A floorplan for Titan

Although Laban is known for his development of Dance Script, he also used more traditional notation for some of his ballets.

This is one of 32 pages of Laban's notation for Titan.

Titan was an example of what he called a “Lay Dance”, designed to be performed by non-professionals. Laban also referred to it as a “Dance Chorus”.

With the advent of Dance notation it was possible for amateur groups to work on a piece with a Laban-trained choir-master. Albrecht Knust trained the troupe for Titan, who could later combine with other similarly prepared groups.

The culmination of this method of developing community dance was Laban’s 'Vom Tauwind und der Neuen Freude' (1936) which involved hundreds of dancers from across Germany. It was a manifestation of Laban’s “Freie Tanz” philosophy – the pleasure of movement for all, not just the trained dancer.

The archive contains other descriptions and drawings of four Laban ballets (Agamemnon’s Tod, Die Nacht, Gaukelei, and Ritterballett). In the Tanzarchiv Leipzig, there is a similar floor plan for Don Juan, and a piece for Laban’s professional group: the Chamber Dance Group.

Dick McCaw

Image credit Leeds University Library