page_title: Laban movement analysis
section_title: Categories of movement
hierarchical_section_title: Laban movement analysis / Categories of movement
context_page_description: Laban movement analysis, sometimes Laban/Bartenieff movement analysis, is a method and language for describing, visualizing, interpreting and documenting human movement. It is based on the original work of Rudolf Laban, which was developed and extended by Lisa Ullmann, Irmgard Bartenieff, Warren Lamb and others. LMA draws from multiple fields including anatomy, kinesiology and psychology. It is used by dancers, actors, musicians and athletes; by health professionals such as physical and occupational therapists and psychotherapists; and in anthropology, business consulting and leadership development.
  Labanotation, a notation system for recording and analyzing movement, is used in LMA, but Labanotation is a separate system.
context_section_description: Laban movement analysis is contemporarily categorised in various way. Originally, these categories were very basic and Laban himself referred mostly to Eukinetics - which is his effort studies - and Choreutics - which is Spatial Harmony theory. His student Irmgard Bartenieff later further elaborated these categories in four - Body, Effort, Shape and Space - and this system, known as BESS is commonly taught today. However, BESS is not the only organisation of Laban's theory in use. In the U.K. for example, more influenced by Lisa Ullmann, another student of Laban, the categories are Body, Effort, Space and Relationship with Shape being interwoven into Body, Space and Relationship.
  The categories of BESS are as follows:
  Body - what the body is doing and the interrelationships within the body
  Effort - the qualities of movement
  Shape - how the body is changing shape and what motivates it to do so
  Space - where the body is moving and the harmonic relationships in space
  Other categories, that are occasionally mentioned in some literature, are relationship and phrasing. These are less well defined. Relationship is the interaction between people, body parts or a person and an object. Phrasing is defined as being the personal expression of a movement.
  These categories are in turn occasionally divided into kinematic and non-kinematic categories to distinguish which categories relate to changes to body relations over time and space.
caption: Example organisation of Laban movement analysis categories.