Mastering Movement: The Life and Work of Rudolf Laban

Description

This study of the work of the European choreographer and pioneer of dance notation, Rudolf Laban (1879-1958), examines the many strands of his thinking and its application. The book attempts to convey the full implications of his ideas about movement, for like Picasso in painting, and Stravinsky in music, Laban has been a seminal influence and innovator who altered the whole course of modern dance and movement. His mark can be detected in works as diverse as that of the German dancers and choreographers Mary Wigman, Kurt Joos and Pina Bausch, and British theatre practitioners Joan Littlewood, William Gaskell and Joan Plowright.

John Hodgson was for many years the Head of the School of Drama and Theatre Studies at Bretton Hall, (now part of the Faculty of Music, Visual and Performing Arts of the University of Leeds). He taught and studied the work of Rudolf Laban for more than twenty-five years, and was a leading authority on drama and movement. He died in 1997.