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The Laban Sourcebook
Rudolf Laban (1879–1958) was a pioneer in dance and move-
ment, who found an extraordinary range of application for his
ideas; from industry to drama, education and therapy. Laban
believed that you can understand human beings by observing how
they move, and devised two complementary methods of notating
the shape and quality of movements.
The Laban Sourcebook offers a comprehensive account of
Laban’s writings and includes extracts from his five books in
English and from his four works in German written in the 1920s,
translated here for the first time.
This book draws on archival research in England and Germany
to chart the development of his groundbreaking ideas through a
variety of documents, including letters, articles, transcripts of
interviews, and his unpublished Effort and Recovery. It covers:
• the beginning of his career in Germany and Switzerland in the
1910s
• his astonishing rise to fame in Germany in the 1920s as a
dance teacher, choreographer and creator of public dance
events
• following his move to England in 1938, the application of his
ideas to drama, education, industry and therapy.
Each extract has a short preface providing contextual back-
ground, and highlighting and explaining key terms. Passages have
been selected and are introduced by many of the world’s leading
Laban scholars.
Dick McCawis Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of
London, UK. He co-founded the Medieval Players theatre com-
pany in 1981 and he was Artistic Director of the International
Workshop Festival from 1993–2001. He trained with Geraldine
Stephenson, a former pupil and colleague of Rudolf Laban. He
is the co-editor of eight DVD ROMs with Peter Hulton on theatre
movement and practice, and is the author of a book on Warren
Lamb.
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The Laban
Sourcebook
n Edited by Dick McCaw
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First published 2011
by Routledge
2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
Collection and editorial matter © 2011 Dick McCaw; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Dick McCaw to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice:Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Laban, Rudolf von, 1879–1958.
The Laban sourcebook / edited by Dick McCaw.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Dance. I. McCaw, Dick.
II. Title.
GV1594.L33 2011
792.8¢2—dc22 2010024030
ISBN: 978–0–415–54333–0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978–0–415–54332–3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978–0–203–85284–2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton
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I dedicate this book to Geraldine Stephenson, who
introduced me to Laban’s ideas about movement.
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C
o
Contents n
t
e
n
t
s
List of illustrations xi
Notes on contributors xiii
Preface xvii
Acknowledgements xxi
List of abbreviations xxiii
Editor’s introduction 1
Dick McCaw
1 Dance activities and schools, 1912–1917,
Ascona and Zurich 21
Introduction, Dick McCaw
2 The World of the Dancer (1920) 41
Introduction,Stefanie Sachsenmaier
3 Gymnastics and Dance for Children (1926) 69
Introduction, Dick McCaw
4 Gymnastics and Dance (1926) 83
Introduction, Dick McCaw
VII
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CONTENTS
5 Choreography (1926) 97
Introduction, Dick McCaw
6 Texts on Laban’s choreographies:
Gaukelei (1923) and Titan (1927) 113
Introduction, Dick McCaw
7 The Choreographic Institute Laban
(1926–1929) and Laban’s presentation
at the first Dancers’ Congress,
Magdeburg (1927) 121
Introduction, Vera Maletic
8 The Pageant of the Trades and Crafts,
Vienna, June 1929 139
Introduction, Dick McCaw
9 Laban and Movement Notation 155
Introduction, Roderyk Lange
10 Rudolf Laban’s dance films 167
Introduction, Evelyn Dörr
11 Choreutics, written in 1938, published
1966 175
Introduction, Valerie Preston-Dunlop
12 Laban’s concept of Effort and his work
in the 1940s and 1950s 197
Introduction, Dick McCaw
13 The Art of Movement in Education, Work
and Recreation (mid-1940s) 207
Introduction, Dick McCaw
14 Effort (1947) 217
Introduction, Warren Lamb
VIII
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CONTENTS
15 Answers to Ten Questions on Industrial
Rhythm (early 1950s) 231
16 Modern Educational Dance (1948) 237
Introduction, Anna Carlisle
17 Shadow Moves 257
Introduction, Marion North
18 The Mastery of Movement on the Stage
(1950) 265
Introduction, Dick McCaw
19 Effort and Recovery (early 1950s) 283
Introduction, Dick McCaw
20 Excerpts from Effort and Recovery and
notes taken from Withymead (early
1950s) 299
Introduction, Janet Kaylo
21 The Harmony of Movement (early
1950s) 317
Introduction, Carol-Lynne Moore
22 Themes and contradictions in Laban’s
work and thinking 333
Dick McCaw
Glossary of terms as used in Movement Psychology 351
Glossary of German terms 359
Stefanie Sachsenmaier and Dick McCaw
Bibliography 363
Index 369
IX
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I
l
l
u
List of illustrations
s
t
r
a
Figures t
i
Prelim.1 Laban drawing from the John Hodgson
o
Archive, Brotherton Library, University of
Leeds xx
Prelim.2 Laban drawing from the John Hodgson n
Archive, Brotherton Library, University of
Leeds xx
s
0.1 Illustration of the octahedron from
Choreography(1926) 11
0.2 Illustration of the three planes of movement
from Choreography(1926) 12
1.1 Laban School in Ascona (1913) 22
1.2 Laban School in Ascona (1913) 22
1.3 Laban School in Ascona (1914) 23
6.1–6.4 Images from Laban’s stage-plan of Titan
(1927) 114
6.5 Hamburg Movement Choir 116
7.1 Directory of Laban Schools in 1927 121
7.2 List of Laban vocational training schools 122
7.3 What is necessary? 130
7.4 Rehearsal for Agamemnon(1927) 134
7.5 Gleisner Movement Choir (1927) 135
7.6 Herta Feist School, Berlin 135
XI
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
7.7 Rehearsal for Titan(1927), photo given to
John Hodgson by Albrecht Knust 136
7.8 Rehearsal for Titan(1927), photo given to
John Hodgson by Albrecht Knust 136
7.9 Rehearsal for Titan(1927), photo given to
John Hodgson by Albrecht Knust 137
9.1 Dance instruction in the work by
M. Toulouze, L‘Art et Instruction de bien
Danser,Paris, 1488 156
9.2 The minuet recorded in the Feuillet system 157
9.3 ‘Pas de Zéphire’, recorded by A. Zorn, 1887 159
9.4 Example of movement notation 159
9.5 Example of Kinetography 165
10.1 Photograph of the icosahedron (1928) 169
11.1 Notation of symbols 187
11.2a The cluster 188
11.2b The girdle 188
11.3 [Illustration of transversal movements] 189
11.4a [Peripheral standard scale] 191
11.4b [Peripheral standard scale] 191
11.5 [Knot-form around an axis] 194
12.1 The Effort Cross 202
12.2 The eight Effort actions 202
14.1 The Efforts 223
18.1 [Human expressiveness in the art of
movement] 273
22.1 Dietrich Eckhart Stadium, venue for the
1936 Berlin Olympics 345
22.2, Dress rehearsal of Vom Tauwind und der
22.3 neuen Freudeat Dietrich Eckhart Stadium
from the brochure commemorating the
opening of the Dietrich Eckhart Stadium,
venue for the 1936 Berlin Olympics 346
Tables
12.1 Effort 200
12.2 Drives and attitudes 204
XII
