Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) Summit 

April 10/11-13, 2023; Online + London (in-person)

east15.ac.uk

@east15actingschool

East 15 Acting School, Hatfields, Rectory Lane, Loughton IG10 3RY

020 8508 5983

Whilst the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System justly bears the names of its originators, (Rudolf Laban, 1879-1958; Irmgard Bartenieff 1900-1981), as a framework for the practice and analysis of movement today it is a “creative synthesis that has been enriched considerably by concepts developed by Laban’s colleagues and students of human movement working within the Laban tradition” (Moore, 1988: 181).

This summit aims to explore three key aspects of contemporary practice of LBMS over the 3-day event:

1. The contemporary landscape of processes and applications of LBMS and the opportunities and challenges it presents in various fields of application for the 21stCentury
2. Irmgard Bartenieff’s work and legacy, and the ‘silent’ bodies of knowledge and overlooked contributors: the women and men who developed and ensured the legacy of ‘Laban’ studies
3. Integrating First and Third Person Views of Movement. Exploring movement objectively, subjectively, physically, metaphysically, spiritually, and approaches that comingle these perspectives.  Approaches to movement from the outside in and the inside out, ideas and practices that challenge the dichotomy of object and subject, experiential and analytic.

Broadly speaking, the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System is an approach to the experiential and analytic aspects of movement. The foundations of it can be considered as comprising of basic parameters for movement study and analysis. They are Body, Effort, Space, Shape, and the term ‘Movement System’ acknowledges the synergistic nature of these ‘parts’ – they are never experienced or observed in isolation but form a web-like structure for comprehending movement phenomenon.

Laban and Bartenieff’s work have been applied globally to many fields throughout the 20thand 21stCenturies, including in education, therapy/health, coaching/business consulting, creative arts, performer training and performance making. Laban’s framework for movement analysis has provided clear in-roads to understanding the nature of human movement through both an empirical tool and a philosophical approach with the LBMS.

However, in this summit we would like to explore key features of contemporary practice of the LBMS, including what is apparently absent and certainly under-acknowledged from the corpus of ‘Laban studies’ more generally. They are: the opportunities and challenges that LBMS poses for the 21stCentury practitioner; Integrating the First and Third person perspectives of movement – synthesising object/subject, physical/spiritual; and the ‘invisible’, underacknowledged contributors who developed Laban’s theories and ensured the legacy of ‘Laban studies’ globally.

About the Local Co-Organizer

East 15 Acting School has over sixty years’ experience in discovering and developing the best talent for stage, screen, radio, and behind the scenes; discovering and developing daring and unique actors, creatives, technicians, and makers, across the performing industries.