Rudolf von Laban

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rudolf von Laban among his students (ca.1929)

Rudolf von Laban (actually Rezső Laban de Váralja, also Rudolf Laban or Rudolph von Laban ; born  December 15,  1879 in Pressburg , Austria-Hungary , †  July 1,  1958 in Weybridge , Surrey , England ) was a Hungarian dancer , choreographer and dance theorist . He founded the Labanotation named after him .

Life

Rudolf von Laban, son of Rudolf Laban von Váralja (1843–1907), (from 1899) Lieutenant Field Marshal in the Austro-Hungarian Army , and his wife Marie, grew up in Vienna and Sarajevo . At a young age he joined a czardas at -Tanzgruppe. At 15 he entered the Theresian Military Academy , but later turned away from military service. In 1899 Rudolf Laban moved to Munich and began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts. There he met the painter Martha Fricke from Hanover, whom he married on December 15, 1900. They moved to Arcisstrasse 44, where their daughter Azraela was born in 1901.

Parallel to studying at the art academy, Laban took courses at the newly opened teaching and experimental studio for fine and applied arts. It was there that he met his future friend Hermann Obrist, who was in charge of the nature studies course. In 1904, Laban decided to leave Munich to attend the most famous art school in Europe, the École des Beaux-Arts, in Paris, and to study architecture.

Azraela's brother Arpad was born in Paris in 1905. After three years of a fulfilling bohemian life with his wife, Martha Fricke died a sudden death. Hardly two months after the death of his wife, his father also died, who had enabled Rudolf to lead his independent life through considerable financial donations. From then on, the two children grew up with their maternal parents.

In the following years Laban led an unsteady life between Paris and Vienna, San Remo and Nice. Financially bankrupt, he completed an apprenticeship as an accountant in Nice, which he also successfully completed. That should be his only encounter with a regular working life.

Living with his mother in Vienna, he made his way as a graphic artist and caricaturist. He drew for the magazines Simplicissimus and Jugend and continued the studies he had started in Paris on historical dance forms. At a cultural event he met the singer Maja Lederer from Munich and married her on May 8, 1910 in Pressburg . In the same year they moved to Munich. With his second wife he moved into a domicile in Schwabing , at Hohenzollernstrasse 120. In 1911, he rented a room in a back building in Munich's Theresienstrasse, which he set up as a makeshift movement studio. He could not survive his life with his school; he had to continue working as an advertising artist and cartoonist. Overworked to the point of exhaustion, Laban collapsed in 1912 and went to the “Weißer Hirsch” sanatorium near Dresden, where patients were cared for in accordance with life-reform principles. In this institution he got to know and love Suzanne Perrottet, who was also a patient there. In the period that followed, a largely harmonious triangular relationship developed between himself, Suzanne and his wife.

Perrottet was to become Laban's most important employee in Ascona and Zurich (next to Mary Wigman and Katja Wulff ), lover and mother of his child Allar Perrottet (later André Perrottet von Laban ). During the First World War he created a school on Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland , which soon attracted many fans of the new dance art. It was here that Laban held his famous summer dance courses from 1913 to 1919. He experienced his intellectual and artistic breakthrough, celebrating the “new man”, the “Fiur man”, the “anarchos”, the “orgiastos” in expressionistic dance dramas.

In 1915 Laban, his wife Maja Lederer, their two children and Suzanne Perrottet moved with Allar to Hombrechtikon near Zurich. There, the extended family lived in poverty similar to the one on Monte Verità, growing their own food, doing a lot of manual work and sewing their clothes themselves (e.g. Suzanne Perrottet developed comfortable clothes for everyday work and dance, which can be attributed to the reform idea are). At the same time Laban founded a school for movement art in Zurich. It comprised interdisciplinary dance art, pantomime, improvisation and experiments with body, voice, instruments, texts and even drawing. Later he only mentioned the terms: form, tone, word.

The three-part dance drama Sang to the Sun, based on a text by Otto Borngräber, concluded a major vegetarian and pacifist congress at the end of summer 1917 on Monte Verità in Ascona . It began with the setting of the sun, followed by the dance of the demons of the night. This part was staged at midnight high in the mountains in front of the rock grotto of the poet prophet Gusto Gräser . The masks for this were created by the Dadaist Marcel Janco . Early in the morning the rising, "victorious" sun was greeted as an expression of the hope of overcoming the war and a utopian higher development of humanity. At these performances worked u. a. Mary Wigman , Sophie Taeuber and Suzanne Perrottet with. On October 24, 1917, Laban and Theodor Reuss founded the OTO-Lodge Libertas et Fraternitas.

Dance lessons at the Choreographic Institute Laban Berlin (1929)

After the end of the war, Laban returned to Germany. The Zurich Laban School was taken over by Suzanne Perrottet and continued. After an interlude in Stuttgart , where he worked with the painter Max Ackermann , Laban founded the Laban dance stage in Hamburg in 1922 . The first public performance of a Laban dance poem took place in the city theater in Lübeck in autumn 1922. She called the swinging temple that of Karl Gatermann d. Ä. Drawn poster, to be found in the Tanzarchiv-Leipzig under the number PLK-Laban 29. In 1923 the first Laban school was founded, to which its own movement choir was attached. The numerous graduates of the Hamburg school successfully carried Laban's method to various cities in Germany and Europe. In the following years, 24 Laban schools were established across Europe in this way.

In addition, Laban set up a “Choreographic Institute” in Würzburg (1926/27) and Berlin (1928/29). Together with Dussia Bereska, he also directed the chamber dance stage (1925–1927). From 1930 to 1934 he took over the direction of the ballet of the German State Opera (Lindenoper) in Berlin. He worked very closely with Joseph H. Pilates , a visionary of movement and the body.

After preparing the choreography for the Summer Olympics in 1936 , he fled to Manchester in 1937 from the National Socialists . With the support of the English Ministry of Education, Laban founded a movement studio near London, in which he worked until his death.

In 1966 the Labanweg in Vienna- Döbling (19th district) was named after him. On the Monte Verità in 2013 for the hundredth anniversary of Laban's first school, an icosahedron was erected as a danceable sculpture .

plant

Danceable icosahedron on Monte Verità

Laban described ballet as a historically frozen form and conveyed dance through improvisation and individual design as an expression of spiritual experience. His room-rhythmic movement theory (choreutics) was mainly concretized in the model of the icosahedron . With his drive theory ( eukinetics ) he was able to grasp the dynamic, energetic quality of a movement.

In England, Laban dealt with the optimization of movements in work processes and, together with the industrialist F. C. Lawrence, developed a system of movement analysis for ergonomics .

In the last years of his life he studied the movements of industrial workers and the mentally ill. This was the basis for his motion notation kinetography , which is now known as Labanotation . Building on his life's work, Laban Movement Analysis was further developed in the USA , known in Germany as Laban Movement Studies.

"In the beginning there was the dance and not the word."

- Rudolf von Laban

The dance script he developed , Labanotation , is used worldwide to analyze movement, but preferably for ballet . Alongside Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Laban is considered to be the most important stimulus and founder of German expressive dance .

student

His students include:

Publications

as an author
  • The world of the dancer. Seifert, Stuttgart 1920.
  • Choreography. First issue of five planned issues. Diederichs, Jena 1926.
  • Child's gymnastics and dance. Stalling, Oldenburg iO 1926.
  • Dance gymnastics. In: Ludwig Pallat, Franz Hilker (Hrsg.): Artistic body training. Ferd. Hirt, Breslau 1926, pp. 77-95.
  • Dance theater and movement choir. In: Ignaz Gentges (Ed.): Tanz und Reigen. Bühnenvolksbundverlag, Berlin 1927, pp. 72–80.
  • Script dance. Part 1 and 2. Universal Edition, Vienna / Leipzig 1928.
  • A life for dance. Memories. Dresden 1935.
  • The dance situation of our time. A cross section. Dresden 1936.
  • Modern Educational Dance. Macdonald & Evans, London 1948.
  • Laban speaks about movement and dance. Edited by Lisa Ullmann. Laban Art of Movement Center, Woburn Hill / Addlestone 1971.
  • The modern expressive dance in education. An introduction to creative dance movement as a means of developing one's personality. With the collaboration of Lisa Ullmann. Translated from English by Karin Vial. Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 1981, ISBN 3-7959-0320-3 .
  • Choreography. Basics of the spatial harmony theory of dance. Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 1991, ISBN 3-7959-0581-8 .
  • Kinetography - Labanotation. Introduction to the basic concepts of movement and dance writing. Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 1995, ISBN 3-7959-0606-7 .
  • Gymnastics and dance. Edited, annotated and annotated by Sandra Meinzenbach. Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2016, ISBN 978-3-7959-0985-7 .
as editor
Letter issue
  • So, ladies ahead! Rudolf Laban in letters to dancers, choreographers and dance teachers. Volume 1: 1912-1918. Edited by Evelyn Dörr. Books on Demand, Norderstedt near Hamburg 2013.

Secondary literature

  • Andrea Amort : The dancing street. For Rudolf Laban's “Festival of Trades” in Vienna in 1929. In: Christian Dewald (Ed.): Workers' cinema. Left film culture of the First Republic. Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902531-26-1 , pp. 53-65.
  • Ingeborg Baier-Fraenger: The structure of the Kinetographie Laban. In: Christof Baier (ed.): The legacy of Wilhelm Fraengers . Memories of Ingeborg Baier-Fraenger (1926–1994) . Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2009, ISBN 978-3-86650-036-5 , pp. 201-208.
  • Fritz Böhme: Rudolf von Laban and the emergence of the modern dance drama. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-89468-217-5 .
  • Karen K. Bradley: Rudolf Laban. Routledge, London / New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-37525-2 .
  • Gabriele Brandstetter : Rudolf von Laban's cinetography. In: dies .: dance readings. Body images and spatial figures of the avant-garde . Fischer Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-596-12396-8 , pp. 433-441.
  • Paola Crespi: Rhythmanalysis in Gymnastics and Dance. Rudolf Bode and Rudolf Laban. In: Body & Society. 20th year, No. 3–4; November / December 2014, pp. 30–50.
  • Evelyn Dörr : Rudolf Laban - The Dancer of the Crystal. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, Toronto, Plymouth, UK 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-6007-0 .
  • Evelyn Dörr: Rudolf Laban - The writing of the dancer. A portrait. Norderstedt 2005, ISBN 3-8334-2560-1 .
  • Evelyn Dörr: Rudolf Laban - The choreographic theater. The first complete edition of Laban's work. Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8334-1606-8 .
  • Evelyn Dörr: Rudolf von Laban. Dance identity in the field of tension between art, science and politics. In: Sabine Kaross, Leonore Welzin (Ed.): Dance - Politics - Identity. Lit Verlag, Münster / Hamburg / London 2001, ISBN 3-8258-5119-2 , pp. 103-132.
  • Evelyn Dörr: Rudolf von Laban. The artist's life and work (1879–1936). Dissertation . Humboldt University of Berlin, 1999.
  • John Foster: The influence of Rudolph von Laban . Lepus Books, London 1974, 1977, ISBN 0-86019-015-3 .
  • Martin Green: Mountain of Truth. The counterculture begins. Ascona, 1900-1920. Hanover and London 1986, ISBN 0-87451-365-0 .
  • Sabine Huschka: Rudolf von Laban. Exploration and systematisation of spatial dynamic expressive gestures. In: dies .: Modern dance. Concepts, styles, utopias. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-499-55637-5 , pp. 165-178.
  • Arnd Krüger : history of movement therapy. In: Preventive Medicine. Springer Loseblatt Collection, Heidelberg 1999, 07.06, pp. 1–22.
  • Vera Maletic: Body - Space - Expression. The Development of Rudolf Laban's Movement and Dance Concepts. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York / Amsterdam 1987, ISBN 3-11-010780-5 .
  • Hedwig B. Müller:  Laban de Varalja, Rudolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 361 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ursula Pellaton: Rudolf von Laban . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 1065.
  • Ursula Pellaton: Labanschule for Movement Art . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 1065 f.
  • Valerie Preston-Dunlop: Rudolf Laban - An Extraordinary Life. Dance Books, London 1998, ISBN 1-85273-060-9 .
  • Valerie Preston-Dunlop: Rudolf Laban. Man of theater. Dance Books, Hampshire 2013, ISBN 978-1-85273-167-0 .
  • Mary Wigman : Rudolph von Laban's 50th birthday. In: script dance. Edited by the German Society for Script Dance. Universal Edition, Vienna. No. 4, 1929, p. 65. (Reprographic reprint: Olms, Hildesheim 1991, ISBN 3-487-09537-8 )
  • Giorgio J. Wolfensberger: Suzanne Perrottet - an eventful life. Benteli Verlag, Bern and Quadriga Verlag, Weinheim / Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-88679-246-3 .
  • Akiko Yuzurihara: Historical and Contemporary Script Dance . Rudolf Laban and Postmodern Choreography. In: Dance Chronicle. Studies in Dance and the Related Arts. 37th year, No. 3; September – December 2014, pp. 288–311.

Web links

Commons : Rudolf von Laban  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Antonio Schmidt-Brentano: The kk or kuk generality 1816-1918 . Austrian State Archives, Vienna 2007, p. 99.
  2. von Laban, Rudolf (1879-1958). In: Mary Ellen Snodgrass: The encyclopedia of world ballet . (English). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-4422-4525-9 , p. 323.
  3. Dick McCaw (Ed.): The Laban sourcebook . Routledge, London a. a. 2011, ISBN 978-0-415-54333-0 , section: Editor's Introduction (English).
  4. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 347.
  5. Ingeborg Baier-Fraenger: The structure of the Kinetographie Laban. In: Christof Baier (ed.): The legacy of Wilhelm Fraengers . Memories of Ingeborg Baier-Fraenger (1926–1994) . Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2009, p. 201.
  6. Quoted from Nina May: Review: The Leipzig Dance Archive could be dissolved. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. July 14, 2011, accessed March 28, 2016 .