Beyond Dance: Laban's Legacy of Movement Analysis

Beyond Dance: Laban's Legacy of Movement Analysisoffers students of dance and movement a brief introduction to the life and work of Rudolf Laban, and how this work has been extended into the fields of movement therapy, communications, early childhood development, and other fields. Rudolf Laban's landmark system of movement analysis has been applied to dance movement through both Labanotation (his system of writing down movement) and also through "effort-shape analysis," a system that was developed out of Laban's work by his followers to better understand how movement occurs. Laban's followers--notably Warren Lamb--used this as a basis to study movement in a broader context, from how to make work more efficient in agriculture and industry to how to better communicate through body movement and gesture. While many dance students know of Laban and his work as it applies to their field, few know the full story of how this technique has developed and grown. For many who enter into the fields of dancemovement therapy, performance, and communications, there are valuable lessons to be learned from Laban and his follower's works.Beyond Dance: Laban's Legacy of Movement Analysisoffers a concise introduction to this world. Refreshingly free of jargon and easy to understand, the work offers dance students--and others interested in human movement--a full picture of the many possibilities inherent in Laban's theories. For many who will pursue careers "beyond dance," this work will be a useful guidebook into related areas. This will be ideally suited to students of Laban movement theory in dance and movement therapy, and will be used in advanced courses in these areas as useful, brief introduction to the field.