ABSTRACT
Although Laban did not publish his first book until 1920 (aged 41), he was incredibly active in the second decade of the twentieth century – creating schools, initiating artistic communities, summer courses and festivals, giving inspiring lectures and making his first dance works. The texts below give a flavour of this activity. I have focused on two areas of activity: first, the temporary artistic community that he established in Monte Verità near Ascona in the Swiss canton of Ticino, in the five summers between 1913 and 1917, and then the schools and projects that he established in Zurich in the same years (he moved winter operations to Zurich from Munich after World War I broke out in August 1914).
