Laban's Kinescope and Billy Forsythe Space Trace Notation

Space is quantified not as an encasement to define a volume but as the relationship drawn between two body extensions. The distance between two points on ones body makes a line trace, and the line trace is a spacial qualification. The dancing body does just this, when one defines a point in space with one finger, and defines another point in space with another finger on the other hand, there is an imaginary line between these two points. When one moves away the hands, the line is not there anymore. It is the body that defines this line. My little sister says the line is still there, but fallen to the floor. This is also interesting because it implies the line trace transcends to the audience's mind and their mind owns the trace and imagines what happens to the line once the body which originally traced the lines gives up possession of it.

Laban developed a way of conceptualizing the dynamics of movement, specifically dance movement, to visualize its significance. He developed "trace forms"; the Kinescope: a 3D volume which a person occupies in the cases of all possible limb extensions. The center of gravity of the Kinescope is the core. In classical ballet, this was the centre of gravity and all the ballet positions followed from here.

In order for his dancers to understand and use their body in improvisational scenerios, William Forsythe taught them to understand the space which the body traces (3D) when the body moves.
The dynamics of the body has a larger consequence then tracing lines, though. There is a certain amount of effort given when a body movement is made. Their is the speed of the movement, the force of the movement, the direct extension of a limb (straight line), and indirect extension of a limb (miandering line).

William Forsythe produced a video and lessons Improvisation Technologies, explaining the different sets of dynamic body space traces.

Improvisional Technologies:

LINES

line POINT POINT LINE

imagining lines

bridging

matching

extrusion

folding

lower limbs

rotation/ torque

torsions

collapsing points

complex movements

Dropping Points

COMPLEX OPERATIONS

inclination extensions

transporting lines

dropping curves

parallel sheer

APPROACHES

introduction

angle and surface

knotting

torsions

AVOIDANCE

introduction

volumes

own body position

movement

back approach

simple to complex


SPATIAL REORIENTATION

room reorientation

room reorientation 2

floor reorientation

Assignment

/SPATIAL RECOVERY

fragmentation

recovery con't

reverse temporal order
/COMPRESSION

space compression

time compression

floor brushing

amplification

adjectival modification

/ISOMETRIES

introduction

different scales

general moving isometries

sensibility bodily translation

as floor pattern

WRITING

rotating inscription

more than one limb

shift point of inscription

with lines

universal writing

arc&axis(kinda hardcore)

"O-ing" internal movitated movement

"U-ing"

/TRANSFORMATIVE OPERATIONS

"U-ing"

"U-sing" spheres

"U-sing" lines

"U-ing" and "O-ing" from a joint axis

"O-ing" as transformative operation

room writing demonstration

inscriptive modes

writing and wiping

ADDITIONS

anatomical representation introduction

anatomical knowledge

on projected body

soft body part exercise

CZ

introduction

trajectory

cz3

SOLOS

Billy Forsythe


SOLO APPLICATIONS

Christine Pite

Christine Buerkle

Noah De Gelber

Thomas McManus