Mobiles Inspired by Labanotation Symbols

Submitted by Jordan Isadore and Mei-Chen Lu -- October 11, 2018.

Jordan Isadore is a dancer/choreographer originally from Northern California. He received his B.F.A. in Dance from California State University Long Beach in 2009. Upon relocating to New York, Isadore has worked with choreographers Alexandra Pirici, Christopher Williams, Andrea Miller, Sydney Skybetter, and Jennifer Edwards.  Most recently he’s worked with Shen Wei Dance Arts, and has performed at the David H. Koch Theater, Mariinsky Theater, throughout China, South America and Europe. His own work has been presented at The Museum of Arts & Design, 92^nd Street Y, Joe’s Pub, Madame Tussauds, and The American Dance Festival. 

Reimagining movement through mobiles. Taking dance movement that has been recorded using Labanotation, he returns these movements to their kinetic roots through mobiles made of stained glass and mixed metals. As a trained dancer he was introduced to Labanotation in college and instantly had an infatuation with it, however placed it aside as he focused on a career as performer. Now that he is planing his retirement from performing he started to investigate his other interests, most of which are design, home decor, and crafting. When he was looking at current trends in home decor and design he noticed that everything was leaning towards minimalist geometric shapes, all he could see was Labanotation. He loved the idea of notating three-dimensional movement, and the two-dimensional notations that are produced. He interpret these two-dimensional symbols into three-dimensional objects and suspend them into space. The movement of the mobile generates glimmers of the original notation, while creating new dances with each rotation.