El dominio del movimiento

This is undoubtedly one of the most complete books by Rudolf Laban in which the author's passion for body language is reflected in each of its pages. A passion that opens, in this text, to an extraordinary range of genres: together with a detailed technical manual, we find paragraphs full of poetic force that stimulate us to continue trusting in the value of the art of movement, it also adds its concern for the Historical and anthropological foundation that transports each idea to a specific place and event, facilitating the reader's understanding. Through these different planes, Laban unravels his conception of the art of movement, an absolutely contemporary conception, where scientific systematization gains vitality through philosophical and social arguments. Laban defends the idea that there was a fracture between dance and mime, separating the bodily gesture from its dramatic function, and that it is necessary to re-integrate both manifestations to recover the symbolic origin of the art of movement from primitive times. The exposition of his thought has as a counterpoint the wide section dedicated to the description of exercises of corporal technique and the chapter of the dramatic texts, composed of three examples of his new concept of mime; that today we could call 'physical theater' or 'theater of gesture'.