Time, Space, Weight, Flow: A Solo with Four Dials

Each student builds a short solo and transforms it by turning Laban's four motion factors like dials. It teaches how to vary material without changing the steps.

How to play

1. Everyone creates an 8-count phrase with five simple moves and memorizes it (6 min).
2. One dial at a time: the teacher calls a factor and its pole (sudden time, direct space, strong weight, bound flow…) and everyone applies it to their phrase (8 min).
3. Each student draws two random cards with a factor and a pole and builds a final version combining them (6 min).
4. In pairs: one shows the original and the transformed phrase; the other names which factors changed (6 min).
5. Debrief: which factor changes a phrase the most and why (4 min).

Rules

• The steps stay the same; only how you do them changes.
• Strong-weight or sudden-time versions still need a controlled stop.
• Observers describe what they see, without judging.

Variations

Adaptations

• Blind or low-vision students: a partner describes the phrase aloud and the student reproduces it; when observing, they lightly touch their partner's hands to sense tempo and weight.
• Wheelchair users: build the phrase with arms, torso and chair travel; the factors apply the same way.
• Students who struggle with memory: sketch the phrase on a card with drawings.

Learning goals

• Create an original movement phrase.
• Apply time, space, weight and flow to transform it.
• Watch and identify quality changes in someone else's movement.

Equipment for a class of 25

• cards: 30
• speaker: 1

Teacher tip

Make 32 cards with the eight poles (sudden/sustained, direct/indirect, strong/light, free/bound), four of each. The usual mistake is changing the steps along with the factor: insist the phrase stays recognizable.

More main activities for High School