transforming lives through movement
During the Pandemic years, Ali Baybutt filmed online classes introducing different concepts from the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System. These classes are slowly being shared online for free. They’re useful for personal practice and for getting a taste of somatic movement education through the Laban/Bartenieff lens.
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.
When I first proposed using the designation of “system” in the label and resulting acronym of LBMS over a decade ago, I encountered an amazing amount of resistance. To a certain extent this came from my arguing that Bartenieff be equally represented, rather than viewed separately, in identifying the movement analysis educational training. The original framework identified Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) as one specific thing and Bartenieff Fundamentals (BF) as another. This is a perspective which places an emphasis on parts rather than on the whole. Focusing on differentiation and an emphasis on analysis over synthesis rather than as the whole of Analysis/Synthesis.
I was also met with a considerable amount of pushback for using the term “system”. The expression “old habits die hard” comes to mind… I believe that this resistance is unwarranted and represents a pattern of avoidance of change and linked to habitual ways of thinking. I also believe that re-patterning in thinking about the way this work is identified is much needed and will continue to be needed – inevitably and unavoidably. I am always intrigued that in a community of movers, in which transformation is valued and that identifies movement as the process of change, that change is so very hard to address!
I must also note here that currently the acronym “LBMS” is now quite frequently used rather than the LMA/BF dichotomy. However, this rendering , by many refers to Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies. This is, I believe, inaccurate and even a bit disingenuous. Labanotation, Kestenberg’s work, the Language of Dance and Movement Pattern Analysis can all be reasonably identified as falling under an educational label of Laban Studies. The term “Studies” refers to something else entirely. It is generally a large umbrella term. For example, used to identify Women’s Studies or Cultural Studies etc. What is taught in movement analysis training programs based in the Laban/Bartenieff Movement SYSTEM does not train students in these applications.
A system may be defined as: (the definition that follows below is an amalgam gleaned from several sources)
Systems are described as synergistic. Andthat this is inherent to the nature of being a system. Systems, as conceptual models, are built upon the premise that the relationship(s) among the parts is essential to the meaning, expression, intent and purpose of the whole. In LBMS thematic duality thinking this resonates with the idea of Content/Container, the system as a model is the container of the parts that it holds as well as is shaped by.
Recognition of systems thinking, and systems theory has become more and more essential as bodies of knowledge have continued to be more and more differentiated into parts. But in order to be useful the parts are recognized in the context of the whole.
The definition that I use when introducing LBMS is: A system is a representation of a complex whole. A system is defined through relationships of interwoven parts combing to form a dynamic whole. Systems, even as only representations of organic entitles, want to ensure their success, so they adapt and evolve to survive and thrive (i.e. remain relevant – or they become extinct).
A quote that I have found useful:
“ Models are never true: but there is truth in models… We can understand the real phenomenon only by simplifying it.”
Dani Rodrik from Economic Rules*
Anyone who has studied the Laban/Bartenieff material cannot deny that the above definitions of “system” clearly apply to how we identify the B Sp Sh and E Components in relationship to each other in the explication of the phenomenon of movement. This is in fact the heart of the material. Therefore, any problem with using the term “system”, from my perspective as a longtime teacher and practitioner of the work, is at best misguided.
I have been repeatedly told that Bartenieff did not like the term, and others have said that Laban too was disdainful of this. However, there is scarce clarification or evidence supporting these views. And perhaps even more significantly is that the work of these legendary individuals continues to evolve – as it should. Movement is, after all change. Clearly movement is a complex phenomenon that in analyzing we parse into parts that we then identify in relation to the whole of the context of the movement event. As I like to remind my students – – when I was in school Pluto was a planet and quarks had not been identified. The nature of knowledge is its expansion and development and continuing explication. However just as this is a process of more and more differentiation at the same time it needs to be woven into the whole.
Giving Bartenieff her due
Anyone who has read Bartenieff’s text, Body Movement: Coping with the Environment, knows that in her text she integrates Laban’s work of Space Harmony and the Dynamic of Effort Expression with her Body explication. There is no LMA and BF presented as separate independent bodies of knowledge. These parts are one whole construct in the process of deciphering the complex phenomenon of human movement for understanding the duality and wholeness of Function and Expression. I also want to encourage all of us to not fall into the trap/pattern of saying “Laban” when what we mean is: Laban/Bartenieff. Of course, it is quite possible to study Laban’s work without the contributions of Bartenieff, but this is not the work that CMA’s and other equivalent movement analysts are certified in! There is a part of me which also identifies this as a necessary feminist, or if one prefers womanist, stance and that we must not allow Barteneiff to be given short shrift in the way that so many women have been over the course of history.
I am happy to report that after adopting the title /acronym LBMS, now well over a decade ago in all the movement analysis programs I am associated with (in addition to workshops and continuing education classes ) as well as using this term in the text EverBody is a Body (coauthored with my colleague Laura Cox and now in its 2nd edition), the acronym LBMS is becoming widely used with the “S” referring to SYSTEM . I am confident that this more accurate label that identifies it as a system and not studies will eventually be adopted.
*Dani Rodrik is a Turkish economist and Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
KStudd (initial doc first written in 2012 last updated 2019 and again 2024)
Phrasing is key to movement – All movement is change. From simple to complex, changes in body position, location in space, muscle tension, focus (etcetera) create the patterns of our actions. Understanding movement is through the process of recognising and interpreting the patterns. Phrases are containers . They hold the content of intention. They allow a large whole to be organised into smaller increments (or units of change ) as illustrated in the above photo of the cycle of the moon. Unlike another Foundational Pattern – the pattern of Thematic Duality, Phrasing is temporal as it is a sequence through time. Phrasing is one of the ways that the phenomenon of Time is part of Movement Analysis and LBMS.
A series of linked actions, connected through sequences of time, create the phrases of our human movement. Phrases may be seen at different “levels”, from a more macro to a more micro perspective. For example: seasons of the year, to months, weeks, days, hours, is starting from a more macro way of phrasing time and becoming increasingly more micro in how we parse sequences of time.
Aspects of phrasing include duration or length of phrases as well as if the phrases are discrete or overlapping, where one phrase blends into another. In addition, if there is an emphasis in a part of the phrase, for example at the beginning or ending, this too can create a pattern or type of phrasing linked to its meaningfulness.
A phrase is often described as a “complete thought” in language. In this way a phrase , is both a whole in itself, as well as a part of a greater whole (Part/Whole theme).
Phrasing creates and supports meaning. Below are some language examples of this idea. * The words below, in example “A”, are somehow meaningless until the phrasing creates the containers for the content and intent in example “B”.
(A) That that is is that that is not is not
(B) That that is, is; that that is not, is not.
When we change the Phrasing, we change the meaning as illustrated in using the same sentence with 2 different phrasings (below)
Woman without her man, is a savage. – -or – – Woman: without her, man is a savage.
Examples of phrasing can be found in phenomena of all kinds. Phrasing can be seen in everything from functional structural designs (architecture and engineering come to mind) to the expressive compositional phrasing of music, poetry and dance. Language as it is sounded, spoken and written is phrased in its patterns. Learning movement, teaching movement, re-patterning movement all are dependent on the phrasing of movement.
Body Phrasing – In looking at the phrasing of human movement we can start from identifying the functional phrasing of body organisation. For example, kinetic chains, or the neuromuscular initiation and sequencing of actions are examples of Body level Phrasing. Does a sequence progress from the upper unit and sequence to the lower unit, for example? Or from the distal end of a limb to its proximal end, or vice versa?
Unsupported or “disconnected” movement often is the result of breaks or interruptions in the sequence of a body phrase and may be a key, both in identifying a problematic pattern as well as finding a solution through re-patterning the phrasing of the movement.
More BESS Phrasing – In addition to Body aspects of Phrasing, we can also look at spatial (Space Component) and dynamic (Effort Component) aspects of movement phrasing (Space Phrasing and Effort Phrasing) . Understanding the spatial and dynamic aspects of a phrase may assist in clarifying the intent of the mover.
A spatial phrase creates a pathway – or several pathways – through the mover’s space (the Kinesphere). Such a phrase might be seen in a linear progression in the Vertical Dimension from high to low, or a sweeping Planal arc, or in a more complex spiraling sequence through the 3 Dimensions of Space.
The dynamic Effort changes in action support both functional as well as expressive aspects of the phrasing of movement. Looking at the dynamics of a phrase we can see what changes, what is emphasized, or if there are accented moments. These Effort Dynamics including their phrasing reflect the mover’s attitude and intent underlying a sequence of actions.
Emphasis in some part of a phrase at the beginning, or in the middle, or at the end – creates an identifiable type of phrasing pattern. Emphasis may be observed in Space or Dynamics/Effort or Body or Shape Phrasing. In other words Phrasing can be observed and experienced in all the BESS Movement Components.
Rhythm and Phrasing are interconnected concepts. Patterns of duration, holding and emphasis create rhythm , thus rhythm is linked to the concept of phrasing. Rhythms are linked to repetition and patterns emerge from repetition.
Rhythmic patterns can be seen in space through movement ( as well as the rhythms seen in art and architecture of line, design proportion) . Rhythm divides or breaks up the ongoingness of Flow (here addressing Flow as baseline from which all patterns emerge). The rhythms of our flow become the phrasing patterns of our movement sequences.
Fundamental Rhythms – The nature and feeling of duple and triple ( 2’s and 3’s )
TWO (2) is a statement of a line, an ongoing progression. But also creates the simple clarity, of beginning and ending. And in this way it describes opposites. Two ends of a continuum creating an either/or polarity. This duality can describe a harmony of balance and symmetry.
Examples of duality in the LBMS organisation of perception and experience of the patterns of movement can be found in:
LBMS Themes – Inner/Outer, Exertion/Recuperation, Function/Expression Mobility/Stability as well as other themes often addressed including: Simple/Complex, Self/ Other, Beginning/End, Part/Whole, Macro/Micro
Effort – Condensing/Indulging creating the 2 Elements of each Factor ie. Light/Strong, Direct/Broad, Free/Bound, Quick/Sustained. Effort Phrasing which emphasises either the beginning (Impulsive) or the end ( Impactive) of a phrase
Space – the phrase of the progression of space which connects the two ends of each Dimension, the two ends of each Diagonal, the two ends of each Diameter.
Body – our bilateral symmetry and our organisation relative to our form for example in the rhythm and phrasing of our walking. And in a more macro phrase sense beginning (our birth)/ end (our death) And all the many duple rhythms of our biological existence – inhale/exhale, heartbeat, ingestion/excretion etc. etc.
Shape – The Concave/Convex Relationship, the Gathering/Scattering actions and in Shape Flow linked to the 3 dimensional of our form through lengthening /shortening, bulging/hollowing and widening /narrowing, The Spoke-like Directional mode in actions towards and away from self, which in turn is based in Self/Other duality. Other examples in the Shape category are the oppositional polarities of the Core Shape Qualities – Spreading/Enclosing, Advancing/Retreating, Rising/Sinking
THREE (3) is often curvilinear in its nature but can also create the form of a triangle Which in turn can create a loop or cyclic progression around the closed triangle. In a 3 rhythm there is more differentiation as the idea of the middle emerges. This suggests more complexity and a shift in emphasis to what happens between the beginning and the end. The process becomes even more important – the life between the birth and the death – the dash between the dates on a tomb stone depicting the date of birth and date of death which has always seemed such a reductionist way of recording the phrase of one’s life!
Rhythms of 3 can also create Stable Triangular patterns and can be linked to aspects of our Dynamic Alignment (Body Component ) through our bony architecture but also to all the BESS components such as what we identify as a 3 ring as a Spatial sequence.
Examples of a tri-partite rhythmic patterns in the LBMS system of organization of perception experience of the patterns of movement can be found in:
Body – our experience of the volume our 3D form, true spirals in gradated rotation of the whole body kinetic chains connecting flexion/extension, abduction/adduction & inward/outward rotation as well as in the progression from 1D to 2D to 3D.
Effort – Effort is constantly fluctuating as we move between and among the constellations of the States and Drives and the link to 3 can be seen in how each Drive combines 3 of the 4 Effort Factors and in addition how each Drive is supported by 3 “Cluster States” linked to the Drive.
Space – A phrase of 3 directions linked as 2 pathways in theTransversal progression of: Flat, Steep, Suspended in Icosahedral Scales including the Axis and A or B Scales. (These are Space Harmony Scales practices in LBMS Movement Analysis training programs)
Space Harmony – In the Harmonic structure of the rhythms of Space, in the Transverse A & B Scales of the Icosahedron, Rudolph Laban identifies the Steeple type phrasing as a “bipartite rhythm of diagonal directions” (The Language of Movement: A Guidebook to Choreutics p 154). He goes on to identify the Flat, Steep, Suspended phrasing as a type of tri-partite rhythm through which to experience the space harmony of patterns of human movement.
More about Phrasing and phrasing types
Please read this. I see what you mean.
Please read this. I see what you mean. or I see what you mean
Please read this. I see what you mean. or I see what you mean
Please read this. I see what you mean.
Try clapping a simple 3 rhythm accenting the 1 over and over. Switch to the 2nd beat. Switch the accent to the last beat. What is the nature, feeling or mood in each case?
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 – 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 – 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Impulsive Phrasing – the emphasis is at the beginning of the phrase. It may be abrupt – as when happens when someone interrupts. It may be aggressive or intrusive. It may also be excited – the initiation of a big new idea – “I’ve got it!”. Or being impressed “Way to go!”. Impulsive Phrasing can also be found in duple rhythms such the double pulsing often used in jump rope.
Swing Phrasing – the emphasis is in the middle of the phrase. It builds to a climax then recedes. An example may be cracking a whip (preparation – snap – withdrawal). A wave breaking on the shore, skipping rhythm. Although a Swing type phrase requires 3 parts – a beginning, middle and end – you will frequently find rhythms of 2’s and 3’s layered. As in the common 6/8 meter which can also be experienced as duple feel with emphasis on 1 2 3 4 5 6. In LBMS the interconnectedness of 2’s and 3’s can be seen in the States associated with a Drive or the nature transverse movement and more specifically the pathways of Transversals in space. Where the 2D nature of each individual plane is interwoven through a cycle (pattern) of moving through all 3 Planes. In addition, the relationship of the (2 D) Planal Diameters experienced as deflections of the 3D Diagonal
Impactive Phrasing – the emphasis is the conclusion. This can be about being definite it builds up to a conclusion. It may be authoritative, or absolutist used to show determination or resolve. “That’s It!”
Phrasing style is an important aspect of one’s baseline Personal Movement Signature.
So far so good – but what exactly is a Phrase? A phrase is often (to use a word I heard CMA Carol Lynne Moore apply to the concept of the Dynamosphere) a “fuzzy” concept in LBMS. It is fuzzy in that the edges are unclear. Although perhaps unclear is a poor word choice as it is clear to the individual observer. According to CMA and non-verbal communication researcher Martha Davis, observers each seemed “to have an individually consistent approach to delineating phrases. However, the observer’s recording very often differed from each other. They do not appear to share concepts of phrase boundaries.” This would seem to resonate with the idea that Phrasing can be viewed from both a Macro as well as Micro perspective – something we do all the time as we shift our attention to the phrasing of a day morning, noon and night, to seasons of a year, or patterns of time into epochs. We do this as well in LBMS, looking both at the BIG movement picture as perhaps revealed through the larger lens of a particular theme, or in a small movement unit of a single action. Like fractals larger patterns are composed of smaller patterns which, when magnified, become the larger pattern. Theme of Part/Whole
*Thanks to my WM colleague Esther Geiger (CMA) and her husband Joel for reminding me about these examples from language
Post by KStudd – Updated Summer 2022 from earlier document of 2015
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
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.
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
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:
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
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 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?
What is Dynamic ?
What is Alignment ?
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:
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…
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:
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.