Moving in the Cube

Labanotation is one of the most used systems for notating, analysing, and preserving movement and dance, an important part of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Labanotation consists of a powerful expressive symbolic language for documenting movement with a long history in dance research, history, and anthropology since its introduction by Rudolf von Laban in the beginning of the 20th century. A number of valuable scores in this language are curated in both physical and digital archives throughout the world, describing both traditional dances and works of historical choreographers. Nevertheless, while Labanotation is considered the official language of dance scholars, it is not at all popular among dance educators, students, practitioners, and choreographers. In fact, few people of the dance community are familiar with it. One of the reasons is that it is considered a quite difficult symbolic system with a long learning curve, and practitioners are not easily motivated to learn it. Together with dance experts, we co-designed a movement-based experience in Kinect, based on the principles of playful design, to introduce dance and non-dance experts to Labanotation introductory concepts and symbols. We evaluate the experience with both people that have experience in dance or other movement practices, as well as participants with no expertise in movement or dance. The results show promising findings toward changing the attitude of the participants toward Labanotation, and all participants seemed to memorize or start learning the logic of this symbolic language for movement. We discuss the results of the evaluation on the whole experience and the potential of this symbolic language in the digital environment, as well as the potential and challenges that arise from this experiment based on the background of the participants, the limitation of the applied technology and interaction, as well as feedback on the introduced symbolic language.

CORPO, TEMA E O ESPAÇO DA SALA DE AULA

Esta pesquisa visa instigar reflexões sobre experiências no âmbito da sala de aula nos estudos e dinâmicas do componente curricular corpo, movimento e ludicidade do curso de pedagogia. Considerando o caráter intersubjetivo do tema, o professor pesquisador tece observações sobre o desdobramento das aulas com alusão aos estudos introdutórios teórico-práticos do teatro-imagem, proposto por Augusto Boal, e dos movimentos cotidianos e espontâneos elucidados por Rudolf von Laban atravessados por abordagens sobre o tema nos estudos de Paulo Freire, Nickel, Marques e Lima. Verifica-se que a discussão do corpo e movimento, como ação, como atitude no cotidiano, faz emergir questões reveladoras de conhecimento e negação da linguagem corporal em tempos de distanciamento social.

Aussteigen um 1900

Die Visionen der Lebensreformer auf dem Monte Verità inspirierten Schriftsteller wie Hermann Broch, der selber ein Aussteiger war. Im verheißungsvollen Jahr 1900 gründeten Ida Hofmann und Henri Oedenkoven eine lebensreformerische Heilanstalt in Ascona, beeinflusst von Ideen Rudolf Steiners sowie Friedrich Nietzsches. Viele Spielarten des Aussteigens - von unpolitischen über sozialistische und anarchistische Positionen - waren in Ascona vertreten. Neben Karl und Gusto Gräser, Otto Gross und Erich Mühsam hospitierten in der Kommune Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller wie Hermann Hesse, Ernst Bloch, Yvan und Claire Goll, Franziska zu Reventlow, Emmy Hennings, Hugo Ball und Oskar Maria Graf. Willkommen waren auch Vertreter der neuen Tanzkunst wie Rudolf von Laban und seine Mitarbeiterin Mary Wigman. Der Band untersucht die Faszination, die Nietzsches Philosophie auf die Kommune ausübte, sowie Spuren der Reformideen, die in der Medizin, der Architektur und der Literatur der Moderne zu entdecken sind. Sieben Aufsätze beleuchten erstmals Hermann Brochs Beziehungen zu diesen Gegenwelten, denn 1927 verkaufte er die Fabrik seiner Familie, schaffte mit vierzig Jahren den Berufswechsel vom Industriellen zum Schriftsteller und schuf in Wien sowie im amerikanischen Exil ein Erzählwerk voller Aussteigerfiguren.

On a Curious Chance Resemblance: Rudolf von Laban’s Kinetography and the Geometric Abstractions of Sophie Taeuber-Arp

This paper investigates a case of historical co-emergence between a modern system of dance notation and the rise of geometric abstraction in the applied arts during the first decades of the 20th century. It does so by bringing together the artistic careers of the choreographer Rudolf von Laban and the visual artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Comparing their pedagogical agendas and visual aesthetics, this paper argues that the resemblances between Laban’s Kinetography and Taeuber-Arp’s early geometric compositions cannot be a matter of pure coincidence. The paper therefore presents and supports the hypothesis of a co-constitutive relationship between visual abstraction and the dancing body in the European avant-garde.

Gestures of Vibrating (Interruption) in Rudolf von Laban, Mary Wigman, and Walter Benjamin

This chapter compares Rudolf von Laban’s and Mary Wigman’s practices and theories of vibrant gestural flow with Walter Benjamin’s theory of gesture as vibrant or intervallic interruption. For Laban and Wigman, gesture mirrors a vitalist understanding of life that is based on the assumption of transhistorical continuities of vibratory exchange between human and cosmic energy. Benjamin’s Brechtian gestures, by contrast, address historical inscriptions and manipulations of bodies, which provide comment on the conditions of society by subjecting to critique aspects of the idea of flow that pertain to unquestioned political figurations of power. This chapter thus explores three gestural manipulations of vibrant energy, and shows what they engender: in Laban, a process of transmission between dancers and spectators; in Wigman, an “action mode” of movement, which she called “vibrato”; and, in Benjamin, a possibility for philosophical insight, but also a disruptive revolutionary charge.

Estudo do gesto instrumental sob o prisma da Labanotation: o exemplo da Tapping Technique em Percussion Study I para violão solo de Arthur Kampela

Este estudo parte dos efeitos de percussão criados por Arthur Kampela em seu Percussion Study I visando compreender o movimento físico e o gesto instrumental do violonista como um fenômeno orgânico, intimamente relacionado com o gesto sonoro. Para tanto, utilizamos como ferramenta de análise a notação de movimentos coreográficos criada por Rudolf von Laban; este sistema é aplicado aos gestos requeridos para se realizarem cinco passagens da obra de Kampela onde os efeitos de percussão estão particularmente presentes. A partir da leitura dos cinetogramas criados, podemos observar uma predominância de movimentos em ricochete e outros efeitos percussivos que, além de promover um melhor relaxamento muscular, corroboram no impacto visual que a peça causa por sua gestualidade corporal. Observamos também que há uma notável exploração espacial do instrumento. Ao abordarmos o fazer musical de um ponto de vista coreográfico, entendemos este como um complexo que inclui o som produzido, os gestos e movimentos do performer, sua energia, seu corpo e o espaço que o circunda.

The Contemporary Context of Gurdjieff’s Movements

The “sacred dances” or “Movements” were first revealed by George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1949) in 1919 in Tiflis (Tblisi), the site of the first foundation of his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. The proximate cause of this new teaching technique has been hypothesized to be Jeanne de Salzmann (1889–1990), an instructor of the Eurhythmics method of music education developed by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950). Jeanne and her husband Alexandre met at Jaques-Dalcroze’s Institute at Hellerau in 1913, and became pupils of Gurdjieff in 1919. It was to her Dalcroze class that Gurdjieff first taught Movements. Esoteric systems of dance and musical education proliferated at the time. Gurdjieff was deeply interested in music, theater, and art. When Pyotr Demianovich Ouspensky (1878–1947) met him in 1915 he spoke of dances he had seen in Eastern temples, and was working on a never-performed ballet, The Struggle of the Magicians. This article argues that body-based disciplines introduced by esoteric teachers with Theosophically-inflected systems are a significant phenomenon in the early twentieth century and that Gurdjieff’s Movements, while distinct from other dance systems, emerged in the same esoteric melting-pot and manifest common features and themes with the esoteric dance of Rudolf Steiner, Rudolf von Laban, Peter Deunov, and others.

Gesture, Interruption, Vibration: Rethinking Early Twentieth-Century Gestural Theory and Practice in Walter Benjamin, Rudolf von Laban, and Mary Wigman

This article compares Rudolf von Laban's and Mary Wigman's practices and theories of gestural flow with Walter Benjamin's theory of gesture as interruption. For Laban and Wigman, gesture mirrors a vitalist understanding of life that is based on the rediscovery of transhistorical continuities between human and cosmic energy. Benjamin's Brechtian gestures address inscriptions and manipulations of bodies, which provide comment on the conditions of society by subjecting to critique the essentializing aspects of historical and vitalist flow. Addressing in particular forms of vibration as both enriching and destabilizing the gestural from its margins, my article explores how vibratory energy indicates a self-reflexive theory of media, but also a revolutionary charge, in Benjamin; how it engenders a politically ambivalent process of transmission between dancers and audience in Laban; and how it becomes an actual mode of movement in Wigman. The historical inquiry contributes to a genealogy of vibration in contemporary dance.