The Laban sourcebook

These are a few of the accolades that greet the reader of this new book – one of a stream of publications over the past decade illustrating the work and continued influence of Rudolf von Laban (1879–1958) – yet further evidence of the lively interest in his ‘astonishing breadth of writing about, and activities in, the field of dance and movement’. Sir Walter Bodmer’s Preface succinctly affirms that this book ‘succeeds in giving an overview of the extraordinary wide range of Laban’s interests and reflects very well the combination of his artistry, his mysticism and spiritualism, and his analytical, quasi-scientific thought. He was indeed a visionary, in the best sense of that word’ (xvii). The book-cover publicity tells us that The Laban Sourcebook offers ‘a comprehensive account of Laban’s writings’ with ‘extracts from his five books in English and ... his four works in German, written in the 1920s’. Half the book consists of Laban’s own writings – albeit in a modified type-face – from the period 1920– 1984, ‘selected and ... introduced by many of the world’s leading Laban scholars’. The editor, Dick McCaw, resourcefully draws upon archival material in England and Germany to chart the development of Laban’s ‘groundbreaking’ ideas through a variety of documents, including letters, articles and transcripts of interviews from two archives – many of which throw new light on Laban’s career and the application of his ideas in dance, drama, education, industry and therapy. Whilst the book is directed at ‘the widest possible readership’ it also appears to be aimed at the uninformed dance student, the practising dance educator and the dance researcher. We might reasonably ask, therefore, what reception it might well have for these adherents? At first glance, the uninitiated dance undergraduate might well be attracted by the many and profuse plaudits paid to Rudolf von Laban, only to be baffled by the mysterious descriptions of his early German writings referred to variously as ‘rhapsodic’, ‘esoteric’, ‘aphoristic’, ‘effusive’, ‘mystical’ and ‘(dis)organised’. Indeed, we read that Laban’s writings were ‘almost impossible to translate’ (18). If our student reader is puzzled by such portrayals then his tutor might remind him that such styles were typical of the period of German Idealism when,