ABSTRACT
Irmgard Bartenieff Fundamentals is an approach to basic body training that deals with patterning connections in the body according to principles of efficient movement functioning within a context which encourages personal expression and full psychophysical involvement. Fundamentals approaches training the body for full movement capacity by recognizing that learning is a creative process—and as such there can be no one “right” way to teach or learn. The approach is multifaceted, determined by the learning style of the individual and the stage in the creative learning process. Because Fundamentals is housed within the framework of Laban Movement Analysis, its work with the body is part of a larger matrix and system of changing movement elements, including: change in body level neuromuscular patterning; change in effort (expression of inner dynamic feelingful impulses); change in shape (expression of the forming of the self-environment relationship); and change in space (expression of crystalline form in the world).
