January 28, 2008

Delving into the Art and Mechanics of Movement

One of the reasons that I wrote "What Is It About Argentine Tango and Bellydance Bloggers?" last week is because I'm frustrated that more bloggers and dancers do not use the online space to specifically discuss movement, especially in an educational context.

For example, I've seen very few examples of practitioners and teachers from different schools of movement such as Laban (Wikipedia) write a comparable post to this one from NYC Tango Pilgrim about the art of the "Close Embrace."

So I appreciate Aynsley Vandenbroucke's three posts since November that describe specific elements of Laban Movement Analysis' "Shape Flow":

- Ways of Seeing (Bulging)

- Ways of Seeing (Shortening)

- Ways of Seeing (Widening)

Aynsley describes Shape Flow:

Shape Flow refers to the subtle, personal movement that underlies all movement. Even in "stillness," we use Shape Flow. It is the breath. It is intimately connected with self. It is crying, laughing, sighing. It is the movement we do to make ourselves more comfortable: adjusting our sleeping position, twirling our hair, twiddling our fingers. In a skilled performer, Shape Flow supports personal, integrated, connected dancing.

Then, for each of her posts she includes examples and pictures for the Shape Flow element she's discussing along with exercises to practice and experiment with Bulging, Shortening and Widening. Here's Richard Avedon image from her "Widening" post:

So what I'd very much enjoy seeing is greater exploration and sharing of schools of movement study, the choreographic approaches of famous and emerging dance-makers, and the specific approaches and methodologies of teachers of all styles and forms of dance. Video would, of course, be a very worthwhile part of this coverage.

One of the reasons that the upcoming "Mondays with Merce" online video programs may prove to be very worthwhile is because a much larger audience will be given direct access to his teaching methodology and movement approach than ever before.

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