Rudolf Von Laban's Influences and Collaborations

Being a military son Rudolf Von Laban spent much of his time in Bosnaia and Herzigovina as well as the court circle in Vienna and being exposed to theatre life of Bratislava. This gave him an early exposure to both western and eastern cultures.

In 1919 his career skyrocketed as he ran a dance theatre company as well as opening a main school for movement choir for amateurs. He also began writing articles, books, and creating dance works. Rudolf was influenced by the cultural responses of visual artists such as Klimt, Kockoshka, Shiele, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Kandinsky.

Rudolf Von Laban began his work in an interesting time in history.  His work with analyzing space and movement happened in Germany during the Weimar Republic (post WWI) and Third Reich. This time period reveals controversial myths about Laban that many historians have a difficult time balancing his innovative brilliance for introducing new spacial and movement analysis concepts and his affiliation as a dance organizer in the Third Reich. The end of WWI put an end to social positioning which directly reflected in theatre by discarding the traditional positioning of actors. Laban began to remove the hierarchiacal system of ballet companies and replaced it with democratic ensembles. Many of his ideas also bridged from social and cultural changes of the time such as traditional constraints against showing feeling and any openness of feeling the freeness of the body. He believed that he could advocate this freedom by mirroring it in dance and movement arts. Freud was also uncovering the psyche simultaneously opening the door to the body’s sexuality no longer needing to be hidden. Coincidentally movement art is a great medium to express such new freedom so Laban was known to hold improvisations and movement studies by being barefoot with little or no clothing.

 He was funded by Josef Goebbels, the Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda between 1934-1936. His created works explored social themes similar to his drama counterparts such as Brecht and visual artists Malevitch. However in 1936 Josef Goebbels pulled funding and banned Laban’s piece “ Vom Tauwind und der Neuen Freude (Of the Spring Wind and the New Joy)” when the piece did not reinforce the standards of the Nazi Regime. Many of his followers and students fled to the United States to escape.

Rudolf Von Laban extended his work with the celebrated collaborators such as Mary Wigman, Kurt Joos, and Sigurd Leeder.