Announcing The Journal of Laban Bartenieff Movement Studies! The first issue of the JLBMS contains articles derived from presentations given at the 2018 LIMS conference. This online journal is available for free for LIMS Members. Access is available via the new LBMS Community platform where we can all come together to further the work being accomplished by those in the LBMS world. New Membership information is provided on the LBMS Community platform and this website.

And now for the 2023 P&T workshops! They will continue to be online on Saturdays. Watch this space for upcoming workshop information. (Sadly Irmgard won’t be teaching and there won’t be blackboards and chalk involved, but her image is a nice reminder of her laughter and her contributions to our work!)

Course Format: Online via LBMS Community

Course Schedule:

• Course Period: April 14 – May 26, 2023
• Live Session Dates & Times*
  • Dates: Four (4) Saturdays, April 22, April 29, May 6, and May 20, 2023
  • Times: 11 am – 12:30 pm ET
  • * The live sessions will be recorded and shared through the LBMS Community for the students’ review.

Course Cost: 

$400 for early-bird registrations, and then $450 starting from March 22 

Target Audience:

Professionally certificated movement analysts as well as current students in the certification program

Prerequisites:

Participants must have understanding of and physical experience with the Action Drive, the six effort states, and the three Transformation Drives (Spell, Vision, and Passion) and the ability to read effort notation.  Some familiarity with Labanotation is also welcome but not mandatory. 

Please obtain a copy of Mastery of Movement (either the 3rd or 4th edition) prior to the beginning of the course.

Course Description: 

Mastery of Movement (a.k.a. Mastery of Movement on the Stage) is Laban’s most complete exposition of the motion elements of Body and Effort. Written with the aim of providing “an incentive to personal mobility,” Mastery draws upon his observations of work movement and his experiences training actors. The book is meant to be read and experienced.  

This spring, across six weeks beginning in mid-April, participants will study and discuss the  first six chapters of Mastery of Movement under the experienced guidance of Laban scholar, Dr. Carol-Lynne Moore. 

This course utilizes the LBMS Community as its online platform.  Each reading assignment is augmented with study questions as well as movement and/or observation assignments. Four synchronous Saturday morning sessions deepen understanding through lecture and discussion. (While participation is strongly encouraged, these sessions will be recorded for those who find it difficult to attend due to local time differences.)

For more information and/or to register go to the course site on the LBMS-Community page.

On Sunday, 10 April 2022, we learned of the death of one of the founders of the Dance Notation Bureau, and a great friend to Irmgard Bartenieff and Dance. Ann Hutchinson Guest lived for 103 years and stayed active in our community until her death! Some met her personally. Some knew of her work. All loved her. She will be missed.

To listen to Ann you can access a full interview with her in February 2020 https://vimeo.com/394698628/4cbe94643f

You can upload reminiscences about Ann at  https://flipgrid.com/df19672b

And please join the conversations in her memory at the upcoming online CAMP LBMS May 14-15 2022.  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/314907164807

In June of 2020 LIMS committed itself to the difficult yet essential work of looking inward to our very core to address both the ways in which LIMS as an institution may have perpetuated systems of oppression, systemic and institutionalized racism, and harmed our BIPOC students, faculty/staff, and community members. This was important for us to investigate because it is in direct opposition to our core values.

Specifically, we committed to:

• Investigate, understand, and undo the ways in which we are complicit in perpetuating systems of oppression, and systemic and institutionalized racism.
• Dismantle the white supremacist and Eurocentric structures that permeate our organization, curriculum, and pedagogy. 
• Create and hold space for our BIPOC colleagues, and listen with the intent to understand their grievances and take corrective and reparative action.

Immediately following this pledge we received communication from several members of our community passionate about seeing this work through. On June 30th a handful of interested individuals, invited members, and representation from the LIMS board of directors held our inaugural meeting as the newly formed LIMS Diversity, Equity ,and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. To read more about the committee (Mission, guiding principles, areas of focus, members, and updates on activities) go to the new webpage here.

Please consider signing up for this anti-racism training, which is designed for those of us in the LBMS and somatics communities, to be held January 16 and 17, from 10 am to 1 pm each day.  The cost is only $35 US for the 6 hours and you can sign up here

Have you ever wanted to get more information about Irmgard Bartenieff? Or the history of the LIMS organisation? What about wanting to read articles and papers to see if anyone else had had your research question, answered it, or might be able to provide insight into it? Well, there is a place to find a plethora of information: the Irmgard Bartenieff Papers and the LIMS archive held at Special Collections in the Performing Arts at the University of Maryland. In addition to the multitude of photos, videos, papers, correspondence, personal documents, and pedagogical resources held in these two collections, there are several others that might be of interest: the Martha Davis Papers (non-verbal communication), Robert Dunn collection (post-modern guru), Sarah Chapman Hilsendager, Karen Kohn Bradley papers, and more. There are also two online exhibits for your viewing pleasure: Irmgard Bartenieff: a personal journey through dance and Robert Ellis Dunn: Father of Postmodern Dance.

If you find something you would like to see or read, complete the registration on the SCPA home page and request an item. The archivists there will be glad to assist you, and can email pdfs and images to you. And once the pandemic eases think about a trip to Maryland and DC for a trip down memory lane (and research).

To access digital media files go to digital.lib.umd.edu and insert either ‘Bartenieff’ or ‘LIMS’ in the left search box.