The Harmonic Structure of Movement, Music, and Dance According to Rudolf Laban : An Examination of His Unpublished Writings and Drawings

This study of Rudolf Laban, pre-eminent dance theorist of the twentieth century, provides the first comprehensive analysis of his research. Based upon an examination of unpublished writings and drawings from the final two decades of Laban's career, this book traces Laban's systematic integration of various strands of research and delineates how he used 'harmony' as an analogic metaphor to illuminate the deep structure of dance and movement. It addresses technical and conceptual links between Laban's first career as a visual artist and his subsequent vocation as a dance theorist. Key elements in his analytic movement taxonomy are introduced to familiarize the reader with terms used in the discussion of harmonic theory. Final sections extend the analogic metaphor, elaborating constructs such as tone, interval, scale, modulation, transposition, and harmonic interrelationships, while identifying hypotheses open to further empirical study. This original presentation of harmonics as a general theory of human movement will appeal to scholars in the performing arts, sports and movement studies, and dance and movement therapies. This ground-breaking study of Rudolf Laban, pre-eminent dance theorist of the 20th century, provides the first complete picture of his theoretical explorations. Widely-recognized for his analytic taxonomy and movement notation system, Laban worked equally hard to develop synthetic notions addressing the dense coherence of elements in human movement. This lushly illustrated text, based upon the first comprehensive examination of unpublished writings and drawings from the final two decades of Laban's career, traces his systematic integration of various strands of research and delineates how he used “harmony” as an analogic metaphor to illuminate the deep structure of dance and movement. Discussion initially addresses technical and conceptual links between Laban's first career as a visual artist and his subsequent vocation as a dance theorist. Secondly, key elements in his analytic movement taxonomy are introduced to familiarize the reader with terms used in the discussion of harmonic theory. Final sections extend the analogic metaphor, elaborating constructs such as tone, interval, scale, modulation, transposition, and harmonic interrelationships, while identifying hypotheses open to further empirical study. This original presentation of harmonics as a general theory of human movement will appeal to scholars in the performing arts, sports and movement studies, and dance and movement therapies.