Movement artist and theorist Rudolf Laban described human movement as containing eight basic qualities, which he described as The Eight Efforts. Each effort has a direction (direct or indirect), a weight (heavy or light), a speed (quick or sustained), and a flow (bound or free). They are:
wring--indirect, heavy, sustained, bound
press--direct, heavy, sustained, bound
float--indirect, light, sustained, free
glide--direct, light, sustained, free
dab--direct, light, quick, bound
flick--indirect, light, quick, free
punch--direct, heavy, quick, bound
slash--indirect, heavy, quick, free
These qualities are used in the teaching of acting to allow actors to both expand their personal physical ranges and help them to add specific physical qualities to the characters they play. |
