Laban, Rudolf von (1879–1958)

Hungarian dance theoretician. He is known as the leader of modern dance theory. He invented Labanotation, an accurate, detailed system of recording steps and movements. He also tried to order the principles of human motion into specific systems, such as choreutics (the relationship of the body to the space it occupies) and eukinetics (formulation of all possible types and directions of body movements). He researched the connection between psychology and motion in his theoretical work.

Laban was the founder of various schools, companies, and institutions in Germany from 1910. In the 1920s he pioneered the amateur movement of Bewegungschöre (‘movement choirs’) to promote ‘community dance’. He emigrated to England in 1937 where he continued to work mostly in the field of dance education – the Laban Centre for Dance, a learning and training centre for contemporary dance named after him, opened in London in 2003. Among his pupils were Karl Jooss and Mary Wigman.