Dance Techniques 2010

Observation Techniques
129
comprise every movement: ‘mobilizing’, ‘coordinating’, ‘supporting’, and ‘regulating’.
These activities are each assigned a series of observation criteria. 11 The analyst watches
the interaction of the activities, focusing on which motor phenomena are present, how
they are connected, and which motor systems and concepts come together. IVB offers a
structured framework full of descriptive vocabulary; the person using it must select from
the options and combine elements in order to establish what items will be observed. The
descriptive vocabulary is understood to be incomplete and open to diversification and
enhancement, which is what makes it so flexible: On one hand, it can be fine tuned to the
technique’s characteristics and, on the other, it can focus on describing only the motor
structures relevant to the respective question. The conscious positioning of the observer
(i.e., grappling with the questions mentioned above), is thus a vital prerequisite and explicitly
part of the system. 12
D., from the introductory example, has put together an observation model based on
IVB’s ideas and vocabulary that she is now using to target individual movement characteristics.
Her questions, working hypotheses, and the technique observed are reflected
in this model in various ways: For instance, she is paying close attention to the area of
energy and use of strength (i.e., regulating), the form of support, the movement flow (an
aspect of mobilizing), and combines these with non-IVB observation criteria like ‘impulse
for the movement’, ‘direction of view’, and the ‘use of the laws of physics’. She has also
expanded the IVB criteria by including observation items about how the dancers interact
with one another. During the observation, she ignores all gestures that can be traced back
to the individual dancer’s personal movement vocabularies and, instead, concentrates on
movement characteristics that are similar among the improvising dancers. 13 After that,
she examines how the individual characteristics are connected and which general rules
of movement can be deduced from these connections. Finally, she asks herself about the
relation between motor patterns and the chosen improvisation technique.
D. can now further use these results by, for example, comparing them with results
from her analyses of other improvisation techniques. Or she can discuss with choreographer
E. how this type of movement would work in a scene of his piece, what affect it
might have on the audience, and which associations it might evoke. Movement analysis
and interpretation are thus two separate steps in IVB.
While IVB integrates flexibility into its methodical approach (and thereby includes
the critical reflection of the analyst), this is not necessarily the case for other movement
analysis methods—which can be traced back to the time when they were created and thus
reference a corresponding view of (dance) movement. However, nothing speaks against
using such methods to examine contemporary techniques, providing the essential positioning
has been determined beforehand—i.e.: Which method matches my questions?
What questions can be answered by the method? How can and must the methods be
adjusted to meet the object and goals of the observation? This implies the analyst understands
that the method is a collection of options and observational instruments from
which he or she can select; the selection, however, must be made with the knowledge of
any given method’s formative context.
Kinetography Laban / Labanotation and Laban Movement Analysis (LMA), for example,
are some of the most commonly used notational and / or analysis methods; IVB also
counts them among its predecessors. Beginning in the 1920s in Germany, Rudolf von
Laban designed a dance notation system known in England as Kinetography and in the
11 See Jeschke 1999, pp. 52–57 and the
accompanying booklet for a table of these
criteria as well as detailed explanations with
additional descriptive vocabulary.
12 Among the direct predecessors to Inventory
of Movement are the movement analysis
methods of Movement Evaluation Graphics
(MEG), developed cooperatively by Jeschke
and Cary Rick (Cary Rick / Claudia Jeschke:
‘Movement Evaluation Graphics’. In: Rick,
Cary. Tanztherapie. Eine Einführung in die
Grundlagen. Stuttgart / New York: Fischer
Verlag, 1989, pp. 23–89). MEG will not be
addressed in further detail here as it is used
primarily in dance therapy.
13 This describes one of many ways to
use IVB; detailed descriptions of other applications
can be found in Jeschke 1999,
pp. 58–181 and Hartewig 2007, pp. 128–288.