justin hall
september 9, 1997
world dance forms
sharon friedler

Rudolph Laban, an efficiency expert watching munitions plants during WWI came up with this taxonomy of "effort actions" :

time	sudden	-	sustained
space	indirect	-	direct
force	strong	-	light

sudden, direct, strong - punch	sudden, direct, light - dab
sudden, indirect, strong - slash	sudden, indirect, light - flick
sustained, direct, strong - press	sustained, direct, light - glide
sustained, indirect, strong - wring	sustained, indirect, light - float

of the eight effort actions, the slow direct and sustained gave me trouble,

mostly slow and indirect,
which is of course similar to my general behaviour
the rapid comes easier, and the direct
though i can enjoy floating gliding,
but i find myself shifting my weight suddenly, moving my trunk abruptly,
disturbing the gentle movement quality

dab, flick,

these use my energies
punch, slash - i'm afraid of being too big
but dab and flick i can be more contained and rapid

i liked wring,
allowed for constrained violence

so then i tried improving my float and glide technique

i found that when i become involved in an action
ie my body inherits it,

i quickly intensify that action
somewhat more sudden, definitely more strong

tho i'm afraid to move through space: ego concerns (too big)
i'm realizing that i need to use my body more/better.
collecting our problems into a group in physical contact is immediately helpful and rather astonishing

i haven't been touched like that in a non-agressive, ie, constructive, manner in quite some time. it's exhausting and invigorating,

inspiring
i found my float eased,
my float tendency to accelerate deferred by the energy of a collective
and my energy become sharable when the teacher urged andrea adrian and lily to touch my twitch

that was strange - it drained me; i put out.

it made me want to dance.

like with other people.

world dance forms | swat | life

justin's links by justin hall: contact