Laban Effort Graph

Laban Effort Graph

The Laban effort analysis is very crucial in understanding the effort of body movements in any dance performance (Hodgson 7). Here, I analyzed Wyspiański’s “We_selle” dance using the four categories in Laban effort analysis, namely: Body, effort shape and space.

Body

The starting point and the central axis of the body performance is the marriage ceremony, which is a unique way that shows the personality of the wedding guests, their complicated relationships and the innate need for routine. This is a breakthrough moment in the life of the bride and groom, associated with tradition and an attempt to maintain its continuity. A wedding is not only a reservoir of body entertainment but a time of watching each other, making an examination of body conscience and thus creating oneself in the eyes of others. There is a scene in which the dancers form a chain of their bodies, such a chain of bonds, even though it quickly breaks down, especially in memory. The choreographer, a former dancer of the Silesian Dance, skillfully combines elements of contemporary Body dance technique, performance, improvised with video outcrops and live soundscape.

Effort

Whilst Wojciech Frycz’s energetic music is flavoured with visualizations, Mochnieja’s choreography is exceedingly dynamic, effective and demands much energy. Paradoxically, with all this staging excitement, “We_selle” seems to be a very intimate personal performance. This is a bitter but at the same time full of romanticism look at contemporary Poland. The movement spectacle echoes the classics of Wyspiański’s “We_selle,” from which the motive for the breakup of community and interpersonal relations by Gombrowicz taken in an attempt to fight form any communication problem. In “We_selle,” there were also references to contemporary and popular cultural body efforts, for example, to the films of Wojciech Smarzowski, who treated the moment of the wedding as a situation in which the lens focuses human defects and reveals his demons..

Shape

The heroes of the performance gesticulate, make exaggerated body movements shapes, to communicate in vain. It turns out that belonging to a community is ambiguous with “entanglement” in it. The element of “communion,” a real community, not to mention the “communion group” – a close community of affirmative people is missing. The problem of toxicity of human interpersonal relations was raised here. The configuration of literary inspirations in choreography must not miss the iconic struggle with form, playing with conventions and social diagnosis lined up with the use of a bodily alphabet. The overriding idea is to show the complexity of human behaviour.

Space

In the center of events is a young couple accompanied by a crowd of laughing guests that, when revealed, they are dressed in a festive, adequate to the situation. There is also a protagonist – an ethereal dancer in an ethereal, pastel dress. He dances with extraordinary lightness since he is the only one without shoes in which begins timidly. The young couple is holding hands, the wedding guests take their places, and the party is slowly starting up. When alcohol appears on the table, the minor atmosphere warms up. Positive vibrations appear as the actors flip through glass bottles, and the action gathers space. As time passes, the stage action thickens, the first disputes and misunderstandings appear, and the wedding hopes concealed until now arise. The heroes huddled in a small space, stimulated by the percentages hitting their minds, let lose their imagination and break the conceptual corset that has been binding them so far.

Reference

Hodgson, J. (2016). Mastering movement: the life and work of Rudolf Laban. Routledge.