Rudolf Laban Dancer Date of Birth: 15.12.1879 Country: Great Britain

1. Biography of Rudolf Laban
2. Revolutionizing Dance
3. The Dance Experimenters of the 1920s
4. Political Ballets and Later Years

Biography of Rudolf Laban

Rudolf Laban, a dancer and one of the creators of free dance, was born in Austria-Hungary and lived and worked in Germany and England. He aimed to revive the social role of art as a collective action of people, with dance being the central focus. Laban was a true innovator and one of the first dance theorists, inventing a new system for recording dance called "Labanotation".

Revolutionizing Dance

Laban gained the most recognition as the creator of "expressive dance" (Ausdruckstanz) and the art of "moving choirs" (this art form was particularly prevalent in Germany and Soviet Russia in the 1920s and 1930s). He believed that in order for dance to rise to the level of other art forms, a revolution needed to occur, similar to the one that took place in visual art at the beginning of the 20th century. Laban played a crucial role in this revolution.

As perhaps the most radical of all pioneers of free dance, Laban not only abandoned traditional dance steps and movements, but also rejected musical accompaniment, themes, and narratives. He discovered that the expressiveness of dance is derived from space, rather than the body itself. Liberated from learned movements, the body should seek its own rhythms and "become intoxicated with space".

The Dance Experimenters of the 1920s

In the 1920s, Laban joined forces with other daring dance experimenters, such as Kurt Joos, Mary Wigman, Susanne Perottet, and Dussia Bereska. They worked together in large summer schools in Munich, Vienna, and Ascona until the establishment of the first international troupe, Tanzbuehne Laban (1923-1926), also known as the "theater of authentic gesture" or "expressive dance". Laban's dance theater was not devoid of social themes, drawing inspiration from the drama of Bertolt Brecht, constructivism, and political caricature.

Political Ballets and Later Years

In the 1930s, Laban collaborated with Joos to create political anti-war ballets. In 1938, he left Germany and after the war, he opened a studio for the study of movement in Manchester. In 1975, this studio relocated to London and became the internationally renowned Laban Centre for Movement and Dance.