LABAN GUILD INTERNATIONAL ANNIVERSARY YEAR 2026
Celebrating 80 years and releasing the legacy for future generations
THE ART OF MOVEMENT: Laban’s Legacy in Dance-Music-Drama. 15 – 19 April 2026
Laban Building, Creekside, London SE8 3DZ, UK
A five-day in person event honoring a legacy that has inspired innovation, reflection, and transformation across artistic and academic fields, bringing together international artists, scholars, educators, and practitioners.
WEDNESDAY 15th, THURSDAY 16th & FRIDAY 17th
09:00 – 18:00
Historical Laban: Tanz-Ton-Wort
Three days of studio practice to explore ideas of Dance-Sound-Word and develop projects inspired by Rudolf Laban’s choreographies
- TANZ – Drumstick / Nacht (Alison Curtis-Jones) Explore spatial and dynamic elements of the art of movement
- TON – Don Juan / Orfeo (Darren Royston) Consider how music can generate dance drama
- WORT – Fall of Lucifer / Dance of Death (Cecilia Dorland) Stage dramatic performance from medieval text
Masterclasses:
- Moving Actor Hub: Effort (Dick McCaw), Shakespeare (Kelly Wilson, Olga Blagodatskikh)
- Space Harmony Hub (Vicky Spanovangelis)
- Ausdrucktanz (Anneliese Monica Koch)
SATURDAY 18th APRIL
09:00 – 18:00
Laban Around the World
This full-day intensive program – open for proposals – invites participants into a dynamic landscape of dialogue, practice, and exchange. Through moderated panels, movement workshops, informal commented performances, short films, and interdisciplinary conversations, the program highlights contemporary practices and research that reflect the global reach and continued relevance of Rudolf Laban’s work.
Participants are free to move between studios, choosing from a rich constellation of experiences. Each space opens a distinct lens onto Laban’s legacy, unfolding through bodies, voices, images, and shared inquiry.
Confirmed activities, currently include:
- Laban Cyber Hub: Workshops with VR and Sound Sensors (Cora Gasparotti, Rome)
- The Makings of the Actor – presentation & workshop (Kiki Selioni, Athens)
- Body-Space Connections, BSC: Lecture/Workshop (Regina Miranda, Brazil)
- Choreographic Games: Movement Workshop (Ligia Tourinho, Brazil)
SUNDAY 19th APRIL
09:00 – 19:00
Celebration Day
- Movement Choir Hub: all groups combine in morning – open to all
- Sharing in the Studio Theatre (14:00 – 15:30)
- Afternoon Tea (15:30 – 17:00)
- Dancing Through Life: DJ Dance-off (17:00 – 19:00)
Payment and scholarships
We do not want financial issues to restrict attendance from people interested in the Laban Legacy. There are scholarships and bursaries available for students and young professionals.
Full event: 5 days (15-19 April 2026)
Full rate £120 for participants (scholarships available)
Reduced Rate £80 for presenters, seniors, students
Saturday 18th April: Day only
£60 for participants, £40 concessions – One Day Pass
Sunday 19th April: Day only
Free for Guild subscribers
£20 for non-subscribers (subscription included)
No charge for Movement Choir groups
Booking can be made using the following BOOKING FORM:
https://forms.gle/rwZYMWxHZvQzNZJW7
- Application for Financial Assistance (Scholarship / Bursary) is contained within the Booking Form
Laban Guild International Online Forums 2024/2023/2022
Cora Gasparotti: new technologies and Laban’s Movement Analysis
Sunday 15 December 2024, 12 noon GMT
In the third of LGI’s online forums Cora Gasparotti will discuss her work. She uses new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, to work on body awareness and movement informed by Laban’s movement analysis.
Recording viewable here: https://youtu.be/77_FYwZZdP0?si=S6Eet-lkBtKHztMx
Ladders of Laban: exploring swinging scales and virtual scaffolding
Convened by the Space Harmony Hub on Friday 15th December 2023, 12 noon GMT
Recording viewable here: https://youtu.be/zfqZQUeQRRQ
The Laban Practitioners 2022 forum recording is viewable here:
Part 1 Presentations. https://youtu.be/zETY0wx0TCs
Part 2 Discussions. https://youtu.be/8yumTYbuAsk
A KALEIDOSCOPE OF DANCE DRAMA
in honour of GERALDINE STEPHENSON
and the legacy of RUDOLF LABAN
This event took place on June 29th 2025, 10am – 8pm,
at The Place, 17 Duke’s Rd, London WC1H 9PY.
A review of the event with photographs was published in the August issue of ‘Movement Dance & Drama’
Certification Programme in Movement Analysis and Somatic Practice
2025-2027
LSSI’s Certificate programme is a post-graduate Somatic Practitioner and Laban/ Bartenieff Movement Analyst training delivered through a developmental and phenomenological lens. All modules are approached within somatic methodologies and perspectives, and include hands-on training for practice as a Somatic Movement Therapist/Educator. This programme meets the high standards of practice as an approved training programme of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA).
For more information and application www.labaninternational.org info@labaninternational.org
The Art of Movement - Rudolf Laban's Unpublished Writings
Edited by Dick McCaw
This book offers new perspectives on the thinking and practice of Rudolf Laban – a pioneer of modern European dance and movement analysis. Laban’s own texts offer further elaboration of the key themes of his work – eukinetics, choreutics, community dance, pedagogy and dance notation.
Link to a Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/dec/03/kilometre-house-how-dance-pioneer-rudolf-laban-dreamed-of-staging-performances-in-a-gigantic-dome
Available Books
The following books are available with no charge from Clare Fiddler
Labanotation – Ann Hutchinson [3rd edition 1977]
Study Guide for Elementary Labanotation – Peggy Hackney, Sarah Manno, Muriel Topaz [1977] Dance Notation Bureau Press
Elementary Reading Studies – Peggy Hackney, Sarah Manno, Muriel Topaz [1979?] Dance Notation Bureau Press
Study Guide: Intermediate Labanotation – Muriel Topaz [1972]
Study Guide: Intermediate Labanotation – Addendum Jane Marriott [1980]
Modern Dance Studies – Jane Winearls Books 1-6. She uses the method evolved by Sigurd Leeder & Kurt Jooss from the practical analysis of Laban. Each dance study uses Labanotation
Mental Health in Sport and Physical Activity Conference
Connection is central –people with lived experience of mental health need to be embedded throughout all attempts to support, individual contact and collaboration. Greater promotion of success is required. There is a need to work strategically with partners and to understand the barriers Ideally a multi-sector approach is required.
SRA Movement and Dance Division
The Movement and Dance Division of the Sport and Recreation Association working with a number of Universities have produced the following report:
Social Value of Movement and Dance
Social Value Launch Event Report by Maggie Killingbeck
MADE IN SUFFOLK - Film directed by Mel Horwood
The Laban Guild was delighted to be one of the sponsors of this film.
“Between 1982 and 1993 Scilla Dyke founded and directed what would become a sea change in the UK arts world. This film is the story of Suffolk Dance / Dance East and one woman’s lasting impact on dance.”
2019 LABAN LECTURE Given by Dr Ann Hutchinson-Guest
Classes with Viv Bridson
From October 1st to December 10th, weekly in Studio 8 from 11:00 to 12:30, usually with live music. Payment up to £10 donated to a country in need – currently Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Class is taught by Viv Bridson assisted by Amy Mauvan and Noemi Laabaid
Contact: danceprojects@btinternet.com
www.dancetheatreprojects.net
Online and in person classes from Alexandra Baybutt
Zoom and in person classes with Jenny Frankel
Lunchtime Laban
Weekly movement and dance sessions, based on the work of Rudolf Laban, both in-person (Primrose Hill) and on Zoom. Suitable for beginners and advanced students.
Tuesdays 12.30-1.30pm. First session free. Then £5 per week on Zoom, £10 per week in person.
Contact jennyfrankel.laban@gmail.com
Zoom sessions with Anneliese Monika Koch
Vis a Vis Tanztheater
Expressive Dance and Improvisation with Elements of Modern Laban Practice
Online Mondays 6pm to 7:15pm (GMT)
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein
A virtual celebration of Life through the Art of Movement. We will dance, improvise and create, guided by the poetical expression of our internal truth, our hopes, visions and dreams. Our expressive language is rooted in the tradition of Laban based European Tanztheater Elements of Movement meditation and focused breath work will be included.
We invite all those who have joy in creative expression and are interested in the working methods of Vis a Vis Tanztheater.
Direction: Anneliese Monika Koch
Contact Vis a Vis Tanztheater
Tel 0043 660 1355 (Whats App)
tanztheateratelier@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/AnnelieseMonikaKoch
MAPPING SPACE: CHOREOGRAPHIC RESOURCES FOR DANCE EDUCATION
Five dancers illustrate ways in which virtual maps and clusters of dynamic colouring offer frameworks and tools for choreographic exploration, composition and development.
The material is based on the innovative work of Rudolf Laban, pioneer of Dance Theatre, Movement Analysis and Dance Notation.
DVD £16 per copy (incl. postage)
Contact: Anna Carlisle
Revised Warren Lamb Editions
Posture and Gesture: an Introduction to the Study of Physical Behaviour
A Framework for Understanding Movement: my Seven Creative Concepts
Beyond Dance: Laban’s Legacy of Movement Analysis
An Eye for Movement: Warren Lamb’s Career in Movement Analysis
Decision Making and Movement Analysis (DVD)
All available through Brechin Books, 6 Brechin Place, London SW6 4QA
Contact: books@brechinbooks.online
These are also available as e-books through Kindle Publishing and Smashwords.
Laban Collection at the Brotherton Library
The John Hodgson Collection has now been catalogued and is available at https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/168066
There is also a guide with descriptive text to accompany a selection of images and documents. The Laban Collection guide can be accessed at http://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-rudolf-laban-collections
Warren Lamb Archive
The NRCD is hoping to obtain enough funding to make the Warren Lamb Archive available to the public, and to this end has provided a link for donations on the University of Surrey’s online store
Geraldine Stephenson Archive
Now completed and available to view at the NRCD, University of Surrey, Guildford.
The archive can be viewed online at calmarchivecat.surrey.ac.uk.
For research enquiries or visits contact archives@surrey.ac.uk
Global Water Dances
“We connect and support a global community of choreographers and dancers to inspire action and international collaboration for water issues through the universal language of dance.”
Visit www.laban-eurolab.org for more information.