KEYNOTE
SPEAKERS
FORRESTINE
PAULAY
LABAN CONCEPTS IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL STUDIES Paulay & Bartenieff at the Choreometrics Project When in 1965 Forrestine Paulay and Irmgard Bartenieff joined anthropologist Alan Lomax's Choreometrics Project, they brought the Laban System (then Effort/Shape) – a qualitative approach already tested, for assessing and recording movement dynamics. Over the next four years, Bartenieff and Paulay collected and observed filmed examples of dances from hundreds of cultures. Through a rigorous comparative process, they adapted Laban's principles to reveal intracultural or individual differences in movement style, facilitating the perception of intercultural variations. One of the ideas the Choreometrics team aimed to test - requiring the acquisition of an enormous amount of documentary images - was that dance would encapsulate the movement style of a culture, particularly those integral to major productive activities in pre-industrial societies and eras. Therefore, they needed to collect and examine films of people at work. Research indicated that, in general, dance mirrors the movements necessary for the main recurring subsistence tasks that are or were fundamental in those specific societies and times. In 1970, when Bartenieff left the project to focus on the NYC Movement Analysis Certification Program, Paulay became the Associate Director of the Choreometrics Project. In the early 1970s, she and Lomax further expanded Choreometrics: they developed a coding system, curated, selected, and analyzed numerous films, trained coders, analyzed data, and produced four documentaries, namely Dance and Human History (1970), Palm Play (1977), Step Style (1977), and The Longest Trail (1984), recently re-edited. Paulay and Lomax also wrote an unpublished book, World Dance.
DEBORAH
HEIFETZ
Ph.D., CMA, SEP
THE DANCE OF OTHERNESS: CROSSING THE DIVIDE ON THE MAP JOURNEY Deborah Heifetz is a social anthropologist, dancer, and mediator who brings over 30 years experience as a peace activist, social scientist and somatic educator working at the nexus of inner and outer peace. Co-founder/Director of BraveHearts International, Heifetz is a professional facilitator and coach who developed the Human Needs Map, a circular matrix that captures the systemic complexity and interconnectivity between human needs, beliefs, emotions, and embodied memory. The model coalesced over 20 years in an emergent process of action learning, research and engagement in conflict challenges ranging from international peacebuilding to personal relationships. Deborah also developed the concept of “non-mediated peacekeeping’ from her ethnographic study of gender and Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation during her research of the Oslo Accords. She has acted in Track II Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and co-founded a peace-building and community development NGO with projects in Pakistan. In 2012 she began to work directly with the sustainability movement as a vehicle for peacebuilding through the international grassroots movement known as the Transition Network, where she served as a mediator and co-founded the Israeli Hub. Dr. Heifetz integrated her diverse background and training in Somatic Experiencing (SE) and Laban Movement Analysis to educate graduate students of International Conflict Resolution and Mediation in Culture, Conflict and Community Development. Working in collaboration with Kibbutz Neot Semadar (Israel), she bridged academia and community development through deep personal learning. She practices a reflexive pedagogy, which incorporates over 17 years of daily Qigong and Tai Chi practice, and 12 years teaching experience on faculty at Haifa University’s dance/movement therapy program where she taught LMA and “communicating under conflict” weaving cognitive, experiential and action learning with core principles of mindfulness practice, witnessing and social theory either directly or indirectly inspired from Laban’s work. In 2013, she synthesized her knowledge and experience in the field with her dance background to co-create the Embodied Leadership Training - a series of workshops taught in Europe, China, and the U.S. with an emphasis on the body as a personal resource of knowledge, resilience, “Presence” and compassion. Participants developed core competencies in communication and conflict resilience for more effective leadership to meet today’s adaptive challenges. As a member of the Laban community, Heifetz has produced numerous on-site dance performances for the Global Water Dance (GWD) beginning in 2011, when with the sponsorship from Friends of the Earth, Middle East, Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli children danced together on the Jordan river in affirmation of peaceful co-existence. Heifetz is a Chevening Scholar (University of Manchester and Cambridge University) and recently published her systems-based model on human needs as a Map to Compassion.
MARTHA
EDDY
CMA, MSMT, RSDE, EdD
DYNAMIC EMBODIMENT'S CONTINUUM OF STRESS TO TRAUMA: CALMING THE COLLECTIVE Dr. Martha Eddy is author of Mindful Movement the evolution of somatic arts & conscious action, international speaker, advocate for somatic movement. She has led programming and research integrating biobehavioral sciences, somatic therapies, and social emotional learning for 48 years. She is featured for her work with violence prevention, health science, creativity, neuroscience, and embodied cognition. Eddy created BodyMind Dancing (1982) & Moving For Life (1999), two dance approaches based in her unique forty-four year blend of LBMS and Body-Mind Centering® taught worldwide. She has been invited to speak on embodied approaches to peace in intercultural conflict and was sought out by the Arts Education Policy Review to describe applications of Social Emotional Learning research within art practices. This work overlaps with her own research on Conflict Resolution and the Role of Physical Activity in Educational Violence Prevention for Youth. The book, Dynamic Embodiment of the Sun Salutation – Balancing the Chakras and NeuroEndocrine System, co-authored with Shakti Smith, provides strategies for balancing the nervous system as well as hormones using movement and vibration, including a social soimatic perspective, relative to communities. She values creative expression and its relationship to emotional life and communication, and loves to perform. She and her graduates provide direct services, professional development, and curricular design through the Center for Kinesthetic Education (WellnessCKE.net), a part of her Center for Embodied Learning (The-CEL) in NYC.She co-founded Moving On Center (MOC) in the Bay Area, with Carol Swainn with the goal to bridge somatics and social change. MOC continues to work with it graduates experts in embodied leadership, investigating new psychophysical models for healthy conflict transformation.
INTERNATIONAL
LECTURERS
DARREN ROYSTON
LIVING TRANSCULTURALLY WITH LABAN: STAGING OPERA AND DRAMA USING PRINCIPLES OF SPATIAL DYNAMICS Darren works internationally as a director, movement coach, choreographer, teacher and performer. He is a specialist in historical dance and period movement, Artistic Director of Nonsuch History & Dance and former chairman of Early Dance Circle. He holds MA with Distinction from TRINITY LABAN LONDON. He is drama representative trustee of Laban Guild International and member of UNESCO International Dance Council. His book “Dramatic Dance” (2014) explains how a Laban approach to movement can connect with historical research, expressive exploration and performance training, as taught at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London). Born in the UK, Darren is currently based in Thailand working with Bangkok Youth Opera and Siam Society, and teaching the Trinity College London syllabus in acting, speech & drama, musical theatre, communication skills and performance arts.
TONY
ZHOU
DEVELOPMENT OF LBMS IN CHINA: OPPORTUNITY AND CHALLENGE Dr. Zhou holds a doctoral degree in biomedicine and has been working and living in China and Europe for many years. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Inspirees Education Group (Netherlands/China). Though trained as a scientist, he has been greatly intrigued by modern dance and dance therapy since 2002 and has played an important role in driving the development of dance therapy and creative arts therapies in China. Dr. Zhou serves on an international advisory board for the journal Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy. He also founded the Creative Arts Education and Therapy (CAET)- Eastern and Western Perspectives, an international open access journal. He is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) trained by LIMS in New York. Dr. Zhou is the team leader for the Chinese Group of Arts Therapy, Chinese Psychological Society, Guest Professor of Beijing Normal University, Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts, Co-founder and core member of the World Alliance of Dance Movement Therapy (WADMT), and founding member and CEO of the International Association of Creative Arts in Education and Therapy.
NUNZIA
TIRELLI
“...WE ARE ALL ONE...” – MOVING TOWARDS A SPIRITUAL DIMENSION Directly from Monte Veritá, choreologist, dance researcher and CMA Nunzia Tirelli will share aspects of her work, which has evolved by deeply looking for those connections that Laban found in developing Space Harmony, and his vision of the oneness of body, mind, emotions and spirituality. Nunzia has extensive experience working in the fields of dance and theater as a dancer, actress, and teacher. Her interest in movement and artistic expression led her to complete the training in dance movement therapy at Art Therapy Italiana/Bologna while also pursuing the Certification Program in LBMS, receiving the Certificate of Movement Analyst (CMA), at LIMS, in NYC. In addition, she holds a diploma in Choreological Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, in London. After many years of research and practice on Rudolf Laban’s theories, in 2013, she began to consistently promote and organize Laban events at Monte Verità, where Laban held his first Summer School. In 2014, she received the Dance as Cultural Heritage Award for her recontruction of Laban’s choreographic works “The Drumstick Dances” and Istar's Descent into Hell”. From 2018 to 2023, she was a member of the Federal Dance Jury. In 2023, she became an instructor in Shamanic and Integral Yoga at the Imaginal Academy, a Wabi Sabi Mentor, and a Master of Japanese Yoga, in 2024.
RAJYASHREE
RAMESH
THE COSMIC BODY: MOVEMENT ANALYTIC-FASCIAL-COSMOLOGICAL. A SENSING&SHAPING OF THE PERFORMATIVE BODY BASED ON INDIAN CORPOREAL TRADITIONS Rajyashree, an Indian-born movement art practitioner based in Berlin, Germany, is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst (CLMA/IMS) and Cultural Scientist. With six decades of collective experiences, she's part of a generation of Indian dancers who pioneered traditional dance forms' acceptance. Deeply rooted in her cultural background, she redefined its vocabulary with insight and sensitivity, and yet critical stand. Her cross-cultural work, informed by a rich tapestry of experiences, blends Eastern and Western movement studies, including Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, South Indian classical music, Yoga and Middendorf Breathing Therapy. She holds a Bachelor's in Science from Bangalore University and a Masters and Doctorate degrees in Socio-Cultural Studies from Europa-University Viadrina, Germany, with a research focused on “Sensing and Shaping: The emotive-kinetic grounding of meaning. A cross-disciplinary analysis of Indian Dance Theatre”. In parallel, she developed innovative approaches such as "FasciaNatya", “The Cosmic Body” and "CoreConcepts," offering a trans-cultural movement studies program titled "From Bharatha-to-Bartenieff."
KAREN A.
STUDD
EXPANDING THE LABAN’S MAP OF SPACE: FURTHER DEVELOPMENT TO SUPPORT GREATER COMPREHENSION AND INCLUSION Expanding human understanding is a process of development and one of differentiation. It includes expanding our awareness of the cosmos outward as well as the infinitesimal developments in physics. So too understanding of the Laban / Bartenieff Movement System continues to develop and evolve as our awareness and understanding of human movement continues to expand. In LBMS, in recognizing and naming the parts of human movement, the pattern of thematic duality is a foundational pattern of how we perceive, categorize and make sense of the phenomenon of the world, whether this be in Up/Down or Night/Day. Thematic Duality is the oppositional parings of 2 parts creating a whole. Space Harmony is rich with patterns of duality including the “Duals” in the Geometry of the Platonic Solids that are used in LBMS as models of the Kinesphere. These models Laban used in mapping the directions of the patterns of our actions. In Geometry, it is recognized that these forms exist in dualist relations to each other - the Octahedron / Cube, the Icosahedron / Dodecahedron and the Tetrahedron to itself as Dual Tetrahedrons that in turn create the form of the Cube. My purpose here is to propose that in addressing the models of the Kinesphere we need to include not only the Cube, Octahedron and Icosahedron, as LBMS training has historically focused on, but also to understand the nature of the relation between the Cube and Octahedron as duals, and the Icosahedron and the Dodecahedron as duals. Additionally, in studying the Cube an understanding of the Dual Tetrahedrons that create this form. This requires that the map of space created by Laban needs to be expanded to include the Spatial Directions of the Dodecahedron. I would propose that it is evident, that the Space of the Dodecahedron is just as alive in the map of human movement as the other 26 Directions, although the Dodecahedron’s directions are not yet named / identified in the LBMS map. However, we can observe and experience the space of the Dodecahedral directions in movement patterns seen in yoga and in Bharatnatyam. In addition, the Dodecahedral space can also be recognized in the human form and in many actions, including the familiar “heel rock”, and in our walking. Karen A. Studd, has a Master’s degree in Dance from University of Oregon and is Certified in Movement Analysis (CMA) through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. Studd is a Master Somatic Movement Educator and through ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association). She is a founding member of WholeMovement, a group of movement analysts working to increase the visibility of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) worldwide and serves as Program Coordinator and core faculty member in multiple movement analysis training programs internationally. She has taught LBMS extensively throughout the world for over 30 years. Prior to focusing exclusively on LBMS she was an artist/educator and tenured Professor of Dance. Studd is focused on continuing to explicate the LBMS through personal and professional movement practice and is committed to promoting an understanding of the significance of human movement. Studd is also an author who has contributed to multiple research papers linked to LBMS and a co-author of EveryBody is a Body, a text on the phenomenon of human movement now in its second edition.
ALISON
CURTIS-JONES
RE-IMAGINING LABAN: TRANSCENDING TRANSCULTURALITY WITH DYNAMIC BODIES This presentation discusses how mutual co-existence and shared dynamic practice is a powerful method to embrace diversity. I share how Laban’s dynamic and spatial principles encourage interpersonal relatedness and inclusive practice. How shared rhythmic phrases in movement and embodying shared expressive intention manifests both individual expressivity and group cohesion. Alison Curtis-Jones MPhil, FHEA, MA, PGCE, BA(Hons), MHFA, MDIP. Acclaimed dance artist and movement specialist, Ali is a dynamic practitioner of contemporary choreological practice and movement for wellbeing. Artistic Director of award-winning Summit Dance Theatre and leading exponent of Rudolf Laban's “lost” dance theatre works, re-imagining Laban’s Die Nacht, Drumstick, Suite 24 and Ishtar’s Journey into Hades with Summit Dance Theatre, Green Clowns with Transitions Dance Company, performing in Canada, Switzerland and the UK. Filmed and screened by Swiss TV, German ARTE TV and featured in The UK BBC documentary "Dance Rebels", her choreography has been re-staged for performances internationally. A recipient of numerous choreographic commissions, her work has been supported by The Dorothy Whitney Elmhirst Trust, Trinity Laban, Laban Guild International, and as invited speaker and artist to Laban Event in Monte Verita, curated by Nunzia Tirelli. Ali is Teaching Fellow in the Dance Faculty at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London, UK. Her work includes creative pedagogy, performance enhancement, movement analysis, directing, choreography, contemporary dance technique and choreological practice for Foundation, BA, BSc and Masters programmes. She is co-author and Lead Tutor of the postgraduate Specialist Diploma in Choreological Studies at Trinity Laban, working in close collaboration with colleague Dr Valerie Preston-Dunlop to develop choreological practice for contemporary performers. She holds a BA(Hons) and MA from Trinity Laban, PGCE from Brighton University and MPhil Roehampton University. Her doctoral research examines sensory memory and the multi-sensory body as a dynamic archive and source of embodied knowledge. Her work is published in Routledge; Palgrave Macmillan; Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices; Dance Movement and Spiritualties; Movement and Dance Magazine, Dance Books. She is Founder and Creative Director of MOVEMONICS, a harmonic Movement-Performance-Health-Wellbeing Practice, rooted in principles of space harmony, dynamic balance and emotional wellness. Movement is fundamental to our existence, for health, wellbeing and expression. Ali’s practice revitalises the body in dynamic flux through her holistic work as a qualified Menopause Coach, certified Mental Health First Aid practitioner and accredited Nutrition Advisor. Ali teaches in Croatia, South Korea, Japan, Beijing, China, Singapore and Switzerland, providing professional development, presenting conference papers and practical research internationally.
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ELLEN GOLDMAN & SOOK KIM
MOVING THE BLUES SCALES A Lecture/Demonstration Spatial sequences reflect tonal sequences, and visa versa. Using the Primary scale, which follows the C scale on the keyboard, one can explore how a sound scale translates to space. Sook Kim and Ellen Goldman have been deeply engaged in this process for many years, translating the traditional Blues scale into movement, with astounding results and revelations, both for movement and music. In the presentation, they will demonstrate how the Primary scale equals the Keyboard half steps. The Axis Scale is all transversals; whole notes on the keyboard. The A and B scales travel around the keyboard in the circle of 5ths, while the Planes travel in minor thirds on the keyboard. The Blues scale uses the minor thirds, planes; whole steps, transversals; and half steps, minor seconds. As each blues scale starts from a different plane, they have totally different characters. Goldman reveals how this understanding has attuned her ear to musical subtlety, and her body to spatial sensitivity. Ellen and Sook will present their artistic research methodology as clearly and simply as possible. Ellen Goldman, Certified Movement Analyst (CMA), is a leader in the field of movement analysis, having made the study of movement her life's work. Early dance training led to an avid interest in choreography, performance and the establishment of a dance company. She is a co-founder of New York's internationally respected Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, LIMS where she has spent over thirty years as an instructor in the Certification Program. Considered a central force in the Laban Field, Ellen is the author of “As Other See Us: Body Movement and the Art of Successful Communication” and of “Geometry of Movement (part 1 and 2) and has lectured and taught LMA throughout the US and in several cities in Europe and South America, including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ms. Goldman is currently a guest teacher at LIMS Programs and works in private practice in Manhattan, offering services in LMA, Kestenberg Movement Profile, Management Assessment, Career Planning, and Communication Skills. “Happily, Sook Kim, co faculty at the Laban Institute for many years, has shared much Choreography with me, with her strong understanding of Space, and clear movement skills. We are continuing now with the Blues Scale project.”, declares Ellen. Sook Kim is a Certified Movement Analyst. Sook ardently explores connectivity between performance and analysis of dance through the CMA perspective stemming from her background in Korean culture and dance. In addition to the Blue Scale Project, Sook has a successfully track record of collaborating with Ellen Goldman to articulate discrete Laban theories into artistic pieces including “Lost Passage (2015)”, "Journey of Life with Effort Dynamics (2016)”, “7 Ring (2017)”, and Prankqueen (2023)”. Sook was selected as the Dance Performance Atelier Awardee at the 2017 MOSAIC in NYC with her performance of “No Barriers”. She served as a faculty of the Laban/ Bartenieff Institute’ Yearlong Certificate program from 2009 to 2019 and held multiple workshops in Korea.
