Music as Movement: Laban Movement in Elementary General Music Andrew J. Blumhardt, ablumhardt@ccboe.com Charles County Public Schools Rudolph von Laban (1879-1958) was a Hungarian dance artist, choreographer, and theorist from Bratislava, Hungary. His work created the foundations for Laban Movement Analysis and Labanotation. He is often considered the founding father of expressionist dance. He theorized of a bridging of polarities being expressed through movernent including inner/outer, part/whole, function/expression, evocative/analytical, mobility/stabilty, individual/group, exertion/recuperation, and simple/complex. Each human being combines these movement factors in their own unique way and organizes them to create phrases and relationships which revreal personal, artistic, or cultural style, Laban movement qualities expressed in music include flow, weight, space, and time. Edwin Gordon, the founder of Music Learning Theory, believed that laban movement qualities give students a way to understand rhythm and style. Rhythm, Gordon says, is founded in movement. The four laban movement qualities exist on the follow spectrum, Movement falls somewhere between these two pales of each movement. Flow Free re Bound Weight Gentle Ke Strong Space Indirect ee Direct Time Sustained a QuickFlow Free Flaw: You can add free flow to any performance, especially if students are not successfully feeling the macro beat of the music. Admittedly it feels weird at first, but you and your students will quickly get Used to it and eventually find it comfortable and natural Free Flow: For “Hello Song" you contrast continuous fluid movement (flow) with beat based movement, During the A section, students flow. During the B section, students keep the beat. Flow helps us feel the space between the beat, which is where all rhythm occurs. in Learning Sequences in Music (2012), Edwin Gordon says “Free flowing and continuous movement gives a feeling of space without time. Without feeling for space alone, space cannot serve adequately as foundation for time” Hello Song Hel-lo Hel-lo Hel-lo How are you to-day? t's == time to sing and play Bound Flow: For this activity, students imagine and act out swimming through substances other than water to demonstrate bound flow (molasses, peanut butter, quick-drying cement, etc). As students suggest ideas, they may model their movement for the class,The Big Blue Shark The big blue shark likes to swimand sing 4 = Se [SS Ss when we get to - got - her hell sing a - ny ~ thing Bound/Free Flow Activity: Imagine you are an uncooked noodle in a pot of water. How might you move around the pot? You would probably be very bound in your movement. What would happen if the pot began to boil? You would become very free flowing and have very little restriction to your movement, Bound Flow: Students place both hands on a cement wall and push as hard as possible. Does the wall move? Can they feel the tension in their bodies? Could you push on an imaginary wall and creating that same tension? Bound Flow: The students create 4 passenger “cars” by linking arms in a square. After performing the song, the students “get out” of their car and push it to the nearest repair shop. When they push the car does their movement show a bounded restriction?Hunk of Tin Traditional Tm a lit- te husk of tin, no - bo-dyknows what shape Tm in Tre 3 S44 SS J oe Z got fourwheelsand a run-ning board Tm oe Ss hhomk, rattle rattle rattle crash beep beep Honk honkrattle rattle rattle crash beep beep, Honk Weight Gentle Weight: Students imagine they are walking on eggs without cracking the shell Gentle/Strong Weight: Lay a roll of bubble wrap on the floor and have students walk over it without popping the bubbles. To demonstrate the other end of the continuum have students pop the bubbles as they move across the bubble wrap. Gentle/Strong Weight: Students can suggest different dinosaurs and pretend to move like that dinosaur. ‘The teacher should prompt students “Would that dinosaur move with gentle or strong weight? Can you model that for the class?”Dinosaur Diet Edwin E. Gordon Long a-go a di-nosaur lived in ourownstate. He had ahealth-y ap-pe-tite, and this is what he ate: Green leaves. and tops of trees, Hn amm small plants and tall weeds. What a fon-ny di-et. [wouldn't like to ny it Gentle/Strong Weight: For this activity, one student is the hibernating bear. They sleep in the center of. the circle. Students sing the song and circle around the bear. During the A section, students move with gentle weight. During the B section, students approach the center of the circle with strong weight to wake up the bear. The bear picks a classmate to take the next turn.Grizzly Bear Traditional Geely bem, a ge aly bea, sleeping nok Gave : PP jaa sae ea eee —— ——— SS SS = Please be ve ry qui - et ve-nw ve - 1 you wake him, if you shake him, hell get ve - ay ate Eee Strong/Gentle Weight: This chant essentially explains itself! The A section is strong weight and the B section is gentle weight. When students are comfortable with this, | will perform the chant without ‘words and ask them if | was chanting the A section or B section, Follow up with "How do you know?” Here the Giants Come Traditional tf eee AMO Anns | Stepping o-ver mountains, stepping o-ver tees, Stepping o-verhous-es, _step-ping o-ver me! [OAR mn, gi-ante in the house Tip-toe tip-toe qui-et_as amouse, don't want to wake theSpace Direct Space: Students pretend they are in a marching band and must march from one point in a parade straight to the next. They may not detour or veer off course in any way. Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillips Sousa works well for this activity. Direct Space: Students imagine they are on a tight rope walking high in the air between two buildings. If they don’t go directly across, they would fall! Indirect Space: Explain that students are in the hall of the mountain king who is a giant troll. The hall of ‘the mountain king is a giant maze and we are all trying to find the exit but we can’t. This means that we will be moving all around — down hallways and back again, looking for the exit. Add the “Stop. Shhh” to the song for verbal engagement. Time Quick Time: Perform the chant labeling and moving different body parts. At the end of the chant students become popcorn kernels. One student is the “popper” who taps kernels. When you get tapped you pop into a frozen shape as quickly as possible. Popcorn Dinah Johnson/Wendy H. Valerio ieee ee rss epee 2 oe el hands love the rhy-thm of the pop-corn! Pop, pop-corn, pop, pop, pop! Copyright © 1998 GIA Publications, Inc.Sustained/Quick Time: Students build a snowman and then pretend to become the snowman. The tambourine represents the sun which will melt the snowmen slowly. Ifthe tambourine stops, the snowmen stop melting. A quick and forceful hit of the tambourine makes a heatwave and instantly melts the snowmen. It's Snowing Put on yourcoat, and come with me, Let's go out it's snow - ing Put on yourcoat, and come with me Let's play inthe snow! Sustained/Quick Time: Students plant a seed for a tree and then become the seed. Ask students “have you ever seen a tree grow? Of course not because they grow so slowly, But year after year they get bigger.” Ask students to grow so slowly that no one can see them growing. Pickin' a Spot Traditional a5 1 watelvin’ it grow Rain falls, sun - shine, trees grow ap-ples.Sustained/Quick Time: You can use an elastic band or just imagine for this activity. The bubble slowly ‘grows. With the students watching you, give a preparatory breath for students to all let go and pop the bubble at the same time. Bubble Gum Betsy Schulte SEDs Bubble gum, bub-ble gum, fan to chew Tean low bub-ble much big-ger than you. See my bub-ble it growsand grows! Pop goes that bub-ble all o-ver my nose! Body Awareness: Working with one partner, students use both of their bodies to make letter shapes. ‘These can be free standing or on the floor. Both students must be a part of each letter. Substitute “M is, for Mary" for other student names, "M" is for Mary Traditional MT is for Ma = ay th ea sy teste, “MY is for, Ma ~~ ory now ~—samake one forme!