Motif in LBMS. The entanglement of Labanotation and Motif (a derivation coming from Labanotation) with dance however has been reiterated continually. The truncated version of Labanotation that has come to be identified as Motif. This idea and this version of Motif was to a large extent closely aligned with the concept of a ‘shorthand’ for capturing the dominant characteristics of movement, rather than the more micro perspective of recording all aspects of the body moving in space that Labanotation required. While Labanotation and LBMS Motif come from a similar origin, they differ in their intent and use.
LBMS Motif is a visual pictorial representation of movement essence to facilitate pattern recognition and the process of understanding possible meanings of movement.
In LBMS Motif we recognise three distinct ways of writing symbolically, Vertical, Horizontal and in Constellation. The Vertical Motif, that came from Labanotation, reveals relative duration of actions and events. Horizontal Motif reveals the order in which actions unfold (beginning, middle, end) but does not specify duration. It emerged alongside the development of Effort and later Effort/Shape theory. The Constellation Motif reveals the parts that are foregrounded in a movement event, but does not specify order, duration or sequencing. Rather, the Constellation Motif captures the parts of events and actions that are most salient to understanding the essence of what is happening. Each form of Motif Writing can be used for different purposes to reveal meanings, intent and patterns, for example seeing what is present or absent, like if there are no Effort symbols in a Constellation Motif.
Generally, the process of Motif-ing is undertaken physically using a pen or pencil and paper, though sometimes a finger on a track-pad or touch-screen is used to make these marks. Choosing in the action of drawing, whatever the medium, is understood as a significant embodiment and learning process.
In LBMS Motif, we can create a Motif and then move it to learn or explore new patterns from it. The symbols can be used as a conduit for new movement experiences rather than replication. We can also observe movement and then Motif it, practicing observation skills of discerning, differentiating, and choosing. Understanding LBMS Motif as a technique is not to argue that it must be practiced in a specific way. Rather, the more facility you have with the symbols and how you explore meaning-making with them, the more possibilities are made available for movement experience, and observation or perception skills. LBMS involves processes of coming to consensus and the versatility of LBMS Motif communicates both outwards with others and inwards to your own understanding.
It is problematic that sometimes LBMS Motif is referred to as a ‘short-hand’ of Labanotation, or the ‘highlights’ of movement. ‘Highlight’ does not imply pattern or progression. Rather it isolates and edits, much like a still image of a photograph, which is not a helpful way of describing movement and change. Distillation of essence does not necessarily mean being as brief as possible. Becoming more specific does not necessarily mean becoming more micro (for example, the left little finger of the hand vs the larger macro idea of a distal body part). ‘Short-hand’ does hint at brevity and a process of contraction, but it is more appropriate to understand LBMS Motif as an expression of the whole system of LBMS itself. It is clear that LBMS Motif operates under different terms and procedures than Labannotation, as well as having different symbols. The different symbols, some of which we will share here, can refer to micro details whilst others designate broader concepts. The following list is the way in which we articulate LBMS Motif for students in our training programs.
LBMS Motif contributes to the process of the part/whole thematic duality of analysis and synthesis. Patterns are not individual parts but phrases of parts in relationship, understood as whole in themselves. Whilst Body, Space, Shape and Effort are used to subdivide or categorise movement phenomena, there are three other overarching, or macro patterns LBMS uses: 1. Developmental Progression, 2. Thematic Duality and 3. Phrasing.
These have specific, micro usages, as well as referring to larger macro patterns. In relation to today’s subject of Motif I want to start by addressing the Pattern of Thematic Duality
Symbols for the Thematic Dualities have emerged through a particular story. Starting quite a long time ago in a discussion led by Antja Kennedy symbols were proposed for the Themes.
However The Laban/Bartenieff community internationally had no formal process to come to consensus to use or not. But a PDF was shared amongst colleagues. Karen began sharing this particular PDF citing its source and saying that it was “unofficial”. It was met with great enthusiasm in part due to an emphasis on the large idea of Patterns that we were emphasising in support of synthesis. These particular symbols have repeatedly shown their usefulness and appropriateness and are part of the LBMS taxonomy that we use in all our trainings. And in this vein, we are constantly encouraging students to develop symbols that meet their own needs in their particular application as part of a creative practice and need. As co-founder of WholeMovement Laura Cox always liked to tell students, there are no Motif police.
The Forward and Backwards symbols in Labanotation have been used in Laban-based trainings as part of dance education at conservatoires, as well as in movement analysis programmes such as LBMS and Language Of Dance. For those students who had not encountered Labanotation, and even for those who had, the symbol provoked confusion because of the symbol having the ‘chimney’ on the right or left side. This is historically connected to the notation system for bipedal weight support and transfer activity. The ‘chimney’ implies and conflates Body and Space. But the spatial notion is Forwards, irrespective of right or left sidedness, and so a modification to the symbol was adopted to eliminate the detail of right or left Body basis built into the old symbol. Whilst also assuaging the confusion of right or left when it does not matter to the movement experience or phenomena, this new symbol attempts to illuminate a shared notion of forward or backward that includes more bases of support other than the bipedal assumption in the Labanotation symbol. Forward is forward in the Sagittal space whether you are on two legs, a leg and a crutch, a wheelchair, and so forth. The symbol alludes to a commonality of the shared spatial phenomenon of forward/backward, rather than subtly reiterating and reinforcing a normative, ableist body expectation of human anatomy and locomotion.
Studd and Cox (2019: 150) added ‘vocalizing’ to the list of Basic Body Actions to explicate voice as an action. Whilst LMBS supports understanding non-verbal communication, the use of voice as a continuum from breath, sound, word, and sentence is a vital, foundational part of human experience, interaction and movement. The symbol acts not only to include voice, but to argue it as a kinaesthetic, kinetic phenomenon. Expertise from fields of music, drama, literature, linguistics and philosophy exists to offer immense specificity about how voice might be used and its effects. In LBMS there is no one particular way voice should be used, but rather the system can be explored to identify or support vocalization based on the context or situation, for example, communication or movement re-patterning, not forgetting the working languages, values and aims in that specific time and place. The inclusion of voice within the LBMS taxonomy explicates as well as integrates an understanding of movement that does not ignore vocalization. Including voice as movement recognises complex relations between voice and communication, and the addition of this symbol reflects how LBMS attempts to explore wholeness through different strategies. This update and addition to the Basic Body Actions symbols makes something implicit explicit.
Likewise, it became important to differentiate and identify how a mover’s experience occurs in a context and environment. The focus of the locus of control on the mover and identifying solo movement experience that Somatic practices tend to focus on the actions of an individual and repatterning them, mover regardless of context, whereas context is always a crucial aspect of what we are looking at, in which repatterning might not be the aim or only possibility. This symbol allows reflection upon the whole of a context, not only a part. Again the update to BBAs supports what was implicit to be explicit. We have also added a symbol for Interaction – which moves beyond the solo mover and allows to recognize the mover in the larger context of environment. This symbol references the action of connecting with two action strokes.
The Innersphere symbol, and the concept of Innersphere, recognises Inner Space which unlike the specificity of Kinesphere was not explicated in the literature historically. Experience of ‘inner’ was primarily relegated to the Body Component through Breath experience (often through a process of Dimensional Breathing), but not articulated as a spatial phenomenon. The concept of Innerspere becomes foundational to a Body/Space duality in which Space can be understood as a continuum including the mover – from inner space to Kinespheric Space to General Space, and where Space can be both the content and container of human movement within in, around or outside the body. The Innersphere symbol helps to make explicit the spatial continuum of the human movement experience. Whilst this talk focuses on Motif, the large idea of Space Harmony is foundational to understanding LBMS as a theory, practice and intervention. Space Harmony in LBMS is premised on the Body/Space duality and wholeness of the development of self/other. The human capacity for abstract thought and symbolic representation grows out of the foundational Body/Space experience and continuum. The development of symbols that help recognise and articulate experience are a significant part of this process. Hence we understand BESS in ways that are not so equivalent as the acronym suggests.
We use Motif to bridge ways of thinking, moving and learning for meaning-making and recognition. It helps to develop a shared language, which is important generally but especially in cross-cultural classrooms in which Motif continually reminds us that language is a lived and living context. We have found that both the learning and facilitation of LBMS Motif transforms our teaching and perceptual habits, and challenges our students to do the same. Teaching and using Motif in different parts of somatic movement education and observation training produces conditions for new modes of perception to arise through experience, observation and interaction. Grappling with the problems of fragmentation in learning – both for the individual student and broader community that this conference helps to overcome – we argue that LBMS Motif can be an integrative tool for bringing to consciousness habits and patterns of thought and action. Using it as an intervention to repattern the system, and the ways it is taught and learnt, continues to open the door for further choices and engagement with other bodies of knowledge.
Language evolves and develops organically, playfully and out of necessity. Indeed, emojis and text-speak reflect choice, brevity and consensus. We are constantly encouraging students to develop symbols that meet their own needs and in their particular application, as part of a creative practice and communicative intent. As WholeMovement co-founder Laura Cox always liked to tell students, there are no Motif police.
If creativity involves myriad processes of curiosity, generation of ideas and the will to produce and share with others, LBMS Motif shows enduring creative potential for explicating awareness and perception. Engaging in LBMS Motif as a tool, a practice and a creative process stimulates new approaches to learning, and supports making choices, whilst opening to new experiences, both individually and together.
Connecting is defined as: The action and intent of linking or joining 2 or more things – literally or figuratively.
The Laban/Bartenieff Movement System is a way to model or
map the phenomenon of human movement. Models and maps are useful, but they are NOT the phenomenon themselves. Models and maps are tools. Over time, the models and maps we use are updated, and tools are refined. This process of change is part of the large pattern of human evolution and development and includes the
process of continuing differentiation of the parts from the whole.
Always bear in mind that –
Movement is contextual
Movement is complex
Movement has intent (although not always about our conscious, or even unconscious intent, as a sneeze of course does serve a functional intent, but is not the same kind of intent as that of our actions of volition that movement analysis addresses.
The addition of Connecting to the list of Basic Body Actions under the LBMS Body Component is indicative of the ongoing development and evolution of the System. Part of this evolution is connected (!) to the recognition of parts that are not identified in the model (i.e. the LBMS taxonomy) or in making explicit what has been often implicit in how we frame what we observe through the lens of movement analysis. The addition of the Basic Body Action of Vocalizing is another example of this development. But in this blog post, I want only to address the action of Connecting.
It needs to be noted that, in the complex phenomenon of movement, many times there are simultaneous actions – such as rolling (Rotation) and Traveling. But in the case of a scenario in which these actions occur simultaneously, one (or the other) of these actions maybe the primary intent of the mover and that the other is rather a modifier of the main action. So, for example, I might be (1) engaged in the Basic Body Action of Rotation through rolling and this might result in my traveling through space. Or (2) it might be that Traveling (locomoting from one place to another) might be my primary intent and my action of rolling was simply one way of doing it. Or (3) that these two actions simultaneously might be fused and equally significant. Movement Analysis allows us to differentiate these 3 possibilities.
How do we connect? We connect through:
touch
gesture
sound
eye contact
proximity and facing
The Connecting Basic Body Action is often correlated with the Directional Movement and Shaping Modes of Shape Change because, like all Basic Body Actions, there is at some level a Body/Space Relationship. However, keep in mind that Connecting falls under the Body Component and that is what is being discussed here.
Let’s look at this action of Connecting from some examples:
I might, in some context, come into contact with a group of
people and go through the motion of shaking hands. However, Connecting may not be what is foregrounded in my experience and may not be my primary intent, but rather something that is peripherally occurring. I might be, in this situation, also facing these persons but not really making eye contact, although I can see them. Yet in another situation, I might have an active intent to connect as I engage in the actions of handshaking and making eye contact, and these can then be understood as actions of Connecting. The terms core and periphery can serve us
metaphorically in this understanding. In addition, we can look to the process and intent of the practice of Motif as we seek to address intent. Motif asks – what is the essence, what is significant? What is the primary action? In this way Motif allows us to better understand how actions convey or support the intent.
In another example of how we express the Basic Body Action
of Connecting, I might want to show my support for someone and so shift in space to be positioned next to them. I might not, in this example, make eye contact
or touch the person, but could have the intent of Connecting through the change
in spatial relationship. In this example and the prior examples of handshaking and making eye contact, the addition of the Basic Body Action of Connecting is linked also, to expanding the system to look not only at actions,
but also to address the concept of interactions.
In another example, I might connect to the handrail of a
staircase. This example comes from my personal experience with stairs, due to having had a serious fall down a flight of stairs. I now always seek to connect to the rail for support before traveling down a staircase. Someone else might not
need this action of connecting to the rail at all. But in my phrase of this
sequence of action, I begin with the action of Connecting before the action of
Traveling. Remember that Phrasing is how all movement occurs in creating meaningful sequences of actions. So, it is not a coincidence that the Phrasing Bow and the Basic Body Action of Connecting share the same form of the Bow arc shape of Motif. Phrases are, after all, based in connecting the parts into containers of action of a shared idea/intent.
Like many, many aspects of movement analysis there are
both macro and micro perspectives and macro and micro patterns involved in the
actions of connecting. LBMS continues to develop and evolve at both of these macro and micro levels. The users of the system are the refiners of this tool, as both pattern perceivers and pattern makers in the ongoing process of the development of our knowledge and understanding of human movement.
Teaching online – specifically offering somatic experiences
for students that are intended primarily as somatic practice, is problematic on
multiple levels. This needs further discussion I believe.
In this discussion I am not addressing classes that are not
primarily focused on creating a somatic awareness and experience. For example, a dance class that has a different foregrounded intent (although clearly of course, can be framed as a somatic experience.) I also acknowledge that there are classes and courses that are very well suited to online education.
It is rather the plethora of online movement offerings and
the trend to switching from the embodied classroom experience to the virtual
environment due to the current situation that I want us to address more deeply
and reflect on. This is the purpose of this missive.
The somatic educational experience is generally focused on
awareness of an individual’s sensations and this in turn can often be a trigger
for feelings and thoughts. This process involves awakening or deepening
conscious awareness of emotions or thinking patterns. Indeed, this can be a fundamental goal of the experience – i.e. a deeper access to one’s Inner experience and bringing it into conscious awareness in order to better understand it or to find other possibilities etc.
In a real time /real space educational environment – what I
will call the embodied classroom – vs the virtual classroom, the teacher or facilitator of the experience can, and should, and generally does monitor the
situation. In other words, they “read the room”, or in LBMS parlance – read the
Dynamosphere. The teacher can go back and forth between Direct attention and
Indirect attention in the environment of the embodied classroom. This facilitates the Rhythm of Individual and Group and Self and Other that is dynamically in play. The teacher also has ways that they are self-monitoring (more about this later). In this way they monitor the whole – the group as well as individuals within the group and themselves.
This brings me to what has become (at least for me) a huge
concern regarding the efficacy and responsibility – and do I dare mention it – the ethics – of online teaching that need more attention than I have generally seen deeply discussed.
I will address this from a story of my own experience – so a
bit of heuristic research if you will in this subject matter.
I recently was a participant in an online somatic education
type of class. The instructor was working from the embodied metaphors of our organs to engage the participants inner experience (NB this was not a BMC class as the experience was framed as a Fundamental Principle of Core Support). Engaging through an embodiment of metaphor was how I understood the essence of the experience of what was being suggested that we participants explore. We were
directed to explore activating our movement from the heart. As soon as I began to engage with this experience, I immediately realized that my heart was frozen – immobile and I felt that I was a “heartless” person. I felt that the only movement available to mobilize from this place was in the action of Retreating and Enclosing. A sadness overwhelmed me, and tears streamed down my face… I hope you can appreciate the vulnerability that I choose to reveal here and why I think this is important to do here.
Now I am not a newbie in experiencing how my own activation
of the movement of self can be very revealing and take one to a very deep place. So, I had experience and understanding of this somatic emotional release/response. But what if I did not? What about those with a history of depression that such an experience triggers? Just as I am often disturbed when I see that someone leads a breathing exercise without any real recognition of what it can potentially trigger (yet another topic for further discussion) I find myself questioning what do we teachers need to articulate when we engage in leading these experiences. Particularly when we cannot actually be fully present, but only can be partially present such as in the context of online somatic experience classes.
The teacher of this class had no way to actually observe
that this was my response. And this reality made me reflect upon my own teaching experiences in the classroom when I have observed that a student was “being moved” in this way or had shut down or walked away or given some other sign
that I observed – such as leaving the room, stopping participation or crying, etc.
In such situations I make a decision about how or if to
connect to the individual. I may choose to simply be a witness and hold the space, or I may inquire if they need some support or assistance. Or I might ask someone else to check in with them. Or I may wait until a break and take them
aside or, or, or … The point is that I am in a much better place to make a decision as to what could be supportive of their experience and supportive of the goals of the class that I am leading.
Now just take a moment to reflect on the practice of “muting” the participants in Zoom sessions – a necessary evil? Hmmmm
So, let us be honest – this ability to adequately respond is
VERY LIMITED in the virtual classroom setting. Now I am not suggesting that we not have virtual online classes. We should. These they offer many possibilities for helping to connect us and to bridge our alone experience with others.
But let us also REALLY acknowledge the problems and
limitations in the online medium in somatic educational interaction. In
addition to the somatic emotional response aspect that I illustrated through
the example of my personal experience, there are many other aspects of this
virtual learning that also need to be addressed. This includes the lack of touch. Those of us who teach embodied practices often facilitate action and connect through intentional touch. This is NOT possible in the virtual classroom. Much more can and needs to be said about this. I am also very distressed at all the articles that I have recently seen as part of the practice of social distancing suggesting that we “do away with the handshake” and instead adopt the bow. Those writing these articles are well meaning but generally, in my estimation, have no real understanding of movement, including the action of touch and so they should not be opining about the significance of actions when they are not experts. We are – and we should make this clear – another topic for long discussion …
Then there is the interrupted phrasing that seems too often happen in the virtual environment of interaction. Sometimes this is due to the technology, but also it is due to a much more impaired ability of the participants to read the signals of interaction through the screen.
There are the aspects of technology that can be frustrating
of course – the tech itself can be problematic in poor connections impairing
seeing and hearing and the glitchy and unnerving aspects of time when there is
a lag or a freeze. These can be minor irritants, or they can be quite more and
contribute to stress and stress as we know, is often a process of accumulation.
Tech stress is something that cannot be simply dismissed – as it is another
“straw” on the proverbial back of the camel.
Many have spoken about Zoom fatigue and how exhausted this type of teaching is. We need to have a much more robust conversation about this phenomenon. Clearly the Exertion/Recuperation is out of balance – let’s use our considerable skills to name why and to share this with the world. I believe that in interacting through the screen there is much less ability to self-regulate by looking away, attending to self, shifting attention from group to individual – all this becomes “out of whack”. – This can be ameliorated perhaps to some extent by better practices. However, the medium itself is NOT conducive to the balance that is much more readily available in the environment of the embodied classroom. And this needs to be emphatically made clear.
I recognize the need and reality of online teaching, but I do think we need a more thoughtful and measured response and approach as I fear that this can become a panacea. Particularly when it is put into practice as an economic response to crisis and not foregrounding the intent of the educational training in somatic practice. There is certainly a great deal of – jumping on the band wagon of accessing band width in promoting education going on I see – and this bears reflection from this community.
Rotation is both a body action and a larger meta concept (meta in the sense of beyond) constructed from the physical sensorial experience of rotation.
There is something inherently beautiful about rotation – spinning, twirling, spiraling twisting, turning,
rolling – Ferris Wheels, the Wheel of Fortune – The mind-boggling discovery
of the wheel!
Universal Pattern/Individual Experience
Rotation gives us access to the entire world around us. Rotation allows us to change perspectives and supports access to alternative possibilities. Rotation is a universal pattern of movement. The earth rotates on its axis and in its orbit, it revolves around the sun. Children love to spin turning around and around till dizzy. The ballerina, in pirouetting, sublimely expresses the wholeness of the theme of Mobility/Stability through her rotary action. The spatial Vertical Dimension aligned with the pull of gravity and the dancer’s vertical thoroughness are the stable center around which the mobile turning action is performed. This graceful action reflects both the celestial rotation of the heavenly bodies but also how humans indulge in this experience – the same action that the child relishes. And too, this same connection – that of the unique individual human experience to the universal pattern is also reflected in the Sufis whirling dance of devotion.
Rotation creates a circular pathway and the circle is an eternal form; it is endless, having no beginning or ending. The circle is harmonious, the circle creates a safe-haven. On the inside its center is stabile, creating a harmonious balance of inner and outer. In a circle, all points are equal. This is the idea of the Knights of the Round Table. The circle’s center can focus us by becoming the “center of attention”. Rotation connects us both to ourselves as well as to our environment. We “circle our wagons” or we get lost “running in circles” or we get stuck in place and simply “spin our wheels”.
The Shape of Space
To experience rotation is to experience space taking shape. One fundamental shape revealed through rotation is the screw shape form. You may recall that the screw along with the lever, pulley and inclined plane, is one of the basic “simple machines” (and keep in mind that the pulley relies on the wheel shape).
The circle in 3D becomes the sphere, the coil becomes the 3D vortex. A spiral or a twist can change everything or bring us round again. A “twister”, that is a tornado, can bring chaos and destruction. The “windup” can be a powerful preparation before the baseball pitcher releases the ball. The spiral twist of upper body against lower is the key to perfecting the golfers swing.
The Movement of Rotation
With our first full body rotation – when in infancy we turn over- the whole world changes, not only for ourselves providing a new perspective, but also for our caretakers as we are now mobile and will no longer stay put!
Rotation enables us to accommodate by allowing us to wrap ourselves or parts of ourselves around things. It is the cornerstone of our ability to move 3 dimensionally. It allows our form, our body’s shape to accommodate to our environment as we master wrapping our hands around tools or ourselves around another in an embrace.
Rotation is key to our survival as it allows us to scan the full view of our environment. And while we do not have the ability to twist our heads like an owl, we are able to, with access to our entire spine and joints of the pelvis and legs scan 360 degrees.
Our spines rotate, our proximal joints rotate, and embracing the fully rotary action we are endowed with through all our parts, liberates our movement potential. The elderly loose this function if they do not stay in touch with their joints mobility and such tasks as backing up a car where you must rotate head and spine to see become limited. Rotary actions often appear more fluid because they involve a harmonious phrasing of multiple joints, rather than the simpler single joint actions of flexion and extension and of abduction and adduction.
Rotation is connected to fluidity of motion. This link goes to the essence of the nature of fluids – a drop of water adopts a spherical shape. Water, in its fluid form, also adapts to the shape of a container. Shaping expresses a mutual relationship. So while water can take on the shape of a vessel containing it – it can also shapes its containers – think about how rivers shape the canyons through which they run, expressing a mutual relationship of the elements of earth and water, a merging of contents and container.
Experience Understanding Metaphor
Our experience of the body’s action(s) of rotation leads to the conceptual understanding of this phenomenon leading to metaphors based in the experience. An abundance of metaphors grow out of this movement experience.
Some images/ideas/metaphors to think of in relation to rotation:
Play – balls of all sorts in all manner
of sports!
Planets – the sun the moon as eternal
ongoing cyclic images
Cycles of all sorts from the cycle of life, and the daily and monthly cycles associated with the sun and the moon, to the traditional clock face with the “hands” cycling its “face”.
More Metaphors and the languaging based in the foundational experience
of this concept
“Roll with the punches” to address the larger idea of accommodation. Or descriptions of chaotic situations described as “spinning out of control”.
Rotating an image to get a different perspective or rotating around something to see it from differing points of view are common images. We say that we “turn” things over in our minds. The metaphor of “turning something over” conveys a means of smooth transition to the next phase or next person and provides continuity and continuation. Rotation therefore can be seen as an action in support of development and evolution.
We ask students to “turn in” their
papers or assignments.
We say that there was a good “turn
out” for an event.
We encourage children to “take turns”
The expression, “One good turn deserves another”
We talk about an unexpected “turn of events”
We express confusion as becoming “all turned around”
Use the expression, “Leave no stone unturned”
Refer to a new start as, “Turning things around”
The Laban/Bartenieff Movement System
links to the action and concept of Rotation
– a few of the links to the BESS components (Body, Effort, Space and
Shape)
Now let’s address the LBMS of Rotation – thinking about the connection between rotation in Bartenieff Fundamentals
and to the notion of Space Harmony – the body as spatially harmonic in form and function and a part of the Whole!
The concept of rotation from the perspective of the Body includes the anatomical action of joint rotation as well as
the more macro construct of, in LBMS terms, the Basic Body Action of
Rotation as well as the BFP – the Bartenieff Fundamental Principle of Rotary Support.
Rotation allows us to take in information from the environment (Body and Space) and then to engage, accommodate and to adapt as wanted or needed (Shape). This, in LBMS terms, is the way in which the action of rotation (both anatomical action as well as the more generalized Basic Body Action) supports the Mode ofShaping (Shape). And this connection of rotation to interaction in the environment also links this action to the Space Factor (Effort). Rotation allows us to get a new perspective, specific perspective and/or access a wide perspective. In this way,
rotation relates to the senses and Body Action that support Indirect and Direct
Space Effort, allowing us to scan our environment or to swivel to hone-in on something. Access to rotary motion also supports finding the full 3Dimensional volume and access to all zones and Directions of the Kinesphere (Space).
Rotation as expressed in both form and function is an aspect Space Harmony. This is well illustrated in the spiral shapes illustrating the Fibonacci sequence as can be found in the spiraled shape of a Nautilus shell. Rotary forms such as the spiral and the helix are also about an efficiency of Space. The form of chromosomes containing our genetic code in the DNA molecules are in the shape of double helixes, a form that allows a lot of information to be contained in a small space – expressing the efficiency of this rotational form.
Like the endless circle there is always more that can be expressed about the phenomena of rotation. And when in doubt one can always rotate!
** this document was initially written at the request of students in a movement analysis training program and was based on a class I taught in 2009 to that group. Most of these ideas /musings have subsequently been included in the text, EveryBody is a Body written by me with my WholeMovement collaborator Laura Cox.
Class notes for Karen Studd’s WholeMovement Class Session April 17th 2020
A WholeMovement approach to Bartenieff Fundamental’s
traditional “Heel Rock”(s) – starting from the basics and clarifying the
intent of this action. Then continuing to explore possible variations and
linking the action to BF Connections, BF Rhythms and BF Principles and the
Basic 6.
What is the “Heel Rock”?
I am (in this document and representing the WholeMovement
approach), defining this BF action as:
A repetitive, rhythmic, successive phrase of movement that is generally done through a lower to upper, successive, sequencing linked to
the foundational aspects of the human form. The action is standardly performed
from a lying supine position. Heel Rocks are based on, and stimulate, our foundational kinetic chains of action.
In other words, the BF Heel Rock (generally speaking), is a phrase of action that is initiated in the lower body and follows through the upper body, synergistically connecting parts to whole. Heel Rocks support and bring awareness to the efficient and harmonic patterns of our whole body’s innate postural actions (through limb/core differentiation and integration). It is linked to
our design – i.e. to stand and walk upright. (I stress “generally” as Heel Rocks can, and from my perspective should be, explored in many ways)
What is the idea of Heel Rock?
Why do it?
Why is it significant in the practice of BF?
The “Heel Rock” is used to explore and experience whole body
connectivity in order to:
prepare
recuperate
mobilize (activate through directing the internal
paths of our flow through our kinetic chains)
intervene (to support change or a shift in emphasis)
How and why it works
The Heel Rock is based in the Vertical Throughness of our
Axis of Length –
In the Space Harmony of our human design our length is
dominate. We are of course 3-Dimensional, but we have mostly length. We are taller than wide or deep. And our length (in our vertical upright stance)
is a foundational part of the pattern of our species design in relation to
gravity and to the environment. We are defined by our bilateral upright stance to interact with, and to locomote through, the world. The BF Heel Rock action is both based on, as well as supportive of the function and expression of our essential design.
To reiterate: The action of the Heel Rock supports Whole Body Connectivity through the Axis of Length. And awareness of our Axis of
Length is a Bartenieff Fundamental Principle.
The human Axis of Length is linked to our spinal column, and
as vertebrates the spine defines our midline. In addition, our spine is foundational to the Patterns of Body Organization, starting from the Spinal Pattern and linked to what BF identifies as the Head /Tail Connection. The spine, with its 2 ends (head end and tail end) is also the foundation of our Upper/ Lower aspects of Body and the Upper/Lower Pattern of Organization. And then subsequently the basis of the Body Half (Side/Side) Organization, because the spine as our postural midline, provides the structure to frame how the 2 sides are organized – toward /away from midline through the anatomical actions of adduction and abduction. Furthermore, the spine (and Axis of our Postural Length) is a significant aspect of Cross Lateral Patterning, where the midline (as demarcated by the spine) is crossed. And this culminating contralateral developmental pattern is linked to our walking pattern (and thus back to the essential function and form of our design: our upright stance and bipedal locomotion). This Cross Lateral Pattern is also linked to other ‘crossing the midline activities’ such as the corpus collosum bisecting the right and left sides of our brain…
Spinal design
There is a synergistic relationship of the spines parts
which we can experience in several ways.
One way is accessing the Rhythmic interplay between Skull
and Sacrum. This is what WholeMovement identifies as the Occipital/Sacral Rhythm.WholeMovement’s perspective of LBMS includes the Occipital/Sacral Rhythm as one of the 3 identified BF Rhythms – the other 2 are the Gleno-Humeral Rhythm and the Ilio-Femoral. ( I can talk about these in another context!) This is NOT the same rhythm as addressed in the Craniosacral Therapy – although of course may be linked to this work. In the Heel Rock action the spinal curves of the lumbar and cervical sections have a reciprocal, inverse response as the wave like action travels through the torso along the Axis of Length.
WM defines Rhythms as: foundational actions expressing
the Mobile/Stable, limb-core proportional relationships. (NB The spine in humans serves as both “limb” and “core” – core as the central midline and the container of the spinal cord content, but also because of the two
ends, head and tail, considered in another sense as limbs (2 of the 6 limbs we identify in core limb relationships.)
So in LBMS and more specifically the Bartenieff Fundamental
aspect of the system, “Heel Rock” is directly linked to these concepts of BF:
Principle – Axis of Length (one of
the BF Principles as explicated by WholeMovement)
Rhythm
– Occipital/Sacral (one of 3 BF Rhythms that WM identifies)
Connection
– Head-Tail
Pattern
of Body Organization – Spinal
In LBMS all the BESS Components are connected so now
let’s considering Heel Rocks in relation to all BESS Components
Heel Rock Link to ShapeComponent
Shape in Heel Rock can be addressed through the Convex/Concave relationship of the spinal curves and foundational spinal actions of our developmental progression and foundational postural actions. The Convex/Concave aspect of Shape, is a foundation of the Body Space intersection. It can also be viewed as the basis of our patterns of Basic Body Actions in postural Condensing and Expanding (Body Component) and the explication of the 3 dimensions of Space (Space Component). The length of our spine creating up-down, while dividing us bilaterally and creating side-sidedness and in the action of spinal flexion/extension exposing or protecting our “front” and “back” (anterior/posterior) surfaces, is the foundation of our relationship to the world. Remember that the Shape Component is, in essence, the Body Space relationship. So the 3 dimensions of Space as we define them come from the experience of relationship of our form’s design – in its function and expression in the environment.
Heel Rock Link to Basic 6
The link to the Basic 6 is in that it supports each of these actions as the Axis of Length is a support for all these actions. In addition, these actions can be also experienced by adding the “rock” into the Basic 6 actions themselves, and by bringing the foundational spinal action more dramatically into the awareness of the mover and supporting an emphasis on mobilization.
Heel Rock Link to Effort
The Heel Rock sets the stage for Effort to emerge as it
activates foundational Flowsensing and Weightsensing as precursors to Effort. The Heel Rock actions also sets the stage for time expression, due to its rhythmic nature.
Heel Rock Link to the Space Component
Access to Space starts from the expression of the Inner Space of the Body and directing the internal flow through the Innersphere. This then can be the beginning in defining our access to the Space of our Kinesphere in preparation to engage with the world around us. OF interest perhaps for some of you if we analyze the Space of the Heel Rock action it can be best understood as the Space of the Dodecahedral Sagittal Plan and not the Sagittal Plan that we associate with the Icosahedron. There is, as you may know, a dual relationship between the 2 forms – Dodecahedron and the Icosahedron. This relationship is something that in the WM approach we are beginning to explicate more fully in addressing the Body Space relationship of Space Harmony and the human form.
Why Flowsensing, Weightsensing and Breath Support (a Bartenieff Fundamental Principle ) are the key.
By K. Studd (2020)
Recently, in connecting to the students of an LBMS international training program, I encouraged the group to really continue to find how movement can help sustain them in these very challenging times. I said, in closing an email, “to keep moving and, in particular, to draw upon Flowsensing, Weightsensing and Breath Support.” One of the group’s members (P) asked why I singled out these 3 specific LBMS concepts in particular. Here is my reply:
In answer to your question, P – Well, several reasons –
First, because these 3 things are the baseline of all our movement, so the most basic foundational place to get in touch with ourselves. They can give us access to find our grounding, to find the capacity for both Mobility and Stability, and often also for active Exertion as well as passive Recuperation – NB we do not have to always activate to exert, of course, or become passive to recuperate, but these often go together and are built into the waking/active vs. sleeping/passive pattern of all animals. So, again, these activities are a baseline of Exertion and Recuperation balance.
Second, also remember that Flow is associated with empathy and with a universal life force that contains and connects us all. Whereas Weight is our own experience of ourselves in the world – self agency. So, finding this universal/individual aspect, too, is essential I think in such times.
Third, Breath helps us on so many levels. It links directly
to Flowsensing and all manifestations of Flow, and it also allows us (through
active awareness and sensation) to experience the ongoing connection between Inner and Outer. Breath is vital and has become such a sensitive image symptomatic of this pandemic. Our breath is something we take for granted. Generally, we experience that we will breathe with or without our awareness. But we can also modify how we breathe. We can choose how to breathe and use this capacity to actively breathe more fully or change its rhythm and phrasing. This makes breath a very unique part of the human movement equation.
So all of the 3, Flowsensing, Weightsensing and Breath Support
can serve us and do not require us to “do” too much, but rather connect us to a balance between our “being” and “doing” selves. Connecting to the thematic dualities and continuum of Inner/Outer, Exertion/Recuperation, Mobility/Stability, Universal/Individual, Being/Doing are an essential ingredient in continually finding balance and Wholeness.
Body language is a trendy term that is used frequently without
discretion. We need to be wary of using this term too generally or using it inappropriately. By inappropriately I mean in ways which oversimplify the complex and interwoven multiple layers of non-verbal communication.
The non-verbal components of communication have a long history of interest and study. These nonverbal aspects have been proven in some studies to convey more than 60% of the information delivered. This means that the verbal content – the words by themselves – in some contexts, convey less than 1/2 of what is being communicated. In addition, when there is perceived inconsistency between the verbal and nonverbal message, the non-verbal aspects are what the observer/interpreter often relies upon and uses in deciphering the “real” message being conveyed.
Non-verbal communication is much more than specific gestures. It runs the gamut from tone of voice, tempo and phrasing, eye contact, weight shifts, facial expressions, use of space in both postural and gestural actions and much, much more. Non-verbal cues have many layers and include universal components, culturally specific components and individually unique aspects. This is why the non-verbal is so significant – it connects the personal to the cultural and to the universal and it is why we call upon the information it conveys in making judgments about others.
Think for a moment about overhearing a conversation in a “foreign” spoken language. For example, if I get on an elevator with others who are speaking in a language that I am not familiar with I have a limited ability to understand what is being communicated. In fact, I can, in this one-time observational context, only know minimal things about the nature of the communication. I can observe that words/language are being used to express, or to communicate, or interact. I might be able to discern some of the intent. If for example there is laughter, or loud voices or whispering this might lead me to some partial and limited conclusions – however much of this understanding is coming not from the words but the vocal tone, eye contact, and spatial proximity
in the relationships of those engaged in the conversation. But any “translation” (interpretation) is very limited. I might intuit many things but to have any real access to true understanding I would have to observe-listen-see much, much more.
What is identified as “Body Language” too often assigns specific intent to discrete actions. The idea, for example, that an action of crossing the arms across the chest can be assigned a specific meaning is very misleading. It might, depending on the context, be that I cross my arms across my chest to hide a stain on my shirt, or because I am chilly, or as a way to connect to and sense myself to help me focus my thinking before replying in a situation, or it might be that I am creating a boundary, as an expression of either power or
vulnerability. But it would be very dangerous and misleading to assign some fixed definition to this action such as “self-protection” without much more information about the person performing the action and in what context it is occurring. Repetition is necessary for pattern to emerge and context matters. The language of the body has universal aspects but also has significant cultural components and also has personally unique aspects. All are important in assigning meaning to the actions and interactions referred to as Body Language. Misunderstandings can and do occur as easily from a lack of understanding the language of the body as
from a lack of understanding the words used when express ourselves and when we
communicate with others.
From a quick internet search to define the term “motif” – I find the following:
“… In a literary piece, a motif is a recurrent image, idea, or symbol that develops or explains a theme, while a theme is a central idea or message.
In a literary work, a motif can be seen as an image, sound, action, or other figure that has a symbolic significance, and contributes toward the development of a theme.”
In this definition I have bolded several words that I find particularly relevant in connecting to the concept of motif in a literary sense to the LBMS usage of the term Motif. I will return to this quote in a bit.
In the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System Motif is a visual
pictorial representation of movement essence. Essence is NOT the same as highlights or details although these can be meaningful and significant both as parts as well as in relation to the whole! Recording movement’s essence and/or revealing movement’s patterns is not the same as recording the specificity of actions. This is an extremely important distinction relating to the intent of Motif as distinct from the intent of Labanotation, and this critical distinction is too often lost particularly in
light of many who claim to be using Motif but are actually using a modified,
amended or truncated version of Labanotation. Let us return to the literary for a moment in the example of a story– The story of a vacation I take. And on this vacation:
It rains everyday
The hotel where I am staying is undergoing
renovation and so is noisy and dusty
I loose my purse that contains all my documents
including money, credit cards and my ID.
I get word that my house (back home) has had
storm damage that will need fixing upon my return.
I catch a cold and am feeling sick for the
majority of this vacation
Then the night before I leave to return home, I
accidentally run into someone I haven’t seen in years and we have an amazing
dinner at a delightful restaurant and “catch-up”
So the pattern of this trip (as recorded in the above list
of parts of the event) is not the same as the highlight of the trip. Clearly the pattern is one of bad luck and misfortune but there is a highlight moment when I unexpectedly connect with a friend.
In LBMS Motif is used to find or express or experience movement pattern – not transcribe a sequence of a series of actions. Recording
movement can be much better done through technology such as video, motion
capture etc. or using Labanotation in some contexts.
Repetition is necessary for pattern to emerge. Look back at the definition at the start of this missive – recurrent was a
word I bolded. Through the motif (pattern) a theme or themes are developed. In the LBMS sense this would link directly to the Duality Themes we address – such as Mobility/Stability etc – So a pattern of actions (another bolded word)create the “motif” both in the literary and movement (LBMS) sense of this term.
Motif should not be a de facto branch of Labanotation or a
shorthand version of Labanotation. Although they overlap, Labanotation
has a different historical development and different intent than Motif. Nor should Motif be linked specifically to another symbolic rendering of movement, the application of “Language of Dance” (LOD) as dance is only one of countless examples of the phenomenon of human movement and is much like Labanotation in its execution.
Why Motif?
The nature of Motif, by its design, shares aspects of both
the verbal and non-verbal articulation we value in movement analysis training,
thus it can be a valuable tool in the process.
Motif can be a bridge between movement expression/experience
and the analytical process of describing/identifying movement patterns. This
allows Motif to be a bridge between the analysis and synthesis ends of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS).
When Motif works well it is used to support the movement
analysis process. It can assist with finding essence, describing essence and coming to consensus in this process. Motif can both reveal and represent movement patterns. It can also be useful in challenging patterns (the process of re-patterning or expanding range).
Like the phenomenon of movement itself, Motif is
gestalt-like in its ability to capture the whole of action. Thus, for example, the spatial symbol for Right/Forward/High is not seen as 3 parts (- as the 3 words needed to express this direction are), but as the whole that is this Diagonal spatial directional pull. Likewise, the Effort symbol for
Passion Drive captures the fusion of the 3 Effort Factors (Weight, Flow, Time) creating a whole rather than the accumulation of 3 discrete pieces as separate parts. This is fundamentally different than the sequential (i.e. accumulating over time) rather than simultaneous (all at one moment) and discrete nature of the language of words which require a – one word after another in a specific order to work. Yet at the same time Motif is a symbolic representation of movement and not the movement itself. Motif depicts only the essence of the whole
rather than all the intricate parts (details).
Motif is a tool of
the LBMS which is used to:
Visually capture and represent movement patterns
and sequences
Reveal essential essence of movement patterns
and sequences
Illustrate contextual relationship –
specifically, foreground/background
(i.e. what is essential and what is a modifier)
Depict “choice” – both of the mover as well as
of the Motif-er of the movement
Retain the essential patterns of movement by
creating a tangible, concrete artifact of the ephemeral fleeting movement
phenomenon
Motif is also used to:
Assist with coming to consensus in the process
of observation
In re-patterning – through finding or creating
alternative options
Becoming aware of or finding patterns through an
emergent process (what is revealed in analyzing the motif rather than the
movement itself)
Capturing and retaining essence in recording
movement
Connecting macro and micro patterns
Types of Motifs:
Constellations, Vertical and Horizontal Motifs
In the LBMS we use Vertical,
Horizontal, and Constellation Motifs.
Vertical Motifs are primarily used to indicate when relative duration (i.e. the length of time an action requires) is an essential component, as well as to add modifiers to the main action. Thus, Vertical Motif is generally more layered and specified in its capacity to visually/symbolically capture the essentials of movement patterns. Vertical Motifs are read from the bottom to the top of the page.
Horizontal Motif represents the sequence of a pattern but does not include relative duration and generally does not include modifiers (at least in how Motif is currently conceptualized and practiced – although there is discussion about having Horizontal Motifs be able to represent modifiers to main action). Horizontal Motifs are read from left to right.
Constellations contain the essential parts that make up the whole of the movement event. In Constellations the movement content is held within 4 dots : : Constellations do not show sequence, duration or relationships between and among the parts. Constellations are a Macro approach to the overall patterns of a movement event that create the meaning and expression of the event. Constellations are a way to discern (to
observe or to experience) the ingredients of the movement event but not
necessarily the recipe!