Spatial Locations & Directions Thread
New Items for DNB Theory Bulletin Board
Submitted by Ann Hutchinson Guest - January 10, 2003
As
we progress with the revision of the basic Labanotation textbook, more items
are coming up which need general discussion. Some arise from usages developed
in Motif Notation. [For further items see Guest,
Body Portions thread, January 10, 2003; Guest,
Flexion/Extension thread, January 10, 2003]
SHIFTS IN MIDDLE
LEVEL
For body parts
shifting into a middle level direction, it has been the practice in Labanotation
to leave out the dot; only the = sign appears in the direction symbol, as
in 1a.
In Motif Notation
a blank direction symbol means that the level is left open to choice, 1b.
Choice of level can also be indicated more directly by adding a vertical ad
lib. sign within the symbol, 1c.
In the revised
Chapter 19 of the LN text, the Calaban drawing of the shifting indications
came out as in 1d, the dot being very close to the = sign. More than one reader
asked what this sign meant. The question also asked was why was the dot needed.
A
compromise is needed. Can 1a, which indicates a particular type of movement,
i.e. a shift, be understood to be in middle level (the previous LN understanding).
Can Motif always
use 1c when level for any direction is to be free? Then in LN, 1e would be
a forward shift in any level, linked to the meaning of 1c.
SHIFTING THE
HEAD
Which
head symbol, the letter C or the boxed c, is best used for shifts of the head?
Is 2a or is 2b more appropriate?
Since the change in how such shifts are written, this question
has not been pinned down. Is the area sign more appropriate? Is the C sign
understood more as the extension of the spine, inclining, like a ‘limb’,
into different directions, 2c, or rotating, as in 2d? Does the idea of an
area fit better the concept of the displacement, the straight path motion?
TOWARD
AUDIENCE
In 3a the meaning is motion toward the audience. Is it clear that the sign
of 3b means "the audience"?
In 3c the instruction is to look to the Front, the forward Constant direction
in the room. Does this also mean to look at the audience?
Wherever you are on stage, the orientation sign of 3b means "face the
audience", i.e. that part of the audience that is in front of you.
With this meaning, then 3c means looking at that part of the audience that
is in front of you.
Therefore 3a must mean a movement toward that part of audience you are facing,
or, if facing into another direction, that part of the audience toward which
your gesture will be directed.
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