Gesturing in a particular direction is one of the most powerful and elegant ways to express movement in Labanotation. As you'll see throughout the course of this text, the direction symbols described in this chapter can be modified in many powerful ways. But even in the elemental, unmodified form presented here, direction can be used to produce wonderful, subtle movements all on its own.
Direction in Labanotation is defined as up, down, forward, back, left, and right, with various ranges between them. But these directions can only exist relative to a certain perspective. If I'm laying flat on my back on the ground, for example, am I looking up or forward? In fact Labanotation provides a powerful set of tools, called the crosses of axes, that make it clear exactly where forward and up are pointing, and that in turn let you extrapolate all the other directions from those. This means that for any given gesture, you can specify the direction of that gesture, relative to any number of available perspectives. This allows both a simplicity of expression, and a tremendous subtlety of control, over the movements you notate.
But as is true with all body movement, direction gestures are constrained by the abilities of the particular body parts you want to move. Try as we might, the fingers will not move the way the shoulders do. And if I try to move my arm through the space occupied by my torso, it just won't go. All of these special qualities of the body have an affect on exactly how any given body part may perform a given gesture. In the case of direction gestures, this means that the pure geometry of directional movement may have to be violated, or even that a given movement is illegal to notate because it would be impossible to perform.
All of these powerful abilities and constraints are explained over the course of this chapter.
Crosses of Axes For Gesture
In Labanotation, whenever you express a movement in terms of direction, the direction is always understood to be relative to whatever cross of axes is currently in effect for the context you're in. In some cases, there's a default cross of axes that doesn't need to be stated explicitly; in other cases you can add your desired cross of axes to the notation, and the direction symbols will take their orientation from that.
There are many different crosses of axes, for all the different situations you may run into. In this chapter, we explore all the crosses of axes that might be relevant for gestures indicated by direction symbols alone.
Symbols For Direction And Level
the geometry of fixed end and extremity
endpoint relative to the base
what if the base is moving? is the endpoint relative to where the base was, where it is ending up, or where it passes through as the movement occurs.
Direction For Joint And Joint-Related Symbols
shoulder, elbow, wrist, finger knuckles, hip, knee, ankle, toe knuckles
also the hand, and the fingers-as-a-group
Direction For Standard Limb And Custom Limb Symbols
when the base is also moving
when the body gets in its own way
range of motion from joint to joint
fulfilling the geometry "as best as you can"
Direction For Body Surface Symbols
recall surface symbols
what body parts must move in order to accomplish the facing
when does the facing 'expire', and the body part return to its 'natural' position
Body Part Symbols That Don't Accept Directional Gestures