Locomotion

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Spreading Gesture


Contents

  1. 1 Introduction
  2. 2 The Basics Of Spreading
    1. 2.1 How The Body Forms An Angle For Spreading
    2. 2.2 Spoke Body Parts Spaced Evenly Through The Angle Of Spread
    3. 2.3 A Spread Does Not Always Create Spokes
    4. 2.4 Bending The Body Parts That Participate In A Spread
    5. 2.5 The Fully Spread Position
    6. 2.6 You May Specify A Range Of Degrees To Spread
    7. 2.7 Spreading Relative To A Center
    8. 2.8 Carrying Extraneous Body Parts Along
    9. 2.9 Direction Of Spreading Only One Body Part
    10. 2.10 Choosing Direction Relative To The Pivot-Point Body Part
    11. 2.11 Spreading Body Parts That Support Weight
    12. 2.12 The Character Of A Spreading Movement
  3. 3 The Spreading Symbols
    1. 3.1 The Basic Symbol
    2. 3.2 How Much Spreading To Perform
    3. 3.3 Widthwise And Front-Back Spreading
    4. 3.4 Amount Of Time Taken To Perform A Spreading Gesture
  4. 4 Spreading Real Body Parts

Introduction

A spreading gesture involves two parts of the body arcing around a common pivot-point and in a specific direction, to produce an angle - sometimes only a vaguely defined angle - at that pivot-point. Any body parts between the two we're measuring may also spread, like the spokes of a wheel, emanating from that same pivot-point.

This idea of spreading body parts out like several spokes of a wheel is a very powerful one; spreading gestures in Labanotation allow you to express that kind of movement very simply.

The Basics Of Spreading

How The Body Forms An Angle For Spreading

In the simplest form, only two body parts are involved in a spreading gesture. Consider spreading the legs to a position 90o apart.

Fig. 1

In the above diagram, only the right and left leg participated in the movement, and they each moved so as to produce a 90o angle at the pelvis.

In the more complex form, there are additional body parts between the two that we want to move. Consider spreading the hand 90o apart. What do we mean by 90o in this case?

Fig. 2

In the above diagram, the two outermost limbs - the thumb and the little finger - are what we use to measure the angle of the spreading gesture. The other limbs - in this case the remaining fingers - are not involved in measuring that angle, though as we'll see further on in this chapter, they do participate in the spreading gesture in other ways, and are not merely passive.

Spoke Body Parts Spaced Evenly Through The Angle Of Spread

Any spreading gesture involving the hands or any other group of spoke-like limbs, should open out evenly. While the angle between the two main body parts should match the goal of the spread, the angles between all the spoke-like body parts should be the same as each other.

Fig. 3

In the above diagram, the two outermost body parts produce a 90o spreading gesture, while the spoke-like body parts between them are evenly distributed. We don't care to measure those angles, or to state them explicitly in our notation; we only notate the larger angle, and rely on the others being each equal to the rest.

A Spread Does Not Always Create Spokes

When a spreading gesture involves a set of limbs explicitly, such as all the fingers of the hand, those fingers behave in the spoke-like way described above. But it's also possible to spread two limbs alone, without involving the body parts between them.

Fig. 4

In the above diagram, only the thumb and little finger participate in the spreading gesture. The other fingers are uninvolved, and unaffected by the movement.

Bending The Body Parts That Participate In A Spread

By default, a spreading gesture doesn't have any impact on how much the participating limbs are bent or straight. If you don't notate anything affecting those aspects of the limbs, the default is for the limbs involved in the spread to be relaxed, neither curled nor straightened, but just comfortable. The natural temptation, when doing a spreading gesture, might be to fully extend the limbs involved; but Labanotation does not include any form of extension or contraction of the limbs involved in a spreading gesture.

This turns out to be a very useful feature, because it allows you to notate very different aspects of a given movement, without those aspects interfering with each other.

The Fully Spread Position

Although a spreading gesture produces an angle between two body parts, you're not free to specify just any angle you want. The idea behind a spreading gesture is to move the two body parts away from each other. Once they can't spread any farther away from each other, it becomes impossible to increase the amount of the spreading gesture. Consider the legs in a center split.

Fig. 5

In the above diagram, the legs have spread as far apart as they can go. This is not to say that they couldn't arc further in any desired direction; but in terms of the concept behind any spreading gesture, the legs have spread as far away from each other as they can get. Any additional arcing motion would start to bring them closer together again, rather than spreading them further apart.

For that reason, Labanotation considers a 180o spread to be the limit of any spreading gesture. If you're trying to notate any additional arcing motion, you should consider using something other than spreading notation.

The same principle applies when there are additional limbs in-between the two outermost ones.

Fig. 6

In the above diagram, the thumb and little finger move to the fully spread position. Notice that any of the other fingers might have the flexibility to move further away from each other; and even that the thumb and little finger may have the flexibility to arc further around the same axis. But the idea of the fully spread position does not involve the idea of being physically unable to move the limbs any farther; the idea of the fully spread position has only to do with the angle produced between the two main body parts doing the spreading.

You May Specify A Range Of Degrees To Spread

So far in this chapter, we've shown a 90o spread and a 180o spread. In fact, as you'll see when you get to the spreading symbols themselves, you can specify the desired angle of spread, though the range of choices is not unlimited. Here are some examples of available angles.

Fig. 7

The full set of available angles is given in the section on the spreading symbols themselves.

Spreading Relative To A Center

By default in Labanotation, the two main body parts involved in a spreading gesture are understood to be moving relative to a known center. For example, when spreading the legs, the center-line of the spread is perpendicular to the position of the pelvis.

Fig. 8

In the above diagram, the legs are spread equally away from the center line represented by the pelvis, so the final angle of the spreading gesture is divided equally by that center line. By default, Labanotation treats all spreading gestures this way. The center line defines the final position of the limbs involved in the spreading gesture. Consider the case where the legs are askew with respect to the pelvis, and perform a spreading gesture starting from that position.

Fig. 9

In the above diagram, the starting position of the legs had no effect on the final position of the spreading gesture. The center line remained perpendicular to the pelvis. We wanted to make a 90o spread, and so the final position involved creating that angle between the legs, and centering it with respect to the center line as defined by the position of the pelvis.

The same principles apply when spreading two body parts that have additional wheel-spoke body parts between them. In the case of the hand, the middle finger occupies the center, from which the other fingers spread out.

Fig. 10

And just as the initial position of the legs did not affect the final position of the spreading gesture, the same is true for the hands, or for any spreading gesture involving multiple spoke-like limbs.

Fig. 11

In the above diagram, the fingers don't start out symmetrically positioned around the center line - in fact they may have any position notated earlier in the score. The spreading gesture takes over and produces its spread position regardless of those earlier movements.

Carrying Extraneous Body Parts Along

In some cases, a spreading gesture has no choice but to displace other body parts. The examples above show the full hand spreading; but if only part of the hand is supposed to spread, the remaining fingers may have to be carried along with that movement. Consider spreading the thumb and third finger of the hand.

Fig. 12

In the above diagram, we still create a 90o spread, but instead of being between the thumb and little finger, the angle is measured between the thumb and third finger. As you can see, the forefinger and middle finger are evenly spaced between those two; but what happens to the little finger?

The answer is that it is carried passively along beside the third finger. Labanotation doesn't specify whether those two fingers touch each other or not; if it's important, you can add notation just for the little finger. But without any other notation, the default behavior is for the little finger to follow passive along beside the third finger, in a relaxed way, neither augmenting the spreading gesture, nor interfering with it.

More than one body part may be carried along passively in this way.

Fig. 13

In the above diagram, a 90 spread is produced between the thumb and middle finger, while the forefinger sits equally between them. The third finger and little finger are not involved in the spreading gesture, and so they are carried passively along, just as the little finger was in the previous diagram.

Direction Of Spreading Only One Body Part

We usually conceive of spreading gestures as involving two body parts spreading with respect to each other. What happens when you try to apply a spreading gesture to just a single body part in Labanotation?

The answer actually depends on the body part in question. If you try to spread the head, there is no natural reference point, to indicate which direction to move.

Spreading a single body part, therefore, requires that there be a neighboring body part, to help define the angle of the spread.

Fig. 14

In the above diagram, only the thumb participates in the spreading gesture. The angle of the spread is measured between the thumb and its neighboring limb - in this case the forefinger. There is no imaginary center line to worry about.

But what if you want to spread a single limb that has neighbors on both sides of itself? The answer is that by default, the spreading gesture will be in the direction of least resistance; in other words, in the direction of the fewest limbs or the least bulk.

Fig. 15

In the above diagram, the third finger spreads away from the middle finger rather than spreading away from the little finger, because there are more fingers and more bulk on the side of the middle finger. That's the way a spreading gesture is performed by default. It is also possible, in the above example, to notate the third finger spreading away from the little finger, and carrying all the other fingers passively along with it.

Fig. 16

In the above diagram, the third finger spreads again, but this time, angle is measured against the position of the little finger rather than the middle finger. As you'll see when we go through the spreading symbols, each of these distinctions may be specified in the notation.

Choosing Direction Relative To The Pivot-Point Body Part

In the previous section, I explained how the direction of the spreading gesture could be selected relative to the neighboring spoke-like limbs beside it; but the body part attached to those limbs can also determine the direction of a spreading gesture.

Fig. 17

In the above diagram, the two body parts are shown to spread in a sideways direction relative to their base, and also in a front-back direction relative to their base. As you'll see when we go through the spreading symbols, it's possible to notate whether you want a widthwise or front-back spreading gesture.

Spreading Body Parts That Support Weight

If some or all of your weight rests on a given body part, and you attempt to spread that body part so that it rises up off the ground, there are a variety of ramifications that are different from the ordinary case of spreading gestures. Because the whole concept of support in Labanotation is treated very differently from gesture, the question of spreading a part of the body that supports weight is TBD.

The Character Of A Spreading Movement

As you'll see throughout this text, there are many ways to modify how any given gesture should be performed. In the case of widthwise spreading, if no modifications are given, the gesture should always be performed at a steady speed and with a smooth motion that proceeds naturally from the movements that led up to it, and leads naturally into the movement that follows it.

The Spreading Symbols

The Basic Symbol

The generic symbol for spreading looks a bit similar to some of the diagrams given in previous sections.

Fig. 18

By adding detail and rotating this symbol, the amount and direction of the spreading gesture can be indicated, as shown in the sections to follow.

How Much Spreading To Perform

two main degrees

Fig. 19

The two degrees of spreading depicted above represent a relatively vague distinction. One choice means slightly spread, while the other means very spread (or in the case of props, fully spread). But the exact measurement for each of these is left up to the director or the performer.

For greater specificity, there is a six degree set of symbols.

Fig. 20

In the above diagram, notice that the 1st and 4th degree of spreading are the same as the symbols used for the two main degrees of spreading. But in this case, their meaning is much more specific. How can we tell the difference between the symbols as used in the context of the two main degrees, and those used in the context of the six degrees?

The answer is that if you use any of the other symbols from the six degrees anywhere in your score, that indicates that the symbols should be interpreted as being part of the six degrees. If you don't use any other symbols from the six degrees, the assumption is that the vagueness of the two main degrees is acceptable.

In addition to the two main degrees and the six degrees described above, another way to express a certain amount of spreading of an object or prop, is with a number.

Fig. 21

In the above diagram, a total of five parts of an object, such as the ribs of a fan, should be spread open. If more than five or less than five are already open, then additional ribs are either opened or closed, so as to end up with five at the end of the gesture.

Widthwise And Front-Back Spreading




Amount Of Time Taken To Perform A Spreading Gesture




Spreading Real Body Parts

spreading the chest

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