Exploring Laban Space
Let’s look at the idea of space in aspects of human behaviour, using the Laban vocabulary of physical action.
The four elements
- Space
- Time
- Force
- Flow
When we focus on any one of the 4 elements we are always aware that each element is inextricably connected to the other three.
Just as, if we were analysing the human body and focussing on the heart, we would never forget that the blood, lungs, guts, brain, fingers, etc. are all connected to the heart and to each other. For convenience we attend to just one aspect at a time but in reality all aspects function together as a unit.
The present moment
Let’s begin with WHERE we are now: paying ATTENTION to the space we inhabit, externally and internally.
- As you watch or read this you are probably sitting.
- Where are you?
- Where is your breathing centered: lower lungs, upper chest?
- What is your relation to gravity? Are you allowing the chair to take your weight or maybe you are pulling away from the chair, feeling an upwards impulse?
- Where are your feet? Are they resting quietly or twisting round ankles or legs?
- Hands, arms, angle of head?
- Where is your eye-gaze directed?
Take a moment to find out where you are.
This is a moving state with strong emotional and mental connections. When you change any part of your body, you change your feelings, your perception of yourself and what you are doing at this moment of your life. This moment that has never happened before and will never happen again.
Changing physical states changes thoughts and mood
First we recognise where we are, then we enjoy it, observe its changes or consciously change it. With every tiny physical change comes the corresponding change of thought and mood: how we are feeling.
There are spaces within the body: resonating spaces in the head and chest to create and amplify vocal sound; the spaces where one bone meets another bone are the spaces that allow movement (the joints); and more. These need to be relaxed, not constricted by muscular tension.
Tension
Tension could be described as energy in the wrong place, often habitual, always unwanted. Tightnesses, clenches, and grindings bring with them habits of anxiety, fear, uncertainty. Thinking won’t cure it… we have probably tried that!
But what does work, if we trust it and give it a chance, is a physical change. A change in breathing —slower and lower —, an untangling of the legs, a drop in the held shoulders, a loosening of the tight jaw… Body first, and the rest follows ‘as the night the day’!
Feeling
What a magical word! In my dictionary there are 13 meanings of the verb; meanings 1, 6 and 7 are most useful for us at the moment:
- To perceive something, using the sense of touch.
- To have physical sensation in a particular part of the body.
- To experience an emotion or physical sensation, to be deeply affected by something.
Now, we are inclined to believe that FIRST we feel a reaction/emotion as a response to an event and SECOND, we have a physical response, experienced in the body.
This is not what happens!
The great psychologist William James discovered that our FIRST response is always physical, experienced in the body, and second comes the interpretation of the event which gives rise to the emotional reaction.
Most acting training emphasises the emotional response FOLLOWED BY the physical expression of that emotion. So we plan out/force ourselves to invent what we are going to FEEL emotionally, and then (too late!) attempt to express this with voice and action.
And it doesn’t work!
Because it is not what naturally happens.
I hope that when we are more aware of where we are in body and mind we can understand ourselves better, change what we wish to change, and rely on the fact that physical action changes thought and emotion. As Stanislavsky says, when describing his final most practical approach to acting, ‘Trust the power of the simplest physical action.’
Then, the word FEELING really does have its dual meaning: physical sensation (touch, sight, taste, hearing, smell), and mental/emotional response.
Opening and Closing in spatial action
Other related words are:
- Wide / Narrow
- Explore / Limit
- Unfolding / Folding
Laban uses the images of ‘indulging in / fighting against’ space and ‘gathering / scattering.’
We can experiment with these opposites of inward and outward directions in action, as physical exercises and as functional behaviour. But these opposites also relate to social, moral, and personal attitudes and concepts.
What ideas are you open to? How far will you go to explore a way of thinking / living that is foreign or new to you? What limits are there for you for ‘acceptable’ behaviour?
Where we are affects what we do
Each place has its rules of dress, language, habit, distance between people and objects in that space. When would you break those rules? Why? How would you be affected by the result if others in that space have opposing views?
Where are we in relation to other people and physical objects? How close to / far from them are we? Which bit of their body are we in contact with? Are we near enough to sense the warmth of their body? Who initiates any contact, who accepts/rejects/adapts a response?
Consider this as verbal action too: speech. Sound travels through space, reaching out, drawing in, attacking, defending. And silence: through eye-gaze and gesture the specific message is given and received.
AND
Gesture: ‘an action intended to communicate feelings or intentions.’ (The word is linked to ‘suggest’; ‘digest,’ derived from Latin ‘gerere’ = to carry/act.)
Gesture is often what I call a ‘silent line’ — a physical non-vocal expression. Watch for this in yourself and others. It can be more telling, truthful and revealing than dialogue!
This is an important use of space, both as distance and as areas of conversation, belief, status divisions, personal desires, intentions. If space rules are broken, pain and violence can result. Wars, injustice, poverty, destruction of habitat, domestic quarrels begin with conflicting claims of place.
Understanding the space
For actors, you need to find what rules, limits, habits the character lives by; where and why she lives in this particular place with these people at this moment in time.)
This space you are in… is it yours, mine, hers, private, public? The space dictates what you do in it.
For actors, there are 2 aspects of the space: the daily life / real space (the stage, the studio) and the imagined space (the ‘desert island,’ the ‘room in the palace’) of the scene. We have to be aware of both, for safety and sanity, while behaving ‘as if’ (our job-description) the imagined space is where we (in the role) are living at this moment in time.
The eye gaze
I was thinking about the ‘power of the simplest physical action’ in terms of eye-gaze. Where are you looking? Where is your attention? When listening, observing, understanding, your eye gaze is crucial.
!!What about your eyelids!! I know that some actors plan carefully their blinking when filming closeups. They find a rhythm for each blink. They are aware that a held, unblinking gaze is a powerful status message, that a lowered gaze can indicate defeat, but also rejection, boredom, disbelief. Just watch Trump and the people listening to him.
And what is the look of love? Not a sort of rosy glare but a profound and gentle attention on the beloved object. (Not on your own romantic sweetness.)
Direct or flexible
Laban finds that spatial direction can be either direct or flexible (indirect).
That is, in traveling we can go either in a straight line — the shortest distance between 2 points — or in a curving flexible pattern. Both are useful and we all use both ways to journey through space.
At the moment I am typing with a direct focus and my line of thought is also direct. I know what I want to say and am working on ways of expressing myself as clearly and economically as I can.
We choose a spacial direction because it suits the task.
However, this morning I didn’t want to think or act in straight lines. I needed space to wander, daydream, and follow ideas without grabbing for a result. I had no pressure to ‘get it right.’ In this open, unwalled area of feeling-thinking-being, after a while, ideas and new understandings about this Laban vocabulary of behavioural action crept in, sometimes tentatively and at other times arriving with a bounce. So my experience this morning was more flexible.
Laban suggests that a person who habitually ‘slices through’ or ‘fights against’ space can be seen as direct, while someone who habitually ‘indulges in’ space is flexible.
Of course, everyone uses both direct and flexible, for function and expression. In some the differences are obvious and in others less so, but you may probably know which rhythm is more natural to you and who shares/opposes it.
When I look a round this desk and the room I see that my innate flexibility results in mess! Or shall I call it ‘creative chaos’? I need help sorting out papers because of my dyslexia (which can also be seen as an aspect of indirectness). I truly find it almost impossible to organise on my own.
For me, to be direct demands conscious effort. I work hard to achieve it and can see how it needs improvement.
Space, you, and your character
Which space-word best describes you? Which one describes the character you are playing?
In ‘Uncle Vanya’ for instance, it is clear that Helen (Elena) is extremely flexible in her beauty, grace and ‘languid’ behaviour, while Sonya is directly honest, hardworking, straight-forward, unadorned. And in casting those parts the actors’ natural rhythms must match those of the invented characters.
If you look at the text you will notice lines that have a direct or flexible impulse, lines that are open or closed.
- Direct and Open; Direct and Closed;
- Flexible and Closed; Flexible and Open…
Aspects of action through space.
- Direct and Open can be an embrace, an attack, a welcome ‘Yes!’…
- Direct and Closed can be a defence, a rejection, a sudden pain, retreat, shock….
- Flexible and Open can be exploring, discovering, sensing, unfolding….
- Flexible and Closed can be gathering, collecting, painfully agonising, secretive, neurotic…
Given the situation of the scene, you will know what is happening to that invented ‘character.’ So experiment with these rhythms. Each will bring strong thoughts and emotions, from the body to mind and heart.
How do you practice all this?
You simply observe yourself and others, nature, objects, sound, movement using these few simple words given to us by Laban.
As you observe, you can choose to change if you wish to.
To change your mood or feelings, change the rhythm of your body and observe what happens. See how each task or function demands a specific response to space in order to achieve the desired result.
As the dancer, musician or athlete practices the physical skills she needs, so the actor needs to equip herself for her profession.
If, as Brecht says, ‘actors are scientists of human behaviour,’ then let us work as scientists in that field of experience!
To read other articles on Laban, visit here. I also discuss Laban in my book.