The Motif of LBMS: EUROLAB conference presentation

Karen, Cat and Ali presented online in EUROLAB’s conference, 2024. Thank you, EUROLAB!

Above: EUROLAB conference co-organizer Rajyashree Ramesh chairing questions following our presentation.

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.

More about Time

considering how we experience time

K. Studd Nov. 2021

This post is in response to questions I often encounter about where Time fits into the LBMS structure.  And also, to what I have recently been thinking about and exploring in relation to this inquiry with several classes.

Flow – Breath – Time:

The Action ofBreath – a foundational experience that is linked to our developing a concept of time

The action of our breath and the ongoing process of breathing is a life definer. Indeed, we generally demarcate our lives starting from the first breath at our birth and ending with the last breath when we die. We see this demarcation through the dates carved on tombstones with the dash in the middle representing the entire life lived in between these dates!  I have remarked about this image in many classes and how this reveals the significance of the beginnings and endings as phrase boundaries. In addressing this tombstone motif, I have also joked about how the “main action” of this life phrase is denigrated to a minus sign in the middle! However, this horizontal dash line, separating the beginning and ending, can also be viewed as the flowline – the flowline/timeline of the life of an individual. (Remember that in LBMS Motif, Flow is represented as a horizontal line).

In the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System flow is considered as the foundational basis of movement. This baseline flow is the successive and fluctuating “ongoingness” of life energy. In this way the flow construct is aligned with (or perhaps even synonymous with?) the experience of our perception of time i.e. as a continuous streaming of life.  This flow base is the universal flow of all life.  However, although we as individuals are part of this universal life flow, we also have our own personal flow, and this is the basis of how we experience the action of control through the withholding or releasing the flow of our actions. This control action includes breathing as an experience of life’s ongoing energy.

Our breathing itself is a duality expressing states of both “being” as well as “doing”. These states, in turn can be associated with the Body/Mind and Mind/Body duality/wholeness of the human condition. We breath as a part of being alive (linked to our “being”) and this does not require any attention, agency or choice. But we can also actively choose to intervene in our personal breath process (by doing). We can hold our breath (at least for a while). We can take a deep breath; we can slow down our breathing or forcefully breathe out.

(NB I am addressing breath in a context of relatively stable health and well-being, not in cases of disease or physical impairment that are experienced for example in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – COPD or asthma).

SpaceTime

Our personal flow as expressed in the breath process is a part of the greater universal flow. This personal/universal duality can be linked also to the LBMS Duality Theme of the Inner/Outer relationship.  We experience this continuum as we breath, taking in oxygen from the air of the outer environment and then giving out carbon dioxide back to the outer environment. Through the breath process we experience ourselves as connecting Inner/Outer. Many classes in the LBMS practice start from this place of awareness of breath (Body) and Space. In these classes we experience the Body as a container of Space and the action of breathing being the foundation of finding the continuum from the inner space (what we now identify as Innersphere) to the outer space, the space of our Kinesphere and beyond into the shared General Space of the environment.

I believe that as part of our functional experience of breath and our personal expression through the breath process, we come to identify/create the concept of time. Humans are both pattern makers as well as pattern perceivers. The parts of the time concept can be found in the actions – in the phrasing and rhythm – of our breathing including: tempo, duration, emphasis. (NB Remember that Function/Expression is one of the four major Duality Themes recognized as foundational patterns in LBMS)

Experience

To explore the idea of time linked to breath, try this – – simply breathe and become aware of the Phrasing of the actions of your breathing. Start by sensing the breath phrase as having two parts – the inhale, the exhale. Next also become aware of the transitions between these two actions, in the active stillness at the end of the inhale before the exhale, and then also at the end of the exhale before the next inhale. Note the relative duration of all these parts.  Are they all the same or do they take different amounts of time?

What about the tempo of your breath rhythm – is it moderate or slow or fast? 

Is there an emphasis at the beginning or middle or end of the phrase of a breath? Or is it even? If there is an emphasis, is it linked to acceleration or deceleration?

Now explore making specific changes in these aspects of time through altering the breath phrase.  Explore changing duration of the different parts. Change the tempo by breathing faster or slower. Explore places of emphasis in the phrase of a breath – at the beginning of the inhale or at the transition between the inhale and exhale or at the end of the exhale.  What happens when you intervene by altering the duration, tempo or emphasis of the parts of the breath phrase? What feels natural, familiar or weird? What memories or images or associations occur?

Time has a universal aspect. This is the time recognized in our conceptualizations of the Physics of SpaceTime. In addition, we functionally identify and create constructs of time that we use to measure and capture the ephemeral phenomena of time. We identify seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and eras, measuring from the micro to macro shorter and longer increments of duration.

But we also have our own personal relation to time and how we relate to this streaming. We identify our past, and our future as well as the moment-to-moment experience linked to what in LBMS we identify as the Time Effort Factor. Time Effort is an expression of how we feel about the flow of time as we accelerate and decelerate. As we hurry up or linger, as we perceive time’s passing and our need or desire to expand or condense time.

Different cultures view time in different ways .  This could be material for a whole other blog post! But this is not my intent in this post so I will save this topic for a later time! 

But it is interesting to note that there is well-known a phenomenon identifying two distinct perceptions of the movement of time: one is the experience of time from what is called an ego-moving perspective of time and the other is the time-moving perception of time. For a user-friendly explanation of this take a look at:

In the ego-moving perspective you perceive yourself as moving forward through time. In the time-moving perspective your perception is more that you are stable and time is flowing through you.  ( Ask yourself –  “Is the end of the week coming?” or “are you moving towards the weekend?”)  These two perspectives have a connection to the Mobile/Stable Theme used in LBMS.  And I connect the idea of these two perspectives to questions I often ask of those I have engaging in a breath awareness experience (not attempting to change but simply experiencing the way they are breathing) – “when you breath in, are you pulling in air (you doing)? Or is the air rushing in filling a vacuum or empty space?” “And when you exhale are you sending the air out or is it flowing out in the same way that water runs downhill?” This is also a returning to the theme of being/doing that I addressed earlier

As we well know breath and flow are vital somatic experiences and offer endless opportunities for connecting to oneself and to the world. They are at the heart of somatic practices.

You might want to ask yourself as you connect to yourself through breathing- How do you feel about time’s passing? – To the flowline/timeline of your life?

K. Studd Nov. 2021

Space Harmony

So, what is Space Harmony?

Let’s begin by identifying the parts

Space – Space can most simply be described as the environment, the totality of what surrounds us – the medium we exist within.

Harmony – in understanding harmony looking at synonyms can enlighten us. Some examples of these include: balance, coherence, concinnity, consonance, orchestration, proportion, symmetry, symphony, unity.

Space Harmony – thus, I would define Space Harmony as patterns expressing concinnity of the universe. These patterns explicate part/whole relationships which support growth, life, continuity, development, life’s progression. These patterns are frequently fractal in nature and often self-replicating or cyclic but also allow for change (evolution).  The image of the spiraled nautilus shell is frequently used as an example of Space Harmony and Sacred Geometry is rife with Space Harmony patterns and images.

A picture containing invertebrate, mollusk, indoor, chambered nautilus

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Patterns of Space Harmony also express dualistic patterns of universal balance in change and constant, symmetry/asymmetry, building and destroying, development and decay. All of which are expressions of order/chaos and the patterns of life and death – whether it be of an individual organism or of a star.

Much of Laban’s work is based in the Space Harmony expressed through the patterns of human movement.  His writings, both the theoretical, more technical text,  as well as the more philosophical words confirm this. And Laban, as something of a crystallographer, used the models of the spatially harmonic Platonic Solids in his mapping the patterns of human movement of the mover’s personal space (or what we define as the Kinesphere). Therefore, Space Harmony is a foundational idea of the theory, practice and one could even say, philosophy of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) as based in Laban’s work.

In LBMS we can identify the essential Self/Other Theme with two foundational components of movement: Body (Self) and Space (Other). Juxtaposed with this Body/Space framing of Self/Other, is the Inner/Outer Theme, as we identify Space as existing on a continuum from inner to outer. We experience that we are containers of Space – perhaps most easily sensed in how our inner volume expands and condenses as we breathe (but also experienced in other inner body spaces). WholeMovement identifies/names the space contained within the Body as the Innersphere.  In addition to experiencing the space within, we can also experience that we are contained by space i.e., that we exist within Space. In the system we identify the containers of this space outside, and which surrounds us, as our personal space of the Kinesphere, the General Space of our localized environment and continuing outward to the totality of the cosmic/universal space. I frequently use a picture in a class “handout” that illustrates this idea of the containers of space, in which the image of a series of Russian Nesting dolls represent the spatial continuum. It starts with the smallest doll representing the Innersphere, then the next in size representing the Kinesphere , and then the next representing the General Space and finally the largest doll representing the Universal Space.

I also use a handout that illustrates a modified model of the BESS frame that shows the Components in a slightly different relationship. Rather than a simple horizontal progression of 4 letters (B – E – S – S) I use a vertical progression that starts at at the top with Body/Space and under this is the Shape Component and under this is the Effort Component. Remember, systems and models, as well as all bodies of knowledge, are ways we use to conceptualize parts in relationship.  In other words, how we organize our perceptions and frame the ideas that arise from the part/whole relationships of our lived experience. Remember too, that we humans are both pattern discerners as well as pattern makers in the experience and creation of our reality.

The Theme of Inner Outer Inner/Outer can also be linked to the ways in which we engage with the phenomenon of human movement in the theory and practice of LBMS. We do this primarily in two contexts: 1) from what we observe (outside ourselves) and 2) what we experience (part of our inner self).  We should, of course, acknowledge that these 2 perspectives overlap in human experience but are also differentiated. In other words, LBMS attempts to understand human movement from the perspective of the mover and also from the perspective of the observer.

We use these perspectives in describing, interpretating and finding the meaning in our patterns of action, reaction and interaction. In other words, the analysis and synthesis (part/whole relationship) in the practice of movement analysis.  

The System (LBMS) itself continues to evolve due to practitioners’ applications, other bodies of knowledge and other systems for identifying and codifying human movement which overlap with LBMS.

NB – this post is meant as a macro perspective and does not in any way explicate the highly developed practice of Space Harmony as a movement technique that explores the directions, pathways, forms, body support and dynamospheric relationships of the Spatial Scale sequences developed and codified by Laban. 

K. Studd 2021 

Time

image of Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Memory from Wikipedia

In the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) the phenomenon of time is not explicated and is not identified as a discrete component of movement in the system.

Time is addressed implicitly, but it is not identified (generally speaking) as a separate entity. Tangentially, it is interesting to note that in the models of contemporary Physics the concepts of time and three-dimensional space are regarded as fused in a four-dimensional continuum identified as “spacetime”. 

Aspects of time are present however in several parts of the Laban/Bartenieff system. Time is concretely and specifically addressed in phrasing patterns. In a phrase time is expressed as sequence. So, in a phrase the order of actions through time is indicated. There are multiple examples of this temporal aspect of movement expressed through sequence and identified as “phrasing” in the theory and practice of LBMS.

From the perspective of the Body Component for example, we might identify  a phrase in which the progression of action through the body is initiated in the core and progresses to the limbs. Or in an Effort Component example, we might see a phrase which  begins with a Strong/Free/Quick action and then changes as it resolves into an action that is Bound/Direct , i.e. Passion Drive becoming Remote State. Or from the Space Component we can look to the practice of Steeple and Volute Phrasing in the transverse A and B movement scales. These two patterns of spatial phrasing are  practiced as a technique to gain insight into larger patterns of Space Harmony,  where change over time is experienced as either abrupt or gradual. And for an example coming from the Shape Component, we can identify the Modes of Shape Change in their developmental progression (over a much longer duration of time and a more macro perspective than the previous examples).  Starting from the infant’s Shape Flow actions and continuing to the child’s developing Directional Movement capacity and then finally to being able to articulate the action of Shaping. This is  an example of a sequence of time seen through the progression of psycho-motor development starting in infancy.

Time is also addressed in LBMS through relative duration. This allows us to identify how long an action is – i.e.  how much time an action takes.  Time duration can also link to rhythm  (although it should be noted that rhythms can be focused on emphasis and/or proportion separate from the consideration of time).

There is, of course, one aspect of time that the system does explicate. This is time as a qualitative part of the dynamics of movement. This is addressed in the system as the Time  Effort Factor which identifies the experience of time and expressed through the process of acceleration or deceleration in action. In the Time Effort Factor, Time is characterized as either being indulging – as expressed in the lingering affect of deceleration, or condensing by the intent of actions revealing the intention of acceleration process. Thus, Time Effort addresses the process, observed or experienced, in moments of slowing down or speeding up.

Tempos of time are not specifically addressed in LBMS, and this is a point that could bear more consideration because clearly how fast or how slow change occurs can be a significant aspect of revealing the meaning and intent of the movement process and also tempo can impact the functional efficiency of action and can also be significant in the expressive aspect of movement.  Remember, movement is the process of change and how long and how fast or slow is the process clearly is a part of what is discernable in movement.

Time as an aspect of Space Harmony

Space Harmony, which is a foundational concept of LBMS views the Space Harmony of human movement as part of the larger Space Harmony of the patterns of nature, of the world or even of the universe . This after all was why Laban used the Platonic Solids as the models to map the movement of the human Kinesphere.  In looking to the Space Harmony patterns of space and time of the natural world, we can gain insight about our own movement.  For example, in looking at the pattern of a river’s meandering pathway we see both the ongoing change in the present through the tempo of the flow of the river’s water, but we see as well, in the shape of the banks of the river,  the change that occurs at a much slower pace and over a much longer time period that creates the river’s patterns of its lateral meanders. So perhaps this needs to be viewed as Spacetime Harmony!

The duration and tempo of time’s passing  are revealed through the structures of the world including the structures of our bodies. We see and experience growth, development, healing and aging through the process and tempos of the time of our bodies.  We see the passage of time over the structures we humans create – – our cities,  our architecture.  We see the passage of time too in the layers of rocks and this geologic time has a different tempo than the tempo of our daily experience.

Our bodies too express multiple rhythms and many tempos of time – building muscle, healing the tissues of a wound, the flow of blood or lymph or cerebral spinal fluid – all of these have their own tempos. The Rhythms and tempo of breathing and of digestion are each a unique part of what we experience in our body time . Likewise, the tempos of moving from the bones vs moving from a sense of the body’s fluids can change the tempo and experience of time for the mover.

Perhaps the time has come (pun intended)  we should  consider in the ongoing evolution of LBMS continues, to adding  the Component of Time to the taxonomy allowing for such concepts as:

  • sequencing
  • duration (relative)
  • rhythm and emphasis
  • cycles

So, BESS could be BESST perhaps!

Undeniably time contributes to patterns that we observe and experience and making the aspect of Time more explicit could further assist with the process of analysis and synthesis.

I believe also that time (not Time Effort) is often important when we identify the Dynamosphere of the environment. In this regard time can be a significant and linking the micro of the present to a more macro perspective connecting to the past. For example, when we see in the natural environment geologic forms expressed in the layers of rock formations,  part of our appreciation is connected to space/time harmony as we connect to the dynamics of change in the environment through the passage of time . And our Dynamospheric experience is linked to our perspective of time that extends beyond our personal present time.   Likewise, when we enter a space such as the Parthenon, we connect energetically to the passage of time) that is not limited to the time of present day of our own Kinesphere but in the sense of time/space of past movers i.e. Dynamospheric space/time.

I believe that Space Harmony illuminates the Part/Whole duality and connection through time as a crucial part of the process of change through time.

K.Studd 2021

Seeing a Pattern/Choosing a Change

My favorite thing about LBMS is that it helps me look for patterns, in myself, my interactions, my environment, and my life.  Finding the pattern makes it possible to choose what, if any, change(s) to make.

Patterns of Movement / Changing to Heal

Years ago, when I first immersed myself in LBMS studies, I developed a knee injury that sidelined me from dancing, performing, even walking. Physical therapy exercises to strengthen the surrounding muscles helped only temporarily; the injury kept recurring.  Finally, I realized that the LBMS training was changing an old pattern of mine.  Decades of dance technique – mostly Graham and other early Modern forms – had strengthened me through Binding.  Now the multifaceted world of LBMS exploration was encouraging me to let go.  Which I did, into Passive Weight, dropping all the holding and dumping the stress into my knees.  Once I noticed that pattern, I could begin to think in terms of “what else is possible” rather than just “either/or”.  I discovered that, instead of releasing from holding into collapse, I could release into activation.  As I practiced this new movement pattern, my injury gradually healed.

Patterns in Interaction/Changing to Get Along

While administrator at a large yoga center, I heard complaints from two employees in conflict.  “She’s pressuring me, she’s pressuring me! If she would just slow down!” cried T, a careful, methodical worker.  “She won’t get moving; she’s not getting anything done! She needs to hurry up!” declared B, whose Quick Impulses kept her flying through her day. 

I spoke to each of them:
“T, I’ll bet, when you are cooking, you read the recipe, then line up all the ingredients, then read the recipe again before you follow the steps one by one.”  “Yes! How did you know?!”

“B, when you cook, I imagine you might have glanced at a recipe for ideas, and are assembling and chopping stuff while you’re throwing things in the pot, and keeping it stirred, right?”  “Of course!” she exclaimed.

“Well, here, you are both cooking the same stew; you just have different ways of going at it.  Let’s see how you can get the thing done together.”

We looked at what changes to choose: which tasks were best assigned to whom; how to sequence their assignments, align their goals and adapt their expectations.  Perhaps B should swoop in to open and unpack all the boxes and get the props on the shelves, then have T focus time on comparing the inventory to the packing slip and logging everything in to the online system.  The idea was to allow each to use their own preferred patterns in support of each other and the job at hand.

Patterns in the Environment/Changing its Functioning

“Why are they all just running in circles and yelling? There are plenty of things for them to play with. They’re going to crash into each other!”  The day care director and I were watching as the children emerged from their small classrooms into a large open gym, strewn with a few small climbers, some tricycles, jump ropes, balls and miscellaneous building toys.  Clearly, they experienced that Phrase – from enclosed space to open area, from quiet activities to recess, from stillness to motion – as a Becoming: now I can get big and go fast and be loud.  Given the pattern inherent in the space, the timing and the children’s bodies, the director needed to choose an intent for their gym time.  Running in circles might be just right for that moment in the day’s rhythm.  But, if she saw it as dangerous, or “unproductive” (that’s a different article), she could reorganize the space for a different result.  

We talked about setting up “landing” areas around the periphery, with a section for building, one for jump rope games, etc.  Still leaving running space, but perhaps taping lanes or a large circle on the floor for the trikes, to safely separate the riders from the runners.  The next time I visited, there was still lots of high energy, but a little less scary chaos.

Pattern as Metaphor/Change as a Choice

In the middle of downward facing dog pose, C exclaimed “It’s my life!  Dog pose is my life and it’s staring me in the face!”  The class paused and he explained.  “I want to get strong, so I decided to practice holding dog pose for five minutes.  I built up gradually, minute by minute.  One day, I held the pose for five minutes!  I’m so pleased with myself, the next day I took off and didn’t practice at all.  It’s my life – staring me in the face!  I have a girlfriend, we work on our relationship, it gets pretty solid.  Then I leave.  Dog pose is my life, staring me in the face!”

C had discovered a Phrasing pattern that he’d applied unconsciously, in yoga practice, in life. Now that he sees the pattern, he has options for changing – or not.

What I love most about LBMS is that, by helping me find patterns, it gives me choices about change.

Our Dynamic Alignment

Our human bodies are designed for our alignment to be dynamic. This means when we move a part the whole adjusts and/or when the  whole of us moves,  the relationships among the parts adjust accordingly. We are designed synergistically to optimize our efficiency. This is fundamental to the harmony of human movement. Of course, due to behavioral patterns, such as sitting for long durations at a computer or in a car,  this dynamic capacity is frequently diminished.  But reconnecting to our inherent embodied dynamism is possible and can support self-care and well-being. The Laban/Bartenieff Movement System facilitates this process.

In the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) a large part of the explication of the body’s actions is from the perspective and framework of Bartenieff Fundamentals (BF), named for Irmgard Bartenieff. This perspective promotes awareness of movement to optimize function and expression. Bartenieff Fundamental Principles (BFPs)  are  specific concepts that support awareness to enhance and enrich our movement. BFPs  are not movement themselves but rather motifs to focus attention on the process of moving or to explore the experience of moving in order to gain and deepen awareness of movements possibilities. What follows is an explanation of the Bartenieff Fundamental Principle of Dynamic Alignment

Defining the terms:

What is a Principle?

  • A principle is a foundational idea that serves as the foundation for a system (in this case the BF part of LBMS)
  • A principle is a concept that is a guide for action

What is Dynamic ?

  • characterized by constant change, activity, or progress
  • relating to forces producing motion

What is Alignment ?

  • arrangement in appropriate relative positions
  • a position of agreement or alliance

In LBMS the BFP of Dynamic Alignment focuses on the synergy of the part/whole relationship of the form and function of our body.  Dynamic Alignment supports fulfilling the intent of our action.  This principle  recognizes that a change in a part creates a change in the whole.

All the BFPs support movement awareness,  and through awareness expanded movement possibility.

The science of human physiology reveals how the body is an interconnected system. And like the body itself, the Laban/Bartenieff system for movement analysis is also structed around the interconnectedness of its parts. Therefore, the BF Principle of Dynamic Alignment links to many other parts of the whole of LBMS including the Theme of Mobility/Stability. And in turn this major movement theme can be linked to other BF Principles such as Active Weight Support and Shift and this implies how in different Patterns of Body Organization the neuromuscular patterns of kinetic chains involved in our Body Level Phrasing occur.  Links can be made also to the BF Rhythms and to activation through BF Connections. All these other aspects of BF  – Connections, Rhythms and Patterns of Body Organization,  are all more specific concepts linked to specificity of action.  These other parts of the BF framework can also be addressed individually – perhaps in a later blog post!

Dynamic Alignment recognizes the Space Harmony of human design. This is primary addressed in looking to the skeletal structure of our bony architecture. From this perspective it is often useful to look at the triangles and arches in understanding the Mobile/Stable relationships of parts.

Some examples that illustrate the relationships of the architecture of our bony landmarks to explore in movement:

  • The diamond that can be envisioned from the bony landmarks of pubic symphysis, coccyx and greater trochanters of the femurs.
  • The triangle created from the landmarks of the calcaneus (heel bone)  and 1st and 5th meta-tarsal bones of the foot on medial and lateral (big toe/little toe ) sides
  • The connection between sternum and occipital portion of skull (back of head to breastbone ) – –  as an oblique line useful in accessing the depth of the Center of Levity of our upper body core and experiencing the head/upper spine as a limb and also linked to the Spinal Pattern of Body Organization.

Accessing our body parts and envisioning them as we move supports awareness of the Inner/Outer connection  we have as movers in our environment. And this Theme of Inner/Outer is another major movement theme recognized in the system. This awareness of the Inner/Outer continuum provides a way to map the body experience. And as we know maps create a context to situate our experience by providing references.  In LBMS Rudolf Laban famously mapped the personal space of our movement. Likewise, his protégé Irmgard Bartenieff provided ways to map the body’s organization. Together their work provides movers access to a comprehensive reference map for the observation and experience of human movement. This is the basis of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System.

There are countless examples that can be used to explore the dynamism of our body’s part/whole synergy to awaken sensations and gain new awareness of our movement potential through the content and container of our moving form.  It should also be noted that while the focus in this post is on the Body Component of LBMS,  the other movement components – Effort, Space and Shape  also contribute to the experience of our human dynamism  – – this perhaps can be food for a future blog post…

Basic Body Action of Connecting

K. Studd Summer 2020

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.

Let’s Be Honest: The Online Environment in the Context of the Movement Experience

KStudd May 8, 2020

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.

A Fundamental Movement Principle: Utilizing Rotation

by Karen Studd, updated Spring 2020

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 rotationspinning, 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 of Shaping (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.

3 Things We Need to Sustain Us, Now More Than Ever

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.