Rudolf Laban

Evelyn Doerr

doi:10.5771/9781461670926

Summary

Rudolf Laban, the famed dancer-choreographer and 'founding father' of modern dance, also had experience as a painter, sculptor, and architect, and allowed those skills to influence his innovative choreographic techniques. His important works and his creation of one of the most significant forms of dance notation make him an essential component of dance history. Rudolf Laban: The Dancer of the Crystal examines Laban's training, his teaching experiences, and the discovery and development of his principles of form and movement, paying special attention to his choreographic and philosophical work. Author Evelyn Doerr presents intriguing tidbits of the artist's experience, such as Laban's ambivalent position as the 'dance organizer' of the Nazi party in Germany, embedded in a historical and philosophical context, offering insights to his choreographic processes and the events that shaped his life.

The book presents the different stages and elements of Laban's choreography discussing, for example, Laban's "dance-sound-word" instructional approach, his concept of the "movement choir" and examples of its realization, the concepts of eukinetics and choreutics, and a description of how these subjects were taught in Laban's school. Doerr also analyzes important elements in Laban's theories of spatial harmony and of effort, and she investigates his various early systems of dance notation, leading to a detailed explanation of kinetography, Laban's final notational system. A complete bibliography and an appendix of works choreographed between 1897 and 1936 help make this book an important contribution to Laban scholarship and to the dance, theater, and cultural history of Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2007
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8108-6007-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4616-7092-6
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 283
Product type: Book Titles

1. Table of Contents No access
2. Prologue No access
1. In the Family Home No access
2. Was Laban a Black Sheep in the Family? No access
3. Grandmother's Story Hour No access
4. On a Fantastic Journey through Nature No access
5. 1. Dervish Dances No access
  2. Sword Dances No access
  3. Maneuvers No access
6. 0 God, the Child wants to be an Artist! No access
7. Laban has to go to the Military Academy No access
1. Laban Learns to Think Like an Abstract Artist No access
2. At the Munich Art Academy No access
3. At the Instructional and Experimental Studios for Applied and Fine Arts No access
4. Did Laban Take a Beginner's Course with Wassily Kandinsky? No access
5. Laban wants to Study Architecture No access
6. In Montmartre No access
7. Laban Discovers "Black Cat Art" in the Cabarets of Paris No access
8. The Study at the École-des-Beaux-Art No access
9. Love, Instincts, Jealousy, Death No access
10. Newspaper Seller in Nice No access
11. The Art-Deco Artist No access
1. In Munich, City of Theater and Dance No access
2. Laban wants to be an Artist for the Stage No access
3. First Instruction in Choreography No access
4. The Choreographer Falls Ill No access
5. Laban Falls in Love No access
6. Love Triangle: Laban-Lederer-Perrottet No access
7. Laban Composes Music No access
8. Laban Writes a Cultic-Artistic Festival No access
9. Searching for Paradise: The Mountain of Truth No access
10. As Director of the School for Art No access
11. Laban Teaches Free Dance in the Women's Open-Air Swimming Pool No access
12. Lessons in Form No access
13. A Lesson in Dance-Sound-Word No access
14. The Summer in Ascona was a Success No access
15. Off to Ascona for a Summer Course No access
16. The Deserted Mountain No access
17. Mary Wigman as Guinea Pig No access
18. The First Attempts at Dance Notation No access
19. Was Laban a Miracle Worker? No access
20. Looking for House and Home No access
1. The Labangarten in Hombrechtikon No access
2. Difficult Start in Zurich No access
3. Laban Explodes in Anger No access
4. One Disaster after the Next No access
5. The Labangarten Remains a Pipe Dream No access
6. The Laban School is Running at Full Speed No access
7. The Dance Scholar No access
8. The Dadaists No access
9. The Heavenly Headquarters of the Dadaists No access
10. No Dada Soirees without Laban Ladies No access
11. Laban's Relationship to the Dadas No access
12. At the OTO Congress No access
13. Laban Founds a Masonic Lodge No access
14. The Love Triangle Collapses No access
15. Laban Struggles with the End of a Bad Dream No access
1. Laban Exhibits his Pictures in the Albrecht-Dürer-Verein No access
2. The World of the Dancer is a Hit No access
3. The Door Opens for the Dance Revolutionary No access
4. Who Will Bring "The Child" into the World? No access
5. On a Professional Stage for the First Time No access
6. The Laban School Dances in the Nationalistic Colony of Klingberg No access
1. In Hamburg, the City of Dance No access
2. The Founding Father of Expressionist Dance No access
3. Laban as a Theatrical Dancer No access
4. Founding of the Central Laban-School No access
5. A Class in the Movement Choir Department No access
6. Laban's Connection to the Gymnastics Movement No access
7. The Laban Method Spreads No access
8. Laban Says the Movement Choir Should Get All the Credit No access
9. Complaints about Laban No access
10. The Dance Master Leaves Hamburg No access
1. The Debut in Wiirzburg No access
2. No Dancing Naked in the "Nature Park"! No access
3. Head of the Choreographisches Institut No access
4. We Only Teach Dance Here No access
5. Instruction in Eukinetics, Choreutics, and Movement Writing No access
6. Instruction in Movement Notation No access
7. A Celebratory Final Examination No access
8. Laban is Idolized No access
9. End of His Dance Career No access
10. The Moral Authorities at Laban's Heels No access
11. 1. The Challenge No access
  2. The Conflict No access
  3. The Resolution No access
12. At the German Theater Exhibition No access
13. What Now? No access
14. Laban Seeks Solitude No access
1. "Dance Winter" in the Capital of the Reich No access
2. Laban Founds the Choreographisches Institut No access
3. Instruction in Kinetography No access
4. The First Written Dance Choreography No access
5. The Dance Poet No access
6. A Flood of Birthday Greetings No access
7. Bankrupt No access
8. Will the Choreographer Become a Filmmaker? No access
9. The Idea for a Filmed Sound Opera Makes Waves No access
10. Laban the Scapegoat No access
11. The Seizure of Power No access
12. Was Dance the Appendix to Nazi Art? No access
13. 1. The Banishment of the "Degenerates" No access
  2. The Nationals Emerge No access
  3. What Did Laban Do? No access
14. "The Father of the German Dance" No access
15. Thaw Wind and New Joy? No access
16. The Fulfillment of a Dream? No access
17. Why the Choreographer Foundered No access
18. "Who is the Dog?" No access
19. Laban Retreats No access
20. The Choreographer Leaves Germany No access
1. The Colony in Dartington No access
2. Laban is Ill No access
3. The Drawings of the Children of Seubelsdorff No access
4. "A Vision of Dynamic Space" No access
5. Lisa Ullmann, Laban's Companion No access
6. Dance and Factory No access
7. What is Effort? No access
8. Ullmann's Efforts No access
9. The "Art of Movement" No access
10. The Next Generation No access
11. Arrival in Addlestone Surrey No access
12. The Old Friends No access
13. The Lost Son No access
14. Crime and Punishment No access
Appendix: Annotated List of Laban's Works No access Pages 213 - 240
Glossary No access Pages 241 - 248
Bibliography No access Pages 249 - 258
General Index No access Pages 259 - 274
Name Index No access Pages 275 - 282
About the Author No access Pages 283 - 283