Placida Staro,

"The Recording of the Time Element in the Laban System of Notation"(1)

Rudolph Laban has a central subject in his Theory of Movement: man, moving in space. This simple statement has many important consequences at different levels of his study and work. First of all we have to keep in mind the background of his creative life, a period full of new ideas about psycology and anthropology. This provided him with a sensibility related to the study of man: at that time, Laban was able to grasp the sense of the new scientific observations about the human being.

The human being is an acting subject; man is not considered by Laban as a mechanical machine nor is he conceived as an unknown aspect of a deity. Laban's man is a historic man which breaks the life of the world with his acting presence. Movement signs the presence of man in the world affecting all the dimensions of existence: space, time and energy. In this way Laban participates in the continuous debate about the mythical, philosophical, symbolical, social and psychological meaning of the human experience.

One of the central issues is the problem of time and timing in the Laban theory of movement and in its derived system of notation: Kinetography (KIN).

Notation of Movement Symbols Level

*Preliminary observations about the system of Kinetography Laban*

Laban was a dancer, a choreographer and an artist.; his experience about movement and time was certainly far from a mathematical concept.
Nevertheless, when he thought about movement in analytical terms he considered the time experience as a dimension. Time is viewed as an inner character of motion, observed and recorded only in its measurable aspects. Kinetography, which is his system to record movement, was thought to be an analytical system to transcribe movement, even if the first application was to note choreographies.

"A new and generally acceptable dance notation comparable with the phonetic alphabet had to be built up. Picture or diagrams of the external shapes of bodily positions and movements will not serve the ultimate purpose of noting the spiritual content of dances. It is true that one has to show in a noted dance which part of the body has been moved and its position after it has moved. It is also true that the precise time taken for each movement has to be recorded. But all this must be done in such a way that the essential feature of a dance namely its flow of movement, is described in all its details. The basic material of dance notation is the motion characters from which it is built up"( R.L.:4).

The system of Laban Kinetography is not founded on a pre-constituted language of movement , but on the existing possibility to move. Laban doesn't build up the system on a fixed language of movement, like, for example, dance, or mime, but on movement ideas, i.e.: "Notation consists solely of a few signs, representing the elementary motor faculties of man, combined in various ways" (R.L.:9).

Nowadays we ought to define KIN as founded on a semantical analysis: KIN is a system of signs ("sistema segnico") which represents in graphics a reality of movement (2). Kinetography is also an analytical system which describes the possibilities of a human body moving in space. KIN conceptual instruments are the categories which man uses to organize his perception: space, timing and force.

KIN tool is the symbolic scripture which graphically reproduces the way and the moment in which movement is categorized and perceived.The field of Kinetography is the moment of sign production through human movement. KIN is concerned with the kind of work required to produce the message and not properly with the message in itself. Movement analysis is the first formal instance of KIN. Notation, as a possible application of the system, is the second one.

The result of notation depends on the conventional criteria applied in analyzing movement. The rules have to be adequate to the principle of the system and to the structural character of the object. Only in this case does notation work.

The upper level of Kinetography is the structure of the message: all the occurrences of the structure are analyzed with formal movement analysis. The occurrence of the message, like meaning, referents, context, causes and so on are out of the formal analysis of movement and out of the KIN field.

KIN analyzes movement as motion and not as a message; in this way we can consider it as a tool of the science of physics at first, and only after as a text, as a document for application in other fields, like choreology, or choreography, or ergonomics and so on.

We have to observe, moreover, that the musical notation system is based on the articulation of the message produced with sound. On the contrary KIN is based on the possibility of man to move.
This issue causes a break between the two systems which has many important consequences in the application of KIN to Dance (3). On the conceptual level of the KIN system, movement is the occurrence of the human body in space and time. On a structural level this statement is reflected in a polivalent element, the motion, in the grammatical, graphic level, the result is a polivalent symbol. When we speak about a body which goes straight on, we relate to an occurrence of a specific category: direction of the body in space and time and we will use an univocal trait to identify this complex occurrence. The rules of the grammatical system tell us that the direction is judged from the internal point of view, that the body has a vertical and a horizontal dimension and that time is a manifestation of body in space and it is judged from a conventional point of view. The rules of the graphic system give us the shape of the symbol.
But if we speak about time we speak about a category and we need a sign expressing this category. The system doesn't requires a univocal symbol for time, because time is an inner character of movement itself. And movement as unit has is own symbol in the grammatical structure of the system. It is necessary indeed to have a graphic trait indicating (as sign) the time content of movement experience.In the structure of the system there is a time sign which reflects this statement: the straight vertical dimension in the score.

The invention of time symbols is necessary to some specialized application fields and become a matter of orthography. Every occurrence has to be analyzed in its coherence with the general structure of the system, because the grammar doesn't requires the symbols as general category.
The text ( KIN-text or Kinetogram) is a metatext obtained with a complex process. The kind of process needed in this operation is a classificatory analysis.
The Kinetogram has to be interpreted and related to motion under the same classificatory principles. Only if this pattern is preserved will the notation be valid. In other words it will have, as a result in terms of motion, a reality of the same kind like the observed one. The result will be the same kind of occurrence, but it will never be the same occurrence. The idea of the exact copy is, in fact, an utopistic notion.

This statement provides us with the lowest level of Movement analysis: the common notion of the unity of the kinetic experience. We are not interested in abstract ideas of movement when we analyze movement because the field of KIN is not philosophy. We study movement as a living movement so we need not have in our experience the necessity for the exact copy as a foundation criterion of the grammar system. This issue is related to the feature of time. The lowest level of formal movement analysis in KIN system can be considered the concept of _natural_. In this paper we will mean by natural every occurrence which reflects the biological character of the human body. The lowest level of KIN has to be the observable and reproducible aspect of movement: "The feel of movement preceding the performance is a mental act" (R.L.: 15).

Each occurrence which cannot be reproduced and observed in objective terms is out of the specific field of Kinetography. There are two considerations in the relationship between the practice of noting dances in connection with music: the first is between the KIN and musical notation and the second is about movement and sound perception. Looking at the different solutions of the two systems, we can observe problems with unclear terminology which reveals a misunderstanding of category in some cases and the mixing of category in analyzing time experiences in movement in other cases.
Our work was carried out in a parallel way in the two fields and in the two systems. But the complexity of the problems required frequent investigations in other fields of analysis. The matter was to understand why it was possible to mix these categories and why it is a problem to record time experience. By intuition and by literary experience we know that the problem with time is a global problem in the life of man and so we decided to preserve this sense of complexity when writing this paper.

The system and its application in scores have been studied at these different levels:

  1. symbolical-conceptual ( movement classificatory analysis)
  2. structural-systemic ( syntactical analysis)
  3. orthographic grammatical ( grammatical analysis)

During the analysis of the material three kinds of problems arose:

  1. The unclear analysis of the reality of movement and, as a result, the mixing of analytical categories.
  2. The loss of homogeneity in using verbal terminology related to time experience and the lack of clarification about the solution adopted.
  3. The mixing of analytical categories. In particular the very frequent use of some principles belonging to other systems which were inconsistent when relating them to the movement in the Laban system of analysis.
    (I refer here to musical notation, because it is the most frequent occurrence, but there is the mathematical model and other evaluative systems involved in this issue too).

*Dance and time*

In a very general sense dance is made up of time and can also be out of time. The sense of time is its limit and its matter. In many cultures the place of dance keeps man out of the current time, out of the measured time. This issue is reflected in the mythical structure of the culture too: tragedy and history start when the correspondence between man and ecological time is broken. The dancer, in this context belongs to the myth because he overthrows the historical order. In our reality we use time sometimes in a mythic, ritual sense and sometimes in a historical, scientific frame.
Further we will try to analyse the problems which arise in applying a scientific method to a conceptual, mythical world of movement. The meeting point is the physical occurrence and this is the central object of Kinetography, the only way to connect conceptual life and scientific method.

*Continuity or recurrence*

Space/Time/Energy are categories which become indicators of existing valid human experience on one hand as individual and, on the second, as part of an ecosystem and of a society. The time experience originates measure system and symbolical expressions which are often structured on different values in the scientific and philosophic reflection. The reason for this conceptual differentiation of the time dimension is basically due to a biological character: the time perception is not "pure".That is why cultures, myths, scientific thought utilize analogical criteria to define it. Time is a relative experience for man. It is perceived as a basic and inner element of movement; the absence or presence of time means an absence or presence of movement itself. The time category is perceptible only in and throughout the experience of movement. The time experience is measurable only in its relation to the "other". If we mean by "time" this occurrence, then its standard dimension taken into account is named durata - duree - dauer- duration; in English, the term "length" is used which is derived from a spatial criterion. These terms are used with the meaning of "continuous flowing" of moments, but the perceptive experience of duration doesn't exist as an absolute category. For this reason time measured with a linear criterion is a prison for man.

Timing is a complex experience based on categorization of reality. Perceived time is based on recurrence of factors. We perceive the heart because it beats, on the contrary we are not able to distinguish the continuous flowing of blood. The natural perception of time is based on the recurrence of energy in our space ( human-centric) contrasting or agreeing with recurrences of energy in the space around us (eco- centric). At this level we can utilize a human- centric criterion based on stress and effort, or an eco-centric criterion, based on independent factors . The necessity to equate artificial times with bioecological time, necessitates measured times at an individual level. Through experience we know that man chooses to adjust his living time according to nature, otherwise he cannot survive. The idea of a "continuous flowing" is an abstract concept derived from the experience of the relationship between various dimensions of reality.

The idea of "durata" implies a continuous recurrence of equal impulses and not precisely a continuous flowing of something. The idea of continuous flowing of time is an abstraction.

Timing of Movement Duration

This abstraction is the historical foundation of the necessity of measured time. Therefore the scientific definition of time as absolute category is an abstraction. The human experience utilizes other evaluation criteria such as the subjective perception of timing and the cyclic organization of the calendar whether individual or cultural.

Perception, culture and myth identifies timing, basing it on the relationship between force and space. The recurrence of this happening or of this relation gives the measure parameter i.e the unity; a criterion based on recurrence instead of continuity.

*The organization of time perception*

Cultural and social time is a historical determination. We need a common criterion for doing things together (simultaneity) or separately (succession). Man needs to think about time as an independent category. Simultaneity and succession are the criteria of occurrence for being and acting; they are based on perception and they give sense to the experience.

Man uses himself, and its biological time only to identify the passing state, the minimum element (=the time of a breath, of a heart beat), at last to define the moment of his presence in a place. The presence of a force , of an energy in space is expressed in term of existence.Time is, above all, a category derived by a comparative use of the different sensorial perceptions. The manifestation of visual space and sound directly organizes sensorial perception: man perceives himself in a space and in a world of sounds. The criteria in organizing time experiences change if the sound space changes. The only parameter which is fixed is the experience of simultaneity and succession.

The interval between the manifestation of an energy and its disappearance gives the dimension of its existence, named time. If time is a dimension which indicates dynamic existence, duration defines the continuity of dynamic existence i.e. the flowing of energy which originates existence. We call duration the dimension of insistence, i.e. it defines the insistence of an energy in space. Duration, whatever its content, can be seen as the validation in terms of the existence of a force in the perceivable world. It becomes a dimension of time only in its relation to the other two magnitudes of space and energy. In human terms it is represented by a relative value of the two dimensions of energy and space. The magnitude time, in its dimension of duration, has to be measured in order to be an object of comparison and then of scientific observation. The evaluation can be realized only in relation to the elements of energy and space.

The adoption of a criterion to estimate, called meter (metro), nearly always resolves the problem of measuring space, energy and time. In our culture metric time is a quantitative one and expresses the relative terms of the relation between the presence of a phenomenon and a referent unit named measure unit or measure (misura). The problem is to identify the measure of the time dimension which is able to value the duration in univocal terms.

Now, in this paper, when speaking about the relation between time occurrences and Laban Kinetography, we will use those definitions:

  1. "Time" - "timing" (tempo): If not stated differently, is a period of periodical astronomical rhythm, commonly defined as" chronological time".
  2. "Simultaneity" is the coexistence of two events or actions, and energies, or objects in the same period of the same metric system of timing.
  3. "Succession" is the presence of certain events, actions etc. in different periods of the same metric system of timing.
  4. "Rhythm", if it's not stated differently, the recurrence of a periodical event. The character of the periodical event is expressed by the adjective metrical and dynamic. (Metrical rhythm is based on the periodical recurrences of measured units; dynamic rhythm is based on the recurrence of an impulse)
  5. "Meter" or "metrical rhythm" is the rhythm based on the recurrence of a measured unit.
  6. "Duration" or "timing" is the parameter of measuring the dimension of the existence of a force, or body, in a space.
  7. "Value" is the relation between the periods measured with the "timing" parameter. This term substitutes what was commonly called "duration" (5).

*The measure of the time phenomenon*

The systems to evaluate and measure time are based on the coexistence and succession of different phenomena, that is on the comparison of the different orders of "greatness". The only parameter founded on perception is the constant repetition of a phenomenon. The identical repetition is a necessary condition to evaluate and measure any phenomenon. The constant repetition of a phenomenon is the ordering and measuring criterion for time in its dimension of duration. This occurrence we call rhythm.

Rhythm, or the constant repetition of impulses/phenomena, is the meter (measure) of the dimension of time called duration. The interval between the appearance of the impulse/ phenomena and its recurrence is called period. In other terms, the dimension of time, named duration, is perceived and represented as a phase in a cycle of energy.

The metric systems are founded on the evaluation of coexistence and succession as effects of a rhythmic phase. So by "coexistence" we mean two phenomena which take place in the same period, in the phases between the appearance of a third referent phenomena and its recurrence. By "successive" we mean two phenomena which take place in a different period but of the same referent rhythm (4). The period is the specific field of the dimension of duration. On this notion we need to equate the evaluative tools. The problem is which is the referent value to choose, which kind of parameter has to be adopted. The historical solutions have been different .

Time is an inner dimension of movement.Man evaluates it in a realistic way only referring to the movement of a body in space or to the rising and decreasing of an energy in space. Otherwise he needs to use abstract and conventional referring systems. In everyday life energy is perceived through movement. Consequently the meter of duration is commonly obtained through the evaluation of the relation between energy and space visible in motion/movement. During this operation sometimes the accent is placed on space (moment) and sometimes on energy (impulse).

For man, timing is a categorization which forms perception; the basic solution is founded on the minimal motor units of the human experience. The moment (minimal unit of movement) indicates the minimum unit of timing related to a body moving in space; the impulse (minimal unit of energy) indicates the minimal unit of energy originating movement. These terms reflect the perception of time. Man, actually, values duration with functional criteria like "a period necessary to go from one point to another one", or "a period in which force and energy are consumed". A society chooses unities which are based on rhythm shared by the community. One such is the alternation of light and dark, present in the first page of Genesis as an alternative to the chaos that gave origin to the world. From this first principle the system for chronological time has been historically developed during the centuries arriving, in our culture, to a mathematical subdivision.

Man utilizes the occurrence of movement to state the metric system of time. This permits him to express the idea of duration. He conventionally uses a wide rhythm (astral rhythm - seasonal rhythm...) as an absolute parameter to measure the experience of duration. This practise has been conceptualized, in different historical periods, as an abstract time continuum (chronos). In this framework, the rhythm ( metrical measure) of the sensible aspects of the world is conceived as a division in this ideal continuum: the experience of rhythm related to the ideal continuum is named "time" ( tempo). Even if this rhythm is conceived as an absolute value, in any case duration (timing) is measured as a period in the rhythm. The system for measuring time is based on motor recurrences and is expressed by a relative value. (2 hours means 1/12 of the period of recurrence of sunrise). The relation between a rhythm ( es: one breath) and a referent rhythm (4 heartbeats) is expressed by a relation (1 to 4 ). We commonly say that one breath lasts 4 heartbeats. So we intend for duration the relation between those rhythms. So we express the period of a relative duration with the value of the relation between different units. We call meter (metro), metrical time or generically time (tempo) the rhythm chosen as referent to measure other experiences to speak of other rhythms. Meter, or metrical time or tempo is a system of proportional measure based on minimal units which become an evaluation criterion for other periodical systems expressed in different periods or of a different nature. The expression "metric rhythm" is commonly used as synonymous to meter, with the connotation of rhythm based on the recurrences of measured units. Only the term "meter" has more than three connotations, and the term " tempo" " time" is used in many different ways.

*The relationship between Kinetography and the musical score*

Notation and Verbal Description

Because timing is an inner character of movement it is graphically expressed in the KIN system by a parameter in the symbol for movement, length. KIN was invented to analyze movement and to create dance, and not with the purpose to record movement. When using Kinetograms in relation to the traditional musical score, it begins a problem of consistence.
The system of signs of the musical score reminds to the player the measured system of making music in the well-known context of occidental classic music.

The correspondence with dance will be evident only in a very general way using the traditional score with indications of chronological time. The use of marks to indicate time resolves the problem of general timing and of the general variation of speed in music and also in the KIN score. The two systems, KIN and music, utilize the same two external criteria to evaluate the referent unit of time. In fact the spatial unit indicating the flowing of time is the same for the two and the indication is absolutely clear in the reading. The solution for a complete correspondence between sound and movement can only be obtained by using the sonogramma which gives the dimension of the relative values of timing in linear terms as KIN does. If it is needed, of course.

However, the main problem is in the first phases of the work involving the notation of a dance; and this is due to the problem of cultural absolutism. If we measure time with the proportional units that we have from the musical system, we will use it in a prescriptive way. We will organize our information according to that system. This is due to historical factors. In fact western classical dance developed as an art in direct connection to music and only in this context was it necessary to be analyzed and notated. And further, only in this context is there any necessity to transmit a dance to any outsider not in direct connection with the dance creation. The choreographer who works in that specific context arranges and interprets his perception according to the metrical system which he knows. But, he uses the vocabulary of the musical system instead of translating the timing of movement. Movement expresses a possible project of the human body in space, and Laban thought KIN to reflect the possibilities for the projects and not to record a series of datas. Furthermore, musical notation is not even adequate for the dynamic reality of sound, let alone for the dynamic analysis of movement.

In analysing dance, even if it is a dance organized on a musical idea, the a-priori adoption of the parameter used in the musical score is illogical and incongruous. The result will be a false notation if the transcription relates to a repertoire which doesn't belong to classical ballet or measured music. Often the scholar takes into consideration the organization of motor faculties under a pre-conceived point of view because in this way he organizes perception in his memory. When he considers the reality of the "object", he notices the multitude of exceptions to the rules.
Exceptions which are not in the text of the dance (dance has no exceptions because is a unique event) but in his mind. He sees exceptions that are created by the preexistent system he used to interpret that dance. Here the problem begins of how to invent words and symbols for the KIN score which are not caused by the reality of movement, but rather, by the conventional way of looking at dance from the conventional musical point of view. In this case the problem seems to be at the moment of analysis, when there can be a misunderstanding of what the motor experience really is. One possible solution is to change the musical score adapting it to an analytical way of recording music and movement.

Even in the musical context the dynamic content of speed is often lost. For this reason indications are often added to the musical score to clarify the gestural aspect of the music. An experiment was made in analyzing a traditional execution of a violin and drum played in a performance adding a notation of the performers' bodies in Kinetography (see Staro 1988).

The relationship between energy and space in speed has not a direct analogical representation in the Laban System of Notation, but results from the expression of the relationship between space and time. The structure of Kinetography tries to be a sign of the scientific observation of a reality graphically expressed by the score. In KIN the choosing of the time criteria is a problem of analytical work in understanding reality, not exactly a problem in the system.We can resolve the problem of general timing using marks like the temporized score, or we can decide from time to time which kind of unit is our parameter.
Nobody hinders us in using the recurrence of an impulse of energy as a unit. This choice points out an intensive use of energy as stylistic criterion and can be closer to the "intention" of movement. The usage of time/energy organized as criterion of measuring time is a very frequent issue in many different cultures.
Examples of this are sequences based on recurrences in agog accents and/or in metrical-musical rhythmic accents. The issue is resolved by stressing the indication below the staff which explains the fact that we are using a measured external system of timing which implies the use of metrical or intensive accents .

*Metrics*

Man needs to clarify the categorization of perception. This is needed for the process of memorization, the process of transmission and the creation of models for acting. So he selects and chooses kinetic or phonetic units to state a criterion for the purpose of ordering a reality. The parameter for the consistence in the system is the constant recurrence of elements of the same nature (for example, sounds). This operation is made possible thanks to the opposition between two aspects of the same evaluative parameter. For example if we use the parameter of sound, we analyze intensity and select polarity (flat or loud). The result is the attribution of a value to the single unit and to the compositional elements of the texts built on this system. The metric system presumes the common knowledge of a conventional rhythmic system which makes possible and valid the succession and the measure of the periods in terms of timing, in this way attributing a value to the units of the system. Metrics (metrica) is not a simple ordering system, but it is a complex proportional one. It is a system for the purpose of ordering the time succession which evaluates the formal rhythmic composition on a basis of how its periodical elements are constituted. The rhythmic referent system does not necessarily have to be universally shared: metrics is, therefore, a system of norms and its validity is culturally and conventionally stated.

The application fields of this codex are mainly two: sound and movement . We can have different kinds of metrics for sound. Quantitative metrics is founded on the quantity of syllables and the rhythmical recurrence is discriminated by the alternation of different numbers of phonetic units in a verse. Qualitative metrics is based on the alternation of phonetic units with different lengths. Accentual metrics is built on the recurrence and disposition of a tonic accent with different intensity. Finally, melodic metrics is founded on the recurrence of different melodic intonations.

Our culture organizes the language of sound in all its parameters with the metric system. In script, and also in musical notation, many differents aspects are resumed in one graphic symbol. For example, the measure line can indicate the recurrence of the tonic accent and also the measure of the quantitative meter; the shape of the notes indicates the value in the qualitative metric system and their position indicates the periodical occurrence in the quantitative metric.
In ancient Greek poetry, the accent indicates: intensity, melodic intonation and timing in the production of sound . We have to remember that the musical score as well as written poetry, had a mnemotecnic function in a basically oral-oriented culture.

For what concerns movement, we must say that it presents a problem. In theory, duration, conventionally intended as a linear projection and referred to as a system of measure for timing, can be valued in a metric system only in its relation to energy and space. But, in practice, the metric system related to movement presupposes the reference to timing as a rhythmic event. Generally there are two metrical systems used: the accentual one and the formal one. In accentual metric the validation is made on the basis of the recurrence of different quantities of stress (energy)in the impulse originating movement. The quantity of energy is compared to the standard consumption which is necessary to execute the displacement intended as "natural" and related to an external rhythm expressed in a conventional way. Formal metric is founded on the periodical recurrence of displacement in space (movement) valued as spatial expression (rotation/straight; small/large) which is related to another external rhythm, for example, the periodical recurrence in timing of an external impulse.

The common practice in dance uses these systems as compositional and creative patterns. But these parameters are rarely taken into consideration when analyzing movement because they were not a subject of artistic literature even if they were and still are at the basis of the aesthetic experience in dance. An indifference to these factors can originate misunderstanding and difficulties in the interpretation of the world of movement. In dance the word " metro" indicates a complex qualitative metric system. It values the time-period of execution of a movement comparing it to an external metric system of evaluation like, for example,
the musical or the chronometric one.

It organizes those different periods into motifs or models relating them to another perceivable rhythmical occurrence like, for example a breath which in turn is related to the musical pulse or a recurring intensive stress related to other acoustic stresses (like in the practice of "counting").
It is a proportional mixed system and, because of its musical derivation and common use, can be useful as a digression in the musical field. Looking at other dance repertoires it is possible to observe different creative criteria: for example, the compositional criterion is often done by relaxing/stressing in energy or by alternating rotation and directional paths and the musical creation is adapted to these criteria. There are examples in which dance gives to musicians the mnemotecnic graphic symbols (6). KIN permits us to see this feature of the dance experience, even though the observer does not care about it. Ignorance of these compositional metrics can end in the misunderstanding of the musical metrics too and in an incorrect and false notation of the dance.
Many problems in trying to link music and dance are due to the different codes which attempt to interpret the two sides of the experience. For example, the dancer usually acts composing stresses and formal movement, while the attention for the musical metric complexity is left apart. The analyst can "interpret" the shifting of stress in movement relating it to a musical one, as though it were an "error" while it is intentional. Here the problem is not how to note intention, but how to note the composition of the movement. The "error" is in the eyes and in the "intention" of the observer-analyst, not in the reality of the dance nor in the system of notation. There is a common misunderstanding when analyzing dance which attributes the musical rhythmic idea to the dancer even if the observation shows us that the correspondence doesn't exist. This "error" of the observer-analyst results in a regularized notation of the dance.

*Notes*