Rudolf von Laban
Austrian choreographer (1879-1958) · Hungary · On the map · Died at 78
He built the language dancers still use to write movement down. Rudolf von Laban invented the notation system that turned choreography into readable script and created a framework for analyzing how any body moves through space.
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Born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire on 15 December 1879, Laban became a founding figure in expressionist and modern dance, developing both Labanotation - a system for recording movement - and Laban movement analysis, which documented human motion in ways that reached beyond the stage into therapy, industry, and education. In 1936, Joseph Goebbels canceled his choral work Of the Warm Wind and New Joy after a dress rehearsal intended for the Berlin Olympics, ending four years of Laban's work under the Nazi regime. He left Germany for England in 1937. Between 1945 and 1946, he and former student Lisa Ullmann founded the Laban Art of Movement Guild in London and the Art of Movement Studio in Manchester, where he continued until his death on 1 July 1958. Trinity Laban Conservatoire carries the work forward.