Moving Art – using Rudolf Laban’s drawings from the archives in practice
An online short course in collaboration with University of Surrey Archives and The Labanarium
Friday 4 October 2019 – Saturday 19 January 2020
You are invited to join Tracy Collier MA, SFHEA, Director and Movement Specialist, on a movement exploration of two beautiful and unpublished drawings by movement theorist Rudolf Laban, held in the Rudolf Laban Archive at University of Surrey. Your work will be via six correspondence sessions undertaken over three months through the Labanarium network and will utilise Laban’s Effort principles of Weight, Space, Time and Flow as a means of responding to these drawings. Whilst learning about Effort Theory through practice, you will also create a new piece of art in response to the drawings, bringing to life the flat images.
This course is accessible to all; you do not need to be a movement specialist to take part, just have a keen interest in exploring new ways to engage with and respond creatively to artistic stimuli.
Investigating Laban’s view that ‘everyone is a dancer’, you will explore these two archive drawings in several stages, each one building on the last, to create a full and layered creation of artwork or movement inspired by the images. Each session will pose questions focusing on elements of Laban’s movement analysis and Effort Theory in relation to the drawings. Your explorations can be presented in any form you wish (eg. written, filmed movement, another painting/drawing, or photographs), which you will submit via the Labanarium network for feedback.
You will learn how to create work from a different stimulus, apply Laban’s principles to creating work, and view and develop artwork in new ways.
To book
Ensure you are registered with the Labanarium network (free to join) – www.labanarium.com
Book the course online at: https://store.surrey.ac.uk/short-courses/national-resource-centre-for-dance-nrcd/nrcd-courses/moving-art
Booking deadline: 09:00 GMT, Friday 27 September 2019
Fee: £125
How it works
The correspondence course comprises 6 assignments over three months – commencing Friday 4 October and ending Saturday 19 January 2020 with final feedback.
- After joining the Labanarium and registering for this course via University of Surrey you will be given access to the course on the Labanarium. Once signed up, you will be able to view course information, pre-course readings and key texts that you may wish to consult in preparation for the course.
- The first assignment will be posted on Friday 4 October, shortly after midnight, then fortnightly thereafter. At this point you will be able to view the archive drawings being used for the studies.
- Each assignment task will consider different elements of Laban’s Effort Theory as a guide for your explorations and you can approach the task in any creative way you feel stimulated to express your response, for example, through movement, writing or visual art or a combination.
- You will submit your assignment, with a brief reflection on how your ideas and response developed, every other Thursday by 09:00 GMT (i.e. 13 days to complete the assignment).
- Your work will accumulate, responding to different elements of the drawings and Effort Theory for each assignment.
- Tracy Collier, who will be guiding you through the programme, will post anonymised summary feedback and her reflections for each assignment ahead of the next one. She will give individual feedback to each participant at the end of the course by Saturday 19January 2020.
- If you have any questions throughout the course, email admin@labanarium.com
For further information contact archives@surrey.ac.uk
