Рудольф Лабан: Жизнь и творчество хореографа в эпоху перемен.

Austrian choreographer

Rudolf (von) Laban, also known as Rudolph von Laban (Lábán Rudolf; 15 December 1879 – 1 July 1958), was an Austro Hungarian, German and British dance artist, choreographer and dance theorist. He is considered a "founding father of expressionist dance", and a pioneer of modern dance. His theoretical innovations included Laban movement analysis (a way of documenting human movement) and Labanotation (a movement notation system), which paved the way for further developments in dance notation and movement analysis. He initiated one of the main approaches to dance therapy. His work on theatrical movement has also been influential. He attempted to apply his ideas to several other fields, including architecture, education, industry, and management. and Marie (née Bridling; 1858–1926). It was here that Laban conducted his famous summer dance courses from 1913 to 1919. Here the students also strived to live in harmony with nature by growing their own food, vegetarianism, weaving cloth and making their own reform style clothing, and dancing in the great outdoors nature often nude experimenting with dynamic improvisations. Here Laban experienced his intellectual and artistic breakthrough, celebrating the "neuen Menschen", "Fiur Menschen", "Anarchos", and "Orgiastos" in expressionist dance dramas.

Laban directed major festivals of dance under the funding of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda ministry from 1934 to 1936. Laban even wrote during this time that "we want to dedicate our means of expression and the articulation of our power to the service of the great tasks of our Volk (People). With unswerving clarity our Führer points the way". In 1936 Laban become the chairman of the association "German workshops for dance" and received a salary of 1250 ℛℳ per month, but a duodenal ulcer in August of that year bed bound him for two months, eventually leading him to ask to reduce his responsibilities to consultancy. This was accepted and his wage reduced to 500 ℛℳ, Laban's employment then ran until March 1937 when his contract ended. Several allegations of Laban's attachment to Nazi ideology have been made, for instance, as early as July 1933 Laban was removing all pupils branded as non Aryan from the children's course he was running as a ballet director. However, some Laban scholars have pointed out that such actions were necessary for survival in Nazi Germany at that time, and that his position was precarious as he was neither a German citizen nor a Nazi party member. In fact, the seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933 had an immediate effect on Laban's work through the new law passed against racial overcrowding in German schools and universities of 25 April 1933 , Laban was thus bound by this new law of vetting students with the racial characteristic of a "non Aryan" descent. His work under the Nazi regime culminated in 1936 with Goebbel's banning of Vom Tauwind und der Neuen Freude (Of the Spring Wind and the New Joy), a choreography intended for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, for not furthering the Nazi agenda.

In very poor health, Laban managed to travel to Paris in August 1937. Eventually, he was invited to England, where in February 1938 he joined up with two of his former students Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder at the Jooss Leeder Dance School they had founded at Dartington Hall in Devon (thanks to the philanthropy of Leonard Elmhirst and his wife Dorothy Whitney), where innovative dance was already being taught by other refugees from Nazi Germany. Laban was greatly assisted in his dance teaching during these years by his close associates and long term partners Lisa Ullmann and Sylvia Bodmer. Their collaboration led to the founding of the Laban Art of Movement Guild (now known as Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) in 1945 and The Art of Movement Studio in Manchester in 1946. In 1947, together with management consultant Fredrick Lawrence, Laban published a book Effort, Fordistic study of the time taken to perform tasks in the industrial workplace and the energy used. Laban tried to provide methods intended to help eliminate "shadow movements" (which he believed wasted energy and time) and to focus instead on constructive movements necessary to the job at hand. Laban published Modern Educational Dance in 1948 when his ideas on dance for all including children were taught in many British schools. Laban died in England in 1958.

Among Laban's students, friends, and associates were Mary Wigman, Suzanne Perrottet, Katja Wulff, Kurt Jooss, Lisa Ullmann, Albrecht Knust, Dussia Bereska, Lilian Harmel, Sophie Taeuber Arp, Hilde Holger, Ana Maletić, Milča Mayerová, Gertrud Kraus, Gisa Geert, Warren Lamb, Elizabeth Sneddon, Dilys Price, Yat Malmgren, Sylvia Bodmer, Betty Meredith Jones, and Irmgard Bartenieff.

(Undated). Harmonie Lehre Der Bewegung (German). (Handwritten copy by Sylvia Bodmer of a book by Rudolf Laban) London: Laban Collection S. B. 48. (1920). Die Welt des Taenzers [The world of Dancers] (German). Stuttgart: Walter Seifert. (3rd edition, 1926)
(1926). Choreographie: Erstes Heft (German). Jena: Eugen Diederichs. (1926). Gymnastik und Tanz (German). Oldenburg: Stalling. (1926). Des Kindes Gymnastik und Tanz (German). Oldenburg: Stalling. (1928). Schrifttanz: Methodik, Orthographie, Erlaeuterungen (German). Vienna: Universal Edition. (1929). "Das Choreographische Institut Laban" in Monographien der Ausbildungen fuer Tanz und Taenzerische Koeperbildung (German). Edited by Liesel Freund. Berlin Charlottenburg: L. Alterthum. (1947). with F. C. Lawrence. Effort: Economy of Human Movement London: MacDonald and Evans. (4th reprint 1967)
(1948). Modern Educational Dance. London: MacDonald and Evans. (2nd Edition 1963, revised by Lisa Ullmann)
(1948). "President's address at the annual general meeting of the Laban art of movement guild". Laban Art of Movement Guild News Sheet. 1 (April): 5–8. (1950). The Mastery of Movement on the Stage. London: MacDonald and Evans. (1951). "What has led you to study movement? Answered by R. Laban". Laban Art of Movement Guild News Sheet. 7 (Sept.): 8–11. (1952). "The art of movement in the school". Laban Art of Movement Guild News Sheet. 8 (March): 10–16. (1956). Laban's Principles of Dance and Movement Notation. London: MacDonald and Evans. (2nd edition 1975, annotated and edited by Roderyk Lange)
(1960). The Mastery of Movement. (2nd Edition of The Mastery of Movement on the Stage), revised and enlarged by Lisa Ullmann. London: MacDonald and Evans. (3rd Edition, 1971. London: MacDonald and Evans) (1st American Edition, 1971. Boston: Plays) (4th Edition, 1980. Plymouth, UK: Northcote House)
(1966). Choreutics. Annotated and edited by Lisa Ullmann. London: MacDonald and Evans. (1974). The Language of Movement; A Guide Book to Choreutics. Annotated and edited by Lisa Ullmann. Boston: Plays. (American publication of Choreutics)
(1975). A Life For Dance; Reminiscencs. Translated and annotated by Lisa Ullmann. London: MacDonald & Evans. (Original German published 1935.) (1984). A Vision of Dynamic Space. Compiled by Lisa Ullmann. London: The Falmer Press.