We will now start developing the vocabulary to describe and analyse Berkoff’s acting style. For this we need to explore the ideas of one of the key practitioners of 20th century movement analysis; Rudolph Laban.
“Rudolph Laban was an Austro-Hungarian dance artist and theorist. He is considered as one of the pioneers of modern dance in Europe and the “Founding Father of the Expressionist Dance” in Germany.[1] His work laid the foundations for Laban Movement Analysis. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in the history of dance.” (Wikipedia)
Laban decided that human movement can be summarized by a combination of the following FOUR categories, (each having two possible elements -in brackets):
Space/ (Direct or Indirect), Time (Quick or Sustained), Weight (Heavy or Light), and Flow (Bound or Free)
*We won’t concern ourselves with the last (sometimes called Energy – sometimes described as Flow)
LABAN’S EIGHT EFFORT ACTIONS
Each one has 2 opposite elements:
Weight: Heavy —————-Light
Space: Direct —————Indirect
Time: Quick—————-Slow
By mixing these, you create EIGHT distinct EFFORT ACTIONS which can be applied to movement & characters.
For example: someone who is naturally aggressive might display actions & behaviours which are inspired by the effort action -PUNCH [That is actions that are Quick, Direct & Heavy. This might describe their walk. their mannerisms, actions, gestures – even the way they speak]
These ‘effort actions’ can be applied to how you say words/ lines as well. (but we’ll get onto that in another post/lesson.)
The Table below identifies the elements present in each of the 8 Effort actions and their names.
