Skip to main content

Laban in Zurich

Laban detail from Titan floorplan
Rudolf Laban's life as told through archives in Leeds University Special Collections.
More
Laban Der Freie Tanz
Laban moves to Ticino. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More
Laban and two women in a tree
Laban moves to Ticino. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More
Labankurse Zurich programme
Laban over winters in Zurich. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More
Laban exhibition - schools 1927
Laban develops dancing schools in Germany. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More
Laban exhibition - floor plan for Titan
Laban's notation for 'Titan'. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More
Laban's Schriftanz
Laban develops dancing schools in Germany. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More
Laban figure drawing from 1920s
Laban develops dancing schools in Germany. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More
Laban Dornroschen programme
Laban develops dancing schools in Germany. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More
Laban Berlin Olympics 1936
Laban develops dancing schools in Germany. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More
Laban Art of Movement Studio
Laban develops dancing schools in Germany. Part of an interactive resource at Leeds Special Collections about the life and career of Rudolf Laban.
More

Laban went to Monté Verità in the summers of 1912–14, but he spent the winters in Zurich with his wife Maja and lover Suzy Perrottet, where they created a school.

Zurich was an artistic centre in the 1910s – Tristan Tzara and other Dadaists performed at the Cafe Voltaire where some of Laban's students danced. 

The archive contains programmes from public performances, accounts of the teaching programme as well as architectural plans for a school.

Laban used the title Tanz-Ton-Wort (Dance-Sound-Word) to describe the interdisciplinary approach to movement which characterised his teaching.

His wife Maja was a voice teacher and undertook the “Wort” side of teaching, while Suzy Perrottet taught Dalcroze Eurythmics.

Mary Wigman, with whom Laban was experimenting with movement scales, was also an instructor in the early years in Zurich, but left to pursue her own career in the mid-1910s.

Dick McCaw