Still Form Photos

Still Form Photos
Submitted By Jimmyle Listenbee - August 7, 2002

This posting contains photographs of general education students from Jimmyle Listenbee and Kevin Frey's Introduction to the Visual and Performing Arts improvising Laban's “Still Forms.” [For further information about the “Still Forms” see Jimmyle Listenbee’s July 2, 2001 posting in the Motif Symposium Thread].

To view a full picture, click here.

Response to Jimmyle Listenbee's "Any Still Form" Posting

Response to Jimmyle Listenbee's "Any Still Form" Posting
Submitted by Leslie Bishko - October 25, 2002

I wanted to offer a small correction to Jimmyle Listenbee's posting of July 30. She refers to the still form symbols as "Hackney's shape lexicon."

In the endnote to introducing the still form symbols in Making Connections (p. 228), Peggy credits the symbols to myself and Pam Schick. When I was a student of Peggy's in the 1994-95 LIMS Certification program, I designed the symbols. Pam made a modification to my original symbol for Screw shape, and I believe she added the Tetrahedral shape.

A minor point, but I'm proud to have made this contribution!

A Proposal Concerning "Still Form Shape - Screw/Spiral"

A Proposal Concerning "Still Form Shape - Screw/Spiral"
Submitted by Birgitta Sivander - August 7, 2002

While dealing with Motif Writing, I got another idea about how to write the sign for "still form shape - screw/spiral."

Ex. 1 below is the sign for “still form shape -screw/spiral” which is used now. It indicates a screw or spiral in any direction. Ex. 2 is my proposal for indicating “still form shape - screw/spiral" only to the left. Ex. 3 is my proposal for “still form shape - screw/spiral” only to the right.

Any Still Form

Any Still Form
Submitted by Jimmyle Listenbee - July 30, 2002

I am excited by Charlotte Wile's integrative thinking about symbols for shape and form illustrated by her family tree-type flow chart posted December 3, 2001 in the Body Configurations Thread. I believe it is a big step toward integrating Hackney's shape lexicon with Guest's body shape sign. I have been using a sign very similar to Charlotte's sign for 'any still form' for about 4 years. I like it better without the 'any,' as shown below.

Generic Shape Form Sign

Generic Shape Form Sign
Submitted by Ray Cook - December 14, 2001

Re: Charlotte Wile's December 3, 2001 posting in the Body Configurations thread.

Here's another idea for indicating "any Shape Form." The double slanted lines in sign for "Shape" could be turned into ad. lib signs and placed inside the sign for "Space," as shown below.

An Idea and a Correction

An Idea and a Correction
Submitted by Charlotte Wile - December 3, 2001

 

Re: A generic sign for Shape Forms (also called Still Forms)

I have been trying to think of a sign for “any Shape Form” (see my October 11, 2001 posting in the Motif Symposium thread). Playing around with different ideas, I came up with Ex. 1, which contains the signs for “Space” (Ex. 2), “Shape” (Ex. 3), and “any” (Ex. 3).

Does this work?

Re: The sign for “Screw-Like.”

Looking at my notes for the Motif Symposium, I realize that in previous postings on the Bulletin Board, I drew the sign for the “Screw-Like” Shape Form incorrectly. At the symposium Peggy Hackney said it should be drawn as shown in Ex. 5 below.

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.)