ABSTRACT
There are three texts in this chapter, an essay by Johan (Jo) Meisenbach and two important essays by Laban. Meisenbach asks fundamental questions about Laban: ‘Is he a dancer? A gymnastics teacher? A theatre reformer? A tour promoter? All of those are only partially accurate’. Just as profound a question was whether Laban was a thinker who took movement and dance as his point of departure for more esoteric philosophical reflections or a dancer and movement teacher given to philosophical reflection? When Meisenbach settles on the name ‘researcher’ he captures Laban’s insatiable curiosity.
Laban’s article ‘Dance and the Art of the Stage’ develops thoughts that he had earlier articulated in his notes of the 1910s; it is a fascinating meditation on the nature and challenge of dance as an art of the stage. He presents the Art of Movement as the nexus of a spiritual, philosophical and artistic endeavour. Dance for Laban was ‘the primal foundation of all the other human forms of expression’. The argument of ‘Dance Theatre and Dance Temple’ concerns the performance spaces for both dance theatre and for his movement choirs. When describing dance theatre he memorably describes it as ‘a sculptural event’, stressing the three-dimensionality of the artform. Laban’s interest in architecture gave him an informed perspective on the nature of these two different spaces.
