rudolf laban: an extraordinary life

A visionary, a mystic, a lover, a leader, a dancer, an artist, a teacher, a theorist.

Rudolf Laban (1879 - 1958) was all these things. Born in fin-de-siecle Austro-Hungary, Laban lived in Austria, France, and Germany. Though he began as a painter, architect and illustrator, it is in movement and dance that Laban made a lasting impact. He was a performer, a choreographer, and a mentor, but his ideas were always part of a broader vision of of movement - as theatre art, as community celebration, and as self-discovery. Through his research into movement he uncovered the interconnections of the body and the psyche, the individual and the group, and he devised a revolutionary system of movement notation that is till in use today.