The Harmonic Structure of Movement, Music and Dance According to Rudolf Laban: An Examination of His Unpublished Writings and Drawings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

Description

This study of Rudolf Laban, pre-eminent dance theorist of the twentieth century, provides the first comprehensive analysis of his theoretical explorations. Based upon an examination of unpublished writings and drawings from the final two decades of Laban’s career, the work traces Laban’s systematic integration of various strands of research and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. This book contains thirteen color photographs.

Reviews

“This book reinvigorates Laban scholarship, showing how movement and mind, body and soul, emotion and concept, are one, entwined, inseparable. This deeply difficult task, given the binary nature of language, is successfully achieved. It bears similarity to dance making of the present time. Just as current choreographers re-visit, for example, the themes of Swan Lake, and we see them anew, re-worked, so Carol-Lynne Moore challenges tendencies to value Laban's notation system and taxonomic analysis solely as technical tools, and focuses instead on his notions of the coherence of movement, its elements integrated in 'meaningful human acts'. Its implications and applications will support the growth of the discipline for years to come. This articulation and further development of Laban's 'beautiful' but 'analogic' theory of movement harmony makes a unique, original, and impressive contribution to scholarship.” – Prof. Janet Lansdale, University of Surrey

“Carol-Lynne Moore has brilliantly synthesized a wealth of disparate information into a unified whole. The whole is Rudolf Laban’s theory of movement harmony. Not an easy task as she clearly identifies and illuminates historical, educational, aesthetic and familial influences from the life of Rudolf Laban, 1879-1958. Laban was an artist the first third of his life, a dancer and teacher the second third of his life, and researcher, amateur mathematician, and theoretician at the end of his life. Each of Laban’s ‘thirds’ are explored by Moore.” – Prof. Susan D. Imus, Columbia College Chicago

“. . . elevates the scholarly study of movement and provides insightful foundations for future research. The author challenges readers to advance the scholarly study of movement posing questions for study and establishing conceptual ground on which to build further explorations and applications. This work is a critical and significant contribution to the future of movement study.” – Prof. Madeleine Scott, Ohio University, Athens

Table of Contents

Original Artworks by Rudolf Laban
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Laban’s Journey: Art, Dance, and Beyond
2. The Artist/Researcher at Work
3. Visual Representation of Movement: Tradition and Innovation
4. Space: The Outer Domain of Human Movement
5. Effort: The Inner Domain of Human Movement
6. On Harmony
7. Tone, Scale, Interval, and Transposition
8. Modulation and Harmonic Phrasing
9. The Harmonic Unity of Form and Energy
Bibliography
Index

ISBN10:  0-7734-4777-6   ISBN13:  978-0-7734-4777-6    Pages:  376    Year:  2009   

Series: hors série Number: 0

Subject Areas:  Dance, Music & Dance, Sports & Recreation, Theater,

Imprint: Edwin Mellen Press

USA List Price: $119.95 UK List Price: £ 74.95  

Discounts: Discounts are available. Please Register, or if you have already registered, Sign In, to view your personalized prices.