Two Ways to Indicate Body Configurations

Two Ways to Indicate Body Configurations
Submitted by Charlotte Wile - December 10, 1999

In her December 1 posting for the axial movement discussion Jimmyle Listenbee refers to the concept of a "still Form of a static Volume." I know of two ways to indicate such body configurations or poses.

One way is to use the sign for "a shape," followed by a drawing of the desired body configuration, as shown in Ex. a-c) below. For further information see Bullet-In-Stead!, No. 8/9, June 1997/January 1998; Ann Hutchinson Guest, ed., Advanced Labanotation: Shape, Design, Trace Patterns, vol. 1, pt.2. (1991), pp. 56-62.

Leslie Bishko and Pam Schick have developed other indications for body configurations. Their indications each contain an effort action stroke, as shown in Ex. d-i) below. The indications represent the four basic configurations described by Laban: pin, wall, ball, and screw. Leslie and Pam add a tetrahedron to the paradigm. They call the configurations "Shape Still Forms." (See Peggy Hackney, "Theory Talksite," Movement News, Fall, 1996.)