Movement

We dwell in a world of movement, where everything is always changing. Movement is essential to our life. Our experience of movement begins even before we are born, we creep, and wriggle off through the movement of our body. When movement happens and completely involves us it arouses a sense of well being and joy.

 

In this chapter, an endeavor is made to combine the Laban Movement analysis with the art of automata making. Movement can be analyzed by breaking it down into 4 components of space, time, force and body.

 

Movement occurs in time with rhythmic regularity. Such as our heartbeat. Rhythm can be natural or contrived. Time defines when we make the movement. If the movement has a long duration it's time is sustained; if it's short, it's time is sudden. In general sudden movements are the ones which contract the body and sustained movement is the one which carries the body forward.

 

Weight or force can be observed in everything that we move against the strength of gravity. Whether it's a part of the body or an object. When we create a strong movement downwards, we have an active attitude. When we give-in and become heavy we have a passive attitude. If we go upward with an active attitude our movement is weak, if we have a passive attitude our movement is light. Active and passive act together to recover movement. The height dimension which is the same dimension as the force of gravity represents the weight factor.

 

Motion or moving we always occupy space and are surrounded by it. Body moves its parts, producing forms in the thin air.