Rudolf Laban

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Arts & Culture

Rudolf Laban

European dance theorist

Also known as: Rudolf von Laban

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Mar 20, 2024 • Article History

Category: Arts & Culture

Also called:: Rudolf Von Laban

Born:: Dec. 15, 1879, Bratislava, Austria-Hungary [now in Slovakia]

Died:: July 1, 1958, Weybridge, Surrey, Eng. (aged 78)

Movement / Style:: Modernism

Subjects Of Study:: choreutics; dance; labanotation; eukinetics

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Rudolf Laban (born Dec. 15, 1879, Bratislava, Austria-Hungary [now in Slovakia]—died July 1, 1958, Weybridge, Surrey, Eng.) was a dance theorist and teacher whose studies of human motion provided the intellectual foundations for the development of central European modern dance. Laban also developed Labanotation, a widely used movement-notation system. Originally interested in painting and architecture, Laban began to study dance in Paris. After choreographing ballets and directing several art festivals, he established his Choreographic Institute in Zürich in 1915 and later founded branches in Italy, France, and central Europe. In 1928 he published Kinetographie Laban, a practical method for recording ...(100 of 314 words)

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