4. His innovations in the theatre (P.25-30)

• P.25 It soon became clear to him [Laban] that no matter how, or in what form, the theatre might manifest itself, at the centre of it all was human expression using the human instrument - the body. He recognised that it was through movement that feelings, moods and ideas were conveyed and that voice was part of the whole, simply another manifestation of movement.
• P.26 He [Laban] became known in Europe as the father of modern dance and his approach became known as 'free dance', 'expressive dance' and, because at that time he was working in Germany, as the 'new German dance'.
• For Laban there were only two types of human activity: doing, the movement that was obviously purposeful, and dancing, done for expression and re-creation.
• P.27 He [Laban] drafted rhythmic scores for collaborators to work from and wrote the music for some of his early works himself. He enjoyed making use of percussion of all kinds, played by dancers as well as musicians. He also explored the effectiveness of many other forms of sound and developed especially the association of the speech choir with the dance with great success. {Music}
• Of course dancers must have skills and a well-trained body, but there were qualities, he maintained, that were more important than mere technique. Coordination, flexibility, control and, above all, rhythmic versatility (多才多藝) were amongst his priorities....What he looked for in his dancers was the capacity to create and re-create and to explore ideas through improvisation. {how to choose dancers}
• Making a dance was the coming together of a group of creative people who, trained in physical expressiveness, could stimulate each other to develop the final work of art.
• P.28 He was never happy with the traditional architectural form of theatre, which tended to force what he emphasised was a three-dimensional art into a two-dimensional setting. Laban experimented with various levels and shapes of platform and rostra and explored differing relationships between dancers and audience, from time to time letting the performers spill into the auditorium. Whenever he could he brought the audience on to three sides, so denying the picture-frame and reinstating the presentation as an ever-changing pattern of human relationships with all their plasticity (可塑性) and power. He shunned scenery preferring the dance in an open space to speak for itself. {Stage}
• P.29 He [Laban] established the importance of realising that dancers come in many shapes and styles, each with a wide variety of expressive movement. He proved that value of seeing each dancer as an artist, of seeing each dance as an experimental and creative process, and of seeing the art of dance itself as an open, free form of expression capable of communicating the most light-hearted to the most significant of themes.