ABSTRACT
Rudolf von Laban’s seminal work in the first half of this century identified and illuminated the concepts of Effort, Space, Shape, Action of Body Parts, and Group Relationships as elements which describe how human beings express themselves through movement. But until his student, Irmgard Bartenieff, brought the perspective of her own work from physical therapy to the Laban framework, the Laban work lacked a full body component. The field of Laban Movement Studies has broadened immeasurably since her pioneering work, but it was certainly her “touch” which initiated in some proprioceptive or kinesthetic way the desire to explore all the possibilities of interconnection: self to self, self to other, and self to world. Irmgard’s classes were full of large total body movement. Later teachers of Fundamentals stressed the floor exercises as the prime definers of Fundamentals, but the author almost never experienced an entire class lying on the floor.
