Laban

Laban movement qualities 

CHARACTER

When applying Laban techniques to my character Henry, it was very eye opening as I got to master his physicality by matching up my idea of Henry with a Laban technique. After exploring the 8 different Laban movement qualities I decided that Henry most suited GLIDE. This was because my idea of Henry was that he was of course very royal and high up, but also very graceful and purposeful. He walked everywhere strong and with a purpose ( direct ) but was elegant and refined in the way he did so ( light). Adjusting the GLIDE from extravagant to more naturalistic was helpful as i could see where i felt Henry would be placed, my end result was more towards the naturalistic side but it still carried an element of extravagance. 

We then applied a Laban movement to a scenario that could possibly be our opening scene. The scenario was at woman’s work factory (where our play is set), everyone is busy with their own job when suddenly a telegram is delivered to Sophie which informs her of her husbands death. I decided to apply PUNCH to my factory worker as not only was this quite different to Henry but was also an interesting character match to explore. When Sophie received her news i kept getting on with my own business and didn't take my eyes of where i was going and what i was moving. I decided that to the outside eye my character would appear quite unsympathetic but inside my character was an undertone, this was that she didn't want to think about telegrams or react to Sophie’s news as it would just make her think about her husband or son causing her pain and sadness, so by focusing on the work, took her mind elsewhere.

I found looking at Laban enjoyable but mostly incredibly useful as it allowed me to focus on the intricate details in my characters. I knew that a characters physicality could change the way they were perceived but I didn't know how the small details in the physicality's could make the audience see completely different personalitys, just from being direct or indirect, heavy or light and sustained or quick. Through the development of my character, by applying Laban techniques I can make conscious physical choices and movements depending on which Laban movement choices works best with the character.