Space or Shape, Spoke or Central?

By Nicholas Ward et al. 

Submitted by Charlotte Wile - December 18, 2012

[The following discussion was originally posted on CMAlist]

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From Nicholas Ward, November 6, 2012

Hello Everyone,

Probably a rather basic question. I was wondering if someone could clarify the following or direct me to a source which does.

Im wondering when it might be apt to describe a movement in terms of the manner in which the mover reveals the kinesphere, central or peripheral i.e. using Space, as opposed to describing the movement in terms of the Directional Movement part of Shape i.e. spoke like or arc like. Also similarly when describing a movement as transverse approach to kinesphere as opposed to Shape carving or shaping. In my reading Im having trouble working out when one should use Space and when one might describe in terms of Shape. Im thinking about a trombonist for example and wondering if I might consider the hand that is extending the slide as spoke like (Shape) or central approach to kinesphere (Space).

This is all "arm chair" labanising here by the way. Im just reading through some stuff and trying to get the difference between the above straightened out. 

Any direction or insight gratefully received,

Many thanks

Nick 

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From Richard Haisma, November 6, 2012

Hello Nick,

This has been an on-going source of discussion and sometimes controversy, that is, the question being "Is this movement about Carving (Shaping) or about Transverse Spatial Tension?"   

As a teacher of LMA I have three ways of attempting to resolve this for my students:

1]  Remembering always that "Space is Space, and Shape is Shape." This means that Space is about angles, directions, and the Kinesphere that surrounds and is OUTSIDE the body. Space is about the Where of the movement.  Shape is about the form of the Body and about the changing sculptural  value of the Body.  With these simple intellectual distinctions one can sometimes immediately  receive  enough pristine perceptions to be able to say the movement is more about the Space than the Shape or  vice versa. However, there is also no contradiction between a movement being both Carving AND  Transverse Spatial Tension, again, because Space is Space and Shape is Shape. Your example of the  trombone player is a case in point:  the movement can be exactly described as Spoke-like Directional  Shape with Central SpatialTension (and Pathway). The determination is simply stickier when the juxtaposition  is Carving vs. Transverse Spatial Tension.  

2]  Within any complex, fundamental and comprehensive system there are bound to be some areas of overlap.  The LMA system does not fall apart if a few, and they are only a few, categories seem to overlap in their experience. For example, in recent years  "Relationships"  has received  more attention to the point of being almost a completely separate major category, as with some people now saying BESSR, with the "R"  standing for Relationships.  Within that category we have the subsets of "Addressing, Nearing, Touching and Supporting."  Now, Addressing is always going to have a lot about it that resembles Space Effort, either Direct or Indirect.  How could one address something without looking like one is giving Attention to it, which word is key in the definition of Space Effort?   Therefore, that Carving might on occasion resemble Transverse Spatial Tension is not such a strange, or game-ending,  phenomenon. 

3]  There are some in the LMA community who do not feel that Spatial Tension is a real category of movement  experience, especially Transverse.  They feel that Spatial Tension can be rather entirely well accounted for by the  other categories of BESS, and that in particular Transverse Spatial Tension is nothing other than Shaping (Carving).  Sometimes some CMAs seem to be asking:   Isn't what we're referring to as Spatial Tension just a composite of BESS?   Or furthermore, does Spatial Tension have a singular content that is uniquely identifiable?  Yet, by way of response to these questions, we certainly do not object to the idea that Effort might have its Body or Shape or Space components. When Charlotte Wile, for example, defines Basic Actions as having an IRREDUCIBLE  character, such as "Aerial," for example, she is certainly correct,  for there is nothing in the world quite like leaving the support of the earth and going  into the air. However, could one ever accomplish an Aerial moment without a certain configuration of Effort (likely Quick  and Light) and also a Weight Transfer, which itself is yet another Basic Action. So the Basic Action of "Aerial" is not irreducible  in the sense of being composed of only a single quality, but rather it is irreducible in its Gestalt as an action. It has a unique identity.  Likewise, Spatial Tension, tho it may rub elbows with Shape and Body and Effort,  arises as an irreducible experience synergistically out of the entire quality of one's action in Space.  When the Queen of England is in the process of shaking your hand she undoubtedly uses a Central Spatial Pathway, while yet putting an edge to it with Peripheral Spatial  Tension.  That PST in her arm, hand and finger tips gives the experience of her extension of her hand towards you a very  particular feeling and meaning, which says, among other things, "I am, while shaking your hand, nevertheless, keeping you at a distance."   A lumberjack in the north woods might more likely shake one's hand with a Central Pathway and Central Spatial Tension. From this point of view Spatial Tension is not merely a composite of BESS but rather an embodiment of the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Something extra has arisen that wasn't  there in the separate parts before. Yes, I could say that the Queen of England is extending her hand towards me with a Central Pathway, Spoke-like Directional Shape and Bound Flow, which would not be untrue, yet by saying that she was  using Peripheral Spatial Tension with a Central Pathway immediately signals the presence of a psychology  which we were not  hitherto cognizant of , that is, the distancing. 

Just as Effort arises out of how one uses one's Shape and Body and Space, yet remains uniquely Effort, so too Spatial Tension  may arise out of particular configurations of Body, Effort, Space and Shape, yet arises as a unique category with its own flavor.

Thanks for your questions, Nick,  which have a certain fundamental and abiding substance.

I hope what I've written can help. 

Richard

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From Rozemarijn van Berkel, November 6, 2012

Hi Nick and Richard,

I introduced Spatial Tension to my 2nd year Modern Dance students in Amsterdam today, and I would like to say:

Thank you Nick for asking the question, and thank you so much Richard for this extensive, insightful answer!

Best,

Roze Van Berkel

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From Nicholas Ward, November 6, 2012

Hello Richard,

Many thanks for your detailed response. That's really helpful.All the best

Nick

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From Karen Bradley, November 6, 2012

It's been a busy two days here, but I wanted to shoot a response to you, Nick, which is simply:

the movement you describe (trombonist extending hand) sounds more like a Body-level movement, i.e. extension (with flexion as the other part of the phrase). Describing the movement using Space or Shape would mean the mover/trombonist is either approaching or creating a pathway through the space alongside the trombone, no?

Karen

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From Martha Eddy, November 7, 2012 

In my training and viewing of movement:

the words that indicate the need for the 'gestalt' (unique complex as described by Richard) of SHAPE are relational:

what is the mover's process of changing from one form in space to another?

As Kestenberg explained s/he may be more self-involved (shapeflow),

bridging toward or defending against a person, experience or concept (directional), or interacting with (shaping)... These questions serve as a texture as I view for 1-2-3 dimensional movement and their pathways as well.

Approach to Kinesphere is also profoundly relational as anyone involved with conflict resolution (www.EmbodyPeace.org) knows-

peripheral tensions keeping the outside out or inside in often along 2D arco-elliptical pathways but limited to that (and are often a cousin of bound flow),

central tensions making connections from inside to outside (often along 1-D pathways)

transverse tensions stirring within and without (often along uneven 3D pathways).

I pray that more of our politicians here in the USA experience this diversity of expressive range. It is these subtleties in movement that make great music.

Onward,

Martha

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From Richard Haisma, November 8, 2012 

Hello Karen and Nick,

The dogma that I teach my students, derived not from myself but from Laban, is that there is no possible movement without space, ever. Conversely I do not understand how a mere trombone might nullify the need to talk about a spatial component. In notation, placing the cross of axes at the head or chest level, playing the trombone would seem to be an action which is moving from Place Middle to Forward Middle, and the trombone cannot cancel the reality of the movement of the hand and arm along that pathway. Therefore, in this whole action, it seems to me the LMA would be: BODY = Extension-Flexion; SHAPE = Spoke-like Directional; SPACE = in the Octahedron from Place Middle to Forward Middle, and, still in Space, APPROACH TO THE KINESPHERE = Central Pathway with probable fluctuations between Central and Peripheral Spatial Tension; EFFORT = well, that would depend on whether what's being played is Debussy or Muddy Waters. Certainly at any given moment some of these four BESS categories are going to be more important than others, or will "pop out" as we say, yet the Space component would seem never to go away. The example, after all, is not of a drummer, pianist, violinist, flautist, cellist or cymbal player but of a trombonist, each of which would have a different, and maybe even defining, spatial notation. On the other hand, Karen, maybe I simply did not correctly understand your comment to Nick.

Richard

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From Karen Bradley, November 8, 2012

Yes, all aspects of movement are present in any event, but in LMA we are interested in the essential characteristics of an event, right? We can argue for days (and we have...;) ) about the theory of Space vs. Shape vs Spatial Tensions, but without seeing the movement event itself, we are arguing theory, without real examples.

In the trombone example, which we could not all look at to see how this particular trombonist was exercising his body movement, it seemed to me that we probably COULD all agree that the essence of the movement is most likely the extension and flexion action of the arm. That may be modified by Effort; it may also have a Directional Mode of Shape Change aspect, Central Spatial Tension, etc. Unless we all see the guy doing it however, we are making stuff up with our imaginations, right?

My two cents, and also appreciating the discussions about the differences between Spatial Tensions and Modes of Shape Change, which are endlessly fascinating but won't be resolved until a lot of experts look at the same video and see the same things emerging in importance.

Karen

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From Barbara Nordstrom-Loeb, November 8, 2012

Hi all of you, I have been appreciating this discussion and loving that the question was asked. It is a wonderful gift to read the conversation. If I may chime in, Richard, while yes, all elements of LMA are potentially always present, it can get cumbersome and also not always useful to articulate what is happening on such a micro-level. Being able to tune into the aspects of BESS that are more predominant and more nuanced can be a useful aspect, for me in using LMA. For example I had a student (an artist) who tended to be most clear spatially when they moved, and I found that in teaching her, if I used spatial guidance, it was easier for her to learn the movement.

It seems to me that the decision of whether to use Body or Space terminology would reflect a number of factors, including the intention of the observation (are you teaching, writing about, assessing etc) as well as the balance between the various BESS elements of the movement being described...so yes they are all there, but not all of them might be equally relevant in that context.
 

Barbara Nordstrom-Loeb 

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From Richard Haisma, November 8, 2012

Hello Karen and Nick and Barbara,

I thought we were discussing theory in general. Without the presence of the concrete example, I agree we would just be making stuff up with our imaginations. (This is made clear when I say that we couldn't talk about Effort unless we knew concretely what kind of music was being played.) Without the presence of the concrete example, I was simply trying to tease apart the ingredients of LMA, justifying the validity of the Spatial Tension category. In the presence of the actual concrete experience, either live or videoed, I would not be interested in delineating every possible LMA ingredient, nor would I, with any particular client or student, want to burden them with the entire LMA system for any particular movement or coaching event. But when Nick gave us his example we were led to believe that the Space and Shape differences were the aspects he was most interested in, and, in fact, we didn't know at that time which aspect of LMA we ourselves might ultimately be most interested in. So I was talking theory and insisting that in theory Space cannot be ignored. I think the way, however, I used my language probably suggested that, even without seeing the concrete example, I was going to insist that I could analyze the movement of a trombone player "in absentia." I did not mean that, but only that in theory the ingredients in the movement would be such and such.

Therefore, as I had wondered, it's now clear, Karen, that I was not correctly understanding your comments to Nick. In particular your final comment threw me off: "Describing the movement using Space or Shape would mean the mover/trombonist is either approaching or creating a pathway through the space alongside the trombone, no?"

I didn't realize that the hidden assumption in that comment was that "If we are going to describe the trombonist's movement ONLY in its essential or most important aspect, then we would not talk about Space."

Richard