Kildare County Council Dance Summer School

DANCE IN KILDARE

Kildare County Council’s Arts Service, through its Dance Artist in Residence programme, with Cathy O’Kennedy identified a need for training in Community Dance in the Kildare area. As a result, the Laban Guild Community Dance Leaders Course was established in 2002, in association with Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge. The Laban based Summer School follows on from the success of the Community Dance Leaders Course.

THE LABAN GUILD

The Laban Guild is a non-profit making, international organisation, founded in 1946 by Rudolf Laban. The main function of the Guild is to promote and advance the study of Laban based movement and dance. Individual members include dancers, teachers, academics, actors, therapists and many others who wish to develop expression and communication through movement and dance.

RUDOLF LABAN

Rudolf Laban was born in Bratislava and travelled extensively throughout Central Europe. Laban was a fascinating person, an influential figure in 20th century dance and a key figure in Dadaism. He was a dancer, choreographer, actor, artist, sculptor, theatre producer, educator, therapist, writer and advisor to industry.

Laban’s research led to his outstanding achievement: A systematic analysis of movement in relation to dynamic use of the body in space. He identified 4 fundamentals in relation to movement:

THE BODY Body parts we can use and body actions we can perform WHAT
SPACE Direction, level and pathway WHERE
EFFOR Dynamics or movement quality HOW
RELATIONSHIP Interaction with other people, objects, etc WITH WHOM

Rudolf Laban (1897-1958) ‘A visionary, a mystic, a lover, a leader, an artist, a teacher, a theorist. Laban was all these things and more’.
Valerie Preston-Dunlop, Rudolf Laban: An Extraordinary Life (1998) Dance Books