(November 1929). Laban was the son of Rudolf Laban Sr. (1843–1907), a military
governor in
Pressburg (Pozsony) and Marie (née Bridling; 1858–1926). It was here that Laban conducted his famous summer dance courses from 1913 to 1919. Here the students also strived to live in harmony with nature by growing their own food, vegetarianism, weaving cloth and making their own
reform-style clothing, and dancing in the great outdoors nature often nude experimenting with dynamic improvisations. Here Laban experienced his intellectual and artistic breakthrough, celebrating the "
neuen Menschen", "
Fiur-Menschen", "
Anarchos", and "
Orgiastos" in expressionist dance dramas.
Laban under National Socialism Laban directed major festivals of dance under the funding of
Joseph Goebbels's propaganda ministry from 1934 to 1936. Laban even wrote during this time that "we want to dedicate our means of expression and the articulation of our power to the service of the great tasks of our
Volk (People). With unswerving clarity our
Führer points the way". In 1936 Laban become the chairman of the association "German workshops for dance" and received a salary of 1250
ℛℳ per month, but a duodenal ulcer in August of that year bed bound him for two months, eventually leading him to ask to reduce his responsibilities to consultancy. This was accepted and his wage reduced to 500 ℛℳ, Laban's employment then ran until March 1937 when his contract ended. Several allegations of Laban's attachment to
Nazi ideology have been made, for instance, as early as July 1933 Laban was removing all pupils branded as non-
Aryan from the children's course he was running as a ballet director even though this was not required by law until 1938. However, some Laban scholars have pointed out that such actions were necessary for survival in Nazi Germany at that time, and that his position was precarious as he was neither a German citizen nor a
Nazi party member. In fact, the seizure of power by the
National Socialists in 1933 had an immediate effect on Laban's work through the new law passed against racial overcrowding in German schools and universities of 25 April 1933 (''''), Laban was thus bound by this new law of vetting students with the racial characteristic of a "non-Aryan" descent. His work under the Nazi regime culminated in 1936 with Goebbels's banning of
Vom Tauwind und der Neuen Freude (Of the Spring Wind and the New Joy), a choreography intended for the
1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, for not furthering the Nazi agenda.
England In very poor health, Laban managed to travel to Paris in August 1937. Eventually, he was invited to England, where in February 1938 he joined up with two of his former students
Kurt Jooss and
Sigurd Leeder at the Jooss-Leeder Dance School they had founded at
Dartington Hall in
Devon (thanks to the philanthropy of
Leonard Elmhirst and his wife
Dorothy Whitney), where innovative dance was already being taught by other refugees from Nazi Germany. Laban was greatly assisted in his dance teaching during these years by his close associates and long-term partners
Lisa Ullmann and Sylvia Bodmer. Their collaboration led to the founding of the Laban Art of Movement Guild (now known as
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) in 1945 and The Art of Movement Studio in
Manchester in 1946. In 1947, together with management consultant Fredrick Lawrence, Laban published a book
Effort,
Fordistic study of the time taken to perform tasks in the industrial workplace and the energy used. Laban tried to provide methods intended to help eliminate
"shadow movements" (which he believed wasted energy and time) and to focus instead on constructive movements necessary to the job at hand. Laban published
Modern Educational Dance in 1948 when his ideas on dance for all including children were taught in many British schools. Laban died in England in 1958.
Notable Laban dance students and associates Among Laban's students, friends, and associates were
Mary Wigman,
Suzanne Perrottet,
Katja Wulff,
Kurt Jooss,
Lisa Ullmann, Albrecht Knust, Dussia Bereska,
Lilian Harmel,
Sophie Taeuber-Arp,
Hilde Holger, Ana Maletić,
Milča Mayerová,
Gertrud Kraus,
Gisa Geert,
Warren Lamb,
Elizabeth Sneddon,
Dilys Price,
Yat Malmgren, Sylvia Bodmer,
Betty Meredith-Jones, and
Irmgard Bartenieff. ==Legacy==