God geometricizes (and so does Laban)

Although Rudolf Laban is primarily identified with the analytical frameworks he developed for studying and recording human movements, he remained deeply concerned to understand the complex synthesis of body, effort and space that occurs, seemingly spontaneously, in normal as well as skilled actions. Laban perceived a deeper meaning in this miraculous synthesis, noting that ‘every gesture and action of our body is a deeply rooted mystery’. This article traces how Laban used the metaphors of geometry and harmony to penetrate the physical reality of human movement as well as its metaphysical significance. Discussion centres on two Platonic Solids – the icosahedron and the cube – illustrating how Laban used each respectively to model spatial and dynamic patterns, to examine these elemental patterns in relation to each other and finally to place the human body at the centre of a universe of universal movements, linking microcosm and macrocosm.