2/5/2026 - Week 4 / Meeting 8: Laban Movement Analysis: Laban's Cube for Ensembles

 

 

 

 

I

Unit: Laban Movement Analysis

Theme: Laban's Cube for Ensembles

Introduction

 

Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) is a method and language for describing, visualizing, interpreting and documenting all varieties of human movement. Rudolf Laban created a movement theory and practice that reflected what he recognized as the organization of movement in space in a harmonious way. Thus, he created movement scales that used the vertices of the Octahedron, the Icosahedron and the Cube as references.

 

II 

 

Learning Objectives

 

• Understand who was Rudolph Laban
  
• Explain the importance of relationship building
  
• Gather and awareness of the importance of the new concepts developed by Laban
• Experience what is like to move within the circle 

 

 

III

 

Check In

 

IV

Main Lesson 

1

 

 

Relationship Building

We are all affected by relationship issues, which often involve needing clearer boundaries with family, friends and partners. DMT offers a way to physically experience where your boundaries lie and how to strengthen or soften them appropriately. In a DMT session, you will learn several somatic ways to identify your boundaries and how to communicate them physically and verbally in healthy and respectful ways.

 

Question 1

 

Which challenges did the pandemic present in regards to  relationship building for dancers?

-------------------

2

Rudolph Laban: 

Born in 1879, Laban was a dance artist and theorist. He is considered as one of the pioneers of modern dance in Europe, as the "Founding Father of the Expressionist Dance" in Germany. His work laid the foundations for Laban Movement Analysis, Labanotation (Kinetography Laban), other more specific developments in dance notation and the evolution of many varieties of Laban Movement Study. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in the history of dance. He died in 1958.

 

Laban Movement: 

Laban Movement provides a clear and understandable tool set that will enable therapists to grow their own movement vocabulary and discover new ways to physicalize character. It teaches how to recognize and act upon creative impulse in the body. Laban work comes out of modern dance exploration. 

 

 Question 2

 Why was Laban an important dance artist?

 

3

 

Laban's Cube

 

 Combinations of three dimensions, or spatial pulls, become diagonals; extremes of far reach space that crisscross the body's center from one corner of an imaginary Cube to the opposite corner. Laban devised the Diagonal Scale to explore these extremes of personal space.

 

Question 3

 

Why is the cube useful in developing body movement?

 

 

 

V

 

A Note to Remember 

 

The aim of the study of Laban Movement Analysis is to break down how movement can be expressed into it's simplest forms, allowing a performer to call upon them and experiment in a thorough manner.

 

 

VI

 

Case Study 

 

William Forsythe

 

 Improvisation Technologies, a Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye, was a  pecial issue produced by the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. ZKM is a cultural institution that was founded in 1989. Since 1997, the ZKM is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former munitions factory. The mission of the ZKM is to explore the creative possibilities of connecting the traditional arts and media technologies to achieve innovative results. The goal is to enrich the arts, not to amputate them by technical means. The ZKM's mission, as formulated by founding director Heinrich Klotz in 1992, was implemented and developed further in the years that followed.

 

This video in particular explains the way Laban meant for the cube to be used when creating movement.The Credits list the names of William Forsythe and others as the producers in cooperation with Deutsche Tanzarchiv Köln SK Stiftung Kultur. Forsythe is an American dancer and \choreographer resident in Germany. He is known for his work with the Ballet Frankfurt (1984–2004) and the Forsythe Company (2005–2015). Recognized for the integration of ballet and visual arts, which displayed both abstraction and forceful theatricality, his vision of choreography as an organizational practice has inspired him to produce numerous installations, films, and web-based knowledge creation, incorporating the spoken word and experimental music.

 

 

Improvisational Technologies Laban Model 

 

 https://vimeo.com/2912642

 

 Question 4

What was the role of improvisational technologies?

 

VII

 

ACTIVITIES

 
1

Students imagined to be inside a cube in order to experience what it may feel like to move in such confined space.

Circling the Cube:

• Standing in the center
• Reach the side wall
• Explore the right side of the cube with the right arm
• Explore the left side of the cube with the left arm
• Move along the sideway edge of the left deep back corner of the cube
• Explore the left side and pathway leading with right arm
• Explore the right side and pathway leading with the left arm
• Explore the front wall with right arm
  

2

 

Students create groups and explore the moves from the activity "circling the cube "in order to eventually set an 8 moves phrase.

 

Students making-up, record your phrase and post it on Discussion Board. 

 

 

 

  3

 

Laban’s Four Components of Human Movement with their Respective Elements:

•Direction – direct/indirect

•Weight – heavy/light

•Speed – quick/sustained

•Flow – bound / free

 

 4

  

Students add to their phrases Laban's 4 components of human movement with their respective elements. 

Add these components to your 8 movements. Every component has two elements (example direction can be direct or indirect).  Two each of your 8 moves add an element. Example; first move add the direct element, second move add the indirect element, etc.

Students making-up record and post your movements on Discussion Board.

 5

Laban’s Eight Effort Actions:   

The Eight Effort Actions help clients both physically and emotionally to embody and understand internal impulse while developing an expressive body.

•Wring:

•Press

•Flick

•Dab

•Glide

•Float

•Punch

•Slash

 

 

To the initial phrase and movement components, students add the 8 effort actions. 

 

Finally, the add music to their phrases.Add one of the efforts to each one of your 8 moves.

 

Students making-up, record your movements and post them on Discussion Board.

 

VIII

Journaling

 

 

Question 5

Write a reflection on the activities you have experienced today. 

Post all you answers on Discussion Board

 

 

IX

Glossary

 

 

X

  Sources

 

 

XI 

Students' Work