Laban movement analysis is a system for observing, describing, and interpreting the ways humans move their bodies. It is typically used by dancers and choreographers, but Laban’s basic principles have been applied to movement analysis in digital technology, psychotherapy, and actor training.
With an appreciation for physicality in performance and how it can enhance storytelling, Laban and other mind-body techniques are increasingly being used by actors to make expressive choices for their characters through physical movement.
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Rudolf Laban, a Hungarian dance artist, movement theorist, and choreographer, developed the system in the first half of the 20th century. A founding father of expressionist dance, Laban aimed to create a definitive guide to understanding and describing human movement that would be shared and developed through teaching and research. He opened several choreographic institutes in Switzerland, Italy, and France, and taught and researched in the UK during World War II. Many of Laban’s students, including in Germany and the US, continued developing the system after his death in 1958.
Laban put forward the theory that every human movement in performance is controlled and directed by the subconscious, and movement can express a desired motion.
He was ahead of his time in promoting what modern psychology commonly refers to as “the mind-body connection” – a union that’s always in motion, whether we’re conscious of it or not.
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Laban movement analysis contains four main categories: body, effort, shape, and space (BESS).
Body: This is about what the physical form is doing – which parts of the body are moving and how the movements are coordinated.
Effort: This describes the ways the body moves and the intention behind the motion. Laban saw effort in four parts: space, time, weight, and flow. Each part has two elements that describe the quality of movement:
- Space (or direction) is either direct or indirect
- Time (or speed) is either quick or sustained
- Weight is either heavy or light
- Flow is either bound or free
Shape: This is about analysing the form and flow of movement or your body’s connection to itself. Consider how and why your body changes its form, how your movements express meaning, and how your body interacts with its environment.
Space: This explains how your body fills the space around it and how it does so harmoniously. It considers kinesphere (the physical space around your body and how you respond to it) and spatial intention (the ways you move in different directions).
Laban combined the elements of the effort category to create the Eight Efforts (or movements). He theorised that they are the eight basic actions from which all conscientious human movement is formed. Each effort expresses an emotive quality and has specific elements ascribed to it.
When performing or preparing for a role, actors can see which movements may apply to a character, scene, or emotional moment.
- Dab: direct, quick, light, bound
- Float: indirect, sustained, light, free
- Press: direct, sustained, heavy, bound
- Wring: indirect, sustained, heavy, bound
- Glide: direct, sustained, light, free
- Punch: direct, quick, heavy, bound
- Slash: indirect, quick, heavy, free
- Flick: indirect, quick, light, free
The degree to which the movements are carried out depends on how they combine with the elements of effort – space, time, weight, and flow – which can be further broken down as expressions of four mental factors:
- Sensing, which is expressed in movement as space (light or strong)
- Thinking, which is expressed in movement as space (flexible or direct)
- Intuiting, which is expressed in movement as time (sustained or quick)
- Feeling, which is expressed in movement as flow (free or bound)
1. Actor training: getting comfortable in the body
Humans often treat the mind and body as separate entities, and how we carry out physical movement is highly formalised – think sports or exercise regimens.
In turn, actors can struggle to move comfortably and freely in their own bodies, holding back because of a fear of overacting. It’s easy to lose sight of your own movements and how even subtle changes in physicality can create new types of characterisation.
Laban movement analysis can provide a framework to better understand and express a character through physical movement, get comfortable moving in new ways, and better connect the mind and body.
2. Character development
The Laban framework provides actors with a clear tool to physicalise a character – one that is not just technical, but also encourages them to recognise and act upon creative impulses in the body.
Just as each character has their own way of speaking, so, too, do they have their own way of moving. Laban movement analysis helps performers access and express a character’s inner consciousness through physicality and add subtle yet complex layers to character analysis and performance.
Laban movement analysis is about integration between mind and body, and the best way to learn it is by doing. Below are some key ways to explore Laban movement analysis in training or preparing for a role.
- Observation work: Observe other actors and performances, and apply what you pick up on – changes to posture, gestures, and movement patterns, for example – to your own script analysis and role preparation.
- Text analysis: Language represents the inner lives of characters. Select key words in the script and cross-reference them with Laban’s Eight Efforts to see if particular movements feel right for the scene.
- Character work: Look at the personality, emotions, and motivations of a character to see what type of effort or movement to experiment with. Humans are complex, and their energies can shift and change in different situations. Don’t reduce characters to one energy, or they will become simplistic. Think about how characters can mask what is happening internally, for example, and how you could express that emotionally and physically.
- Costuming and props: Play around with what the character may wear or carry in a scene, and think about how it can support the physical movements you embody and express.
Once you understand the principles, you will have the keys to better embody characters. Laban movement analysis can help actors in every medium – on stage, screen, and even in voice work – take their character development to the next level.
By learning Laban’s framework, actors can develop a strong physical instrument that will serve them throughout their training and future professional work.