A prototype/deflection hypothesis can be identified within the choreutic conception which posits that the spatial aspect of bodily movements and positions are mentally conceived in terms of easily imagined dimensional and diagonal prototypical directions whereas actual body movements occur as deflections of the dimensions and diagonals, referred to as “inclinations”. Considerable support can be found for this hypothesis in cognitive research and kinesiological analysis.
IVA.41 General Statements.
The prototype/deflection hypothesis in choreutics has not been concisely stated but is alluded to in various places where dimensions and diagonals are considered to be mental prototypes while deflected “inclinations” occur in actual body movement:
Because the body limits the fulfillment of perfect three-dimensional shapes that pure diagonals would offer, most three-dimensional shapes are created through modified diagonals . . . These are available to the body. (Bartenieff and Lewis, 1980, p. 33)
The principles of choreutics can easily be developed by taking the cube as the basis of our spatial orientation. The conception of the cube as a basis is not a compromise but a fundamental principle [ie. conceptual prototype] of our orientation in space. In practice, harmonious movement of living beings is of a fluid and curving nature which can be more clearly symbolized by a scaffolding [ie. kinespheric network] closer to a spheric shape [ie. the icosahedron]. (Laban, 1966, p. 101)
The [spatial] order within a cube -- when looked upon purely as a space form without relationship to the body or its uses -- is easily comprehended because of the right angles and equal edges. [However] If we relate our moving body to this [cubic] order we shall at first meet with some difficulties. (Ullmann, 1966, p. 139)
The “difficulties” arise since actual body movements do not conform to the shape of a cube. Bartenieff and Lewis (1980, pp. 89-91) report that pure dimensional oriented movements, pure diagonal oriented movements, or movements purely within one of the Cartesian planes “rarely appear in pure form” but that they sometimes may be observed in small isolated gestures. Instead of dimensions or diagonals it is observed that actual body movements occur along inclinations:
Such inclinations of the pathways of our gestures which have combined directional values [ie. primary, secondary, tertiary spatial components] are very frequent. In fact they are the rule rather than the exception.
(Ullmann, 1971, p. 17)
One of the essential discoveries which arose from the study of movement is that of the crystalline structure of man’s movement possibilities. I found this out very early . . . that people, in spite of their differences of race and civilization, had something in common in their movement patterns. This was most obvious in the expressions of emotional excitement. I observed that in these patterns certain points in space around the body were specially stressed. In joining these points, I arrived at a regular crystal form . . . an icosahedron . . .
. . . Man is inclined to follow the connecting lines of the twelve corner points of an icosahedron with his movements in traveling as it were along an invisible network of paths. (Laban, 1951, pp. 10–11)
It is evident that Laban “found this out very early” since in his early work (Laban, 1926) the notation system (vector symbols; see IVA.14) consisted only of pure dimensions, pure diagonals, and inclinations. It appears that Laban considered these directions to be sufficient to represent the various spatial patterns of body movement. The vector symbols provide the prototypes (dimensions and diagonals) and the deflections (inclinations).
The later specification of primary deflections (diameters) and secondary deflections (cuboctahedral inclinations) distinguished intermediary stages in the gradual process of deflection through primary, secondary, and tertiary deflections (see IVA.20). Each deflection represents body movement which is more and more natural or organic. For example, the rectangular (icosahedral) planes are considered more organic than the dimensions, and the inclinations are considered more organic than the planes:
Whilst the human body is not capable of making a purely one-dimensional movement, it can move, although in a rather restricted and hampered way, in the above mentioned [dimensional] planes. (Ullmann, 1966, p. 141)
In considering man’s natural way of moving we have so far stated that: (a) purely one-dimensional movement never occurs; (b) two-dimensional [planar] movement is possible but does not really correspond to the potential of human movement . . . (Ullmann, 1966, p. 143)
Laban (1966, p. 90) appears to describe how the mental conception of dimensions and diagonals arises from the cognitive analytical “role of the outside observer” and the resultant “certain rigidity of thinking”. While in contrast to this the physical actuality of deflected movements arises from the “bodily perspective” with “a more dynamic view of reality” in which “we should try to feel it [movement] sympathetically from within”.
Different terms have been used to describe the process of deflection in choreutics. For example, Ullmann (1966) refers to how a pure diagonal is “influenced by” a pure dimension (p. 145) to create a “flat deviation of the diagonal” (p. 147), whereas she later lists these as “deflections” (p. 148). In another place Ullmann (1971) writes about “deriving” an inclination from a dimension and a diagonal (p. 17) or the “transformation” consisting of “replacing” a dimensional movement with an inclination (p. 22). An inclination is a “‘harmonic mean’” between a pure dimension and a pure diagonal (Bodmer, 1979, p. 18) such that the diagonal is “modified” (Bartenieff and Lewis, 1980, p. 43) and occurs as flat, steep, and suspended “variations” of a diagonal (Dell, 1972, p. 10). If a distinction is intended between deflecting, deviating, deriving, varying, transforming, modifying, or replacing it is not consistent in the literature. These all appear to refer to the same process of producing physical variations of the dimensional and diagonal conceptual prototypes.
IVA.42 Dimensions and Diagonals as Spatial Prototypes.
In all types of spatial conception, and also choreutics, the dimensions are considered to be the most prototypical directions. Laban (1966) referred to them as the “basic elements of orientation” and so the solid object which is “easiest to visualize, is the cube” (p. 11). At another place he indicates that the dimensional cross is to be considered as the “norm” and other directions to be a “digression from the given norm” (p. 15 [footnote]). This further indicates the dimensions as the prototypical directions with other directions as variations or digressions from the prototype. Or the three dimensions and the four diagonals are referred to as the "seven fundamental cross-sections of space" , and their deflections into the twelve diameters as the "twelve cross-sections which are tempered" (p. 118). The dimensions are also described as the “orthogonal axes”, the “simplest frame of reference” and so are the most “basic” for the conception of space (Salter, 1977, p. 129). Thus, the cubic conception of space with the dimensional orientation of its edges is the simplest, most prototypical, easiest to conceive, division of space into definable regions:
The spheric form of the kinesphere is simplified [differentiated] by our cubic conception of space. We recognize the cube inside the kinesphere as being representative of the most important space directions. (Laban, 1966, p. 18)
IVA.43 Dimensions and Diagonals as Dynamic Prototypes.
The dimensions, together with the pure diagonals, are also conceived to be representative of prototypical dynamics referred to as stability and mobility (or liability*). Laban (1966) characterises movements oriented along Cartesian dimensions as being “stable and always connected with the perpendicular support”. This is in contrast to movements oriented along pure diagonal directions “which have a tendency to real mobility, bring the body into situations which lack the perpendicular support . . . [thus] our body flies or falls” (p. 88). And so “The two contrasting fundamentals on which all choreutic harmony is based are the dimensional tension and the diagonal tension” (p. 44)
[The] dimensions, seem to have in themselves certain equilibrating qualities . . . a feeling of stability. This means that dimensions are primarily used in stabilising movement, in leading it to relative rest, to poses or pauses. (Laban, 1966, p. 90)
Movements following space diagonals give . . . a feeling of growing disequilibrium, or of losing balance. . . . Real mobility is, therefore, almost always produced by the diagonal qualities . . . (Laban, 1966, p. 90)
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* In Europe “liability” is typically used while “mobility” is more common in America. Preston-Dunlop (1996) reports that mobility was used in a more basic way; “in Laban’s practice he used lability for diagonal mobility and stability for dimensional mobility”. However, other reviewers of Laban’s work consider mobility and lability to be used synonymously (Maletic, 1987, pp. 52-53). This distinction does not appear to be critical to this thesis and the term “mobility” will be (arbitrarily) used here.
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This is equivalent to the “first principal of body mechanics” which states that “As long as the line of gravity remains inside the base of support the body is stable; if it falls outside of the base, the balance is lost” (Rasch and Burke, 1978, p. 98). Laban and Ullmann state the choreutic prototype/deflection hypothesis according to these prototypes of stability and mobility:
Since every movement is a composite of stabilising and mobilising tendencies, and since neither pure stability nor pure mobility exist, it will be the deflected or mixed inclinations [ie. mixture of dimensions and diagonals] which are the more apt to reflect trace-forms of living matter. (Laban, 1966, p. 90)
. . . the deflected directions are those directions which, in contrast to the stable dimensions and to the labile diagonals, are used by the body most naturally and therefore the most frequently. In these deflected directions stability and lability complement each other in such a way that continuation of movement is possible through the diagonal element whilst the dimensional element retains its stabilising influence. The deflected directions in the icosahedron . . . are easily felt because they correspond to the directions natural to the moving body. (Ullmann, 1966, p. 145)
The two contrasting fundamentals on which all choreutic harmony is based are the dimensional tension and the diagonal tension. Basic sequences can be built up on these two principles. Such scales, being based on natural movement which corresponds to the structure of the body, may be called “natural sequences” in space. (Laban, 1966, p. 45)
[Harmonious movement scales can be determined] when relating the structure and function of the human body to the three-dimensional property of space. Two such movement scales are the “dimensional” and the “diagonal” scales, each of which consists of an ordered sequence of movements based on the fundamental conditions of stability in the three-dimensional scale, and of mobility in the four-diagonal scale. There are also other [inclinational] scales in which the movement sequence depends upon the inter-action of these two states. (Ullmann, 1971, p. 1)
IVA.44 Choreutic Education Organised According to Prototypes.
The structure of choreutic education reveals an implicit organisation according to prototypes. One of the effects indicative of a prototype memory representation is that items which are most prototypical are learned first (see IVA.32b). Textbooks on choreutic education are arranged in this same way in which dimensions and diagonals are introduced before other directions (Laban, 1926; 1966, pp. 13-14; Preston-Dunlop, 1984, pp. 25-26; Ullmann, 1971) and it is recommended that they be practiced and learned before proceeding on to the other deflected directions (Bartenieff and Lewis, 1980, p. 38). The sequence or “scale”* of dimensional directions is also referred to as “the first scale” (Preston-Dunlop, 1984, p. 25) or as the “simplest of the scales” (Bartenieff and Lewis, 1980, p. 29). The sequence of diagonal directions is referred to as “a basic choreutic form” (Preston-Dunlop, 1984, p. 26) and sequences of deflected directions are described as “increasingly complex” (Bartenieff and Lewis, 1980, p. 29).
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* Certain sequences of directions are referred to as “scales”, analogous to musical scales they are considered to be “natural sequences of movements . . . determined by the anatomical structure of our body” (Laban, 1966, p. 37). They are typically symmetrical patterns which progress through all variations of a particular type of direction (see IIID.60).
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IVA.45 Directional Prototypes in Labanotation.
Evidence for the prototypicality of dimensions and pure diagonals and (correspondingly) of 90° and 45° angles in conceptions of body movement is also found in the conceptual structure of Labanotation. Directions are expressed by direction symbols (Hutchinson, 1970, p. 24 et seq.) and also with corresponding “position pins” (or “relationship pins”) (p. 434 et seq.) which can be used to specify the degree of turning in place (pp. 94-95), degree of traveling in a circle (pp. 186-192), the directional relationship between the two feet (pp. 62-64), as “front signs” which indicate the direction of facing in the room (pp. 104-107), or the signs for specific areas in the room (p. 182). All of these directional symbols are based on dimensional directions and 45° angled planar diagonals (ie. diameters). Other less typical deflected directions can only be specified by deriving them from halfway points or third-way points between the prototypical directions (Hutchinson, 1970, pp. 437-440). Thus, the less-typical directions/angles are conceptually derived according to their relationship to the prototypes.