Valerie Preston-Dunlop

Rudolf Laban (1879-1958) was a visionary, a mystic, a lover, a leader, a dancer, an artist, a teacher, and a theorist. This is the story of his extraordinary life, a life intimately bound up with the political, social and cultural upheavals that formed the turbulent backdrop of modern Europe.

He witnessed the dissolution of the old order and was caught up in the rise of Nazism from which he was eventually forced to flee to Britain. He made his lasting impact in movement and dance, uncovering the interconnectedness of the body and the psyche, the individual and the group; and he devised a revolutionary method of movement notation that continues its use and influence today. His ideas have generated innovations, not just in dance, but also in acting and performance, in the study of nonverbal communication, in ergonomics, in educational theory and child development, in personality assessment and psychotherapy. This book tells the story of his life of idealism, disillusion and determination.