E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Garcia, Maria: Forms Of Expression In Common To Movement ...
TABLE 1
Effort Elements Continuum
(Bartenieff, I. 1983, page 51)
Effort Indulging Fighting
Space Indirect Direct
Weight Light Strong
Time Sustained Sudden
Flow Free Bound
1 st Level of Analysis
1) Effort
The word "effort" is the translation for antrieb, that in German means "the
organism's urge to make itself known" (Bartenieff, 1983, page 51). Efforts
are the different attitudes a mover can have towards the environmental
factors or weight/gravity, time and space. Flow is a fourth element
referred to the modulation of muscular tone that, independently on
whether the body is moving or still, is always between two extremes: Bound
and Free.
Human attitudes towards each of these effort elements vary within a range
going from the quality of Indulgence (letting it go) to the quality of Fighting
(struggling against). What I would like to underline here is that, as we see
in the Table, words such as Strong, Indirect, Sudden, etc. define general
categories of experience.
2 nd Level of Analysis
2) Effort Combinations
The motivation or the intent of our movement are expressed in a given
combination of effort elements. These combinations produce inner drives of
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