Rudolf Laban (December 15, 1879, Bratislava - July 1, 1958, Weybridge) was a notable central European dancer and dance theorist.

He initially studied architecture at the Ècoles des Beaux Arts in Paris and became interested in the relationship between the moving human form and the space which surrounds it. He moved to Munich at age 30 and began to concentrate on Bewegungskunst, or the movement arts.

Laban established the Choreographic Institute in Zürich in 1915 and later founded branches in Italy, France, and central Europe. His biggest contribution to dance was his 1928 publication of Kinetographie Laban, a dance notation system that came to be called Labanotation and is still used as one of the primary movement notation systems in dance. His theories of choreography and movement served as one of the central foundations of modern central European dance.

In 1930, he became the director of the Allied State Theatres in Berlin, but he soon ran afoul of the Nazi regime and had to leave for Great Britain in 1938.

In Britain, he re-directed his work to industry, studying the time taken to perform tasks in the workplace and the energy used. He tried to provide methods intended to help workers to eliminate "shadow movements" (which he believed wasted energy and time) and to focus instead on constructive movements necessary to the job in hand. After the war, he publisehd a book related to his research entitled Effort (1947). He continued to teach and do research in Britain until his death.

Related articles

• Labanotation
• Laban Movement Analysis
• Choreography
• Expressionist dance

External links

• Laban webring

• Laban Lab (learn the basics of Labanotation)
• Introduction to Labanotation

• The Dance Notation Bureau
• International Council of Kinetography Laban
• Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies