Laban Resources
Introduction to the John Hodgson Archive
John Hodgson began gathering materials for his archive in the early 1970s. Some of the documents and artworks come from Laban’s own archive which had lain undisturbed for some forty years in a cellar in Plauen, East Germany. Another source was from Lisa Ullmann, Laban’s partner when in England from 1938 – 1958. He also conducted some hundred interviews with Laban’s relatives, former students and colleagues over the 1970s and ‘80s. I have transcribed those recordings that are still viable.
When I began work in the archive I was told the archive consisted mostly of photocopies and contained little of interest to scholars of dance or movement studies. Since March 2007 I have worked to correct this very misleading impression. The archive contains a wealth of valuable material, and I have drawn on it in my Laban Sourcebook (2011) and more recently The Art of Movement: Unpublished Writings by Rudolf Laban (2024). Some of the documents in this site are taken from my most recent collection.
What follows is a guide to give you an idea of the kind of materials in the archive and to access them with ease and speed. The archive is split into three parts:
1. Printed Material
Industry and Therapy
Published Articles by Laban
Reviews of Laban Performances
Unpublished Writings
2. Original Artwork and Photographs
3. Sound Archive
Introduction to John Hodgson Interviews
List of John Hodgson’s Interviews 1972 - 1991
There’s no disguising the fact that this archive is a mixed bag. The printed material ranges from the wholly irrelevant (for example, tourist brochures for places of cultural interest in Europe dating from the 1970s) to original documents dating back to 1910 when Laban’s career as a movement pioneer was beginning in Munich.
It should also be noted that many of the original documents are in German. It is our aim to translate much of these documents over the next few years. We will begin with writings by Laban, and then progress onto reviews of his productions and his extensive correspondence (there are over 200 letters to and from Albrecht Knust, who helped develop Labanotation). Even though many of the relevant documents are photocopies, this collection as a whole offers a comprehensive documentation of Laban’s incredibly productive and varied career, from its beginnings in Munich, Zurich and Ascona in the 1910s through to his groundbreaking work in industry in England during the 1940s and ‘50s. Some of the materials – particularly his handwritten notes from the 1910s and his extensive correspondence – are unpublished and give a vivid insight into Laban’s life and thinking.
Since my online catalogue of the archive went online in 2015 the archive has been completely rehoused which means that researchers again need a guide. To this end, I have created two resources that will give researchers an idea of the extent and content of the archive:
1 A brief guide to the contents of each box
This should give researchers an idea of the basic scope of the collection. A brief description of each of the 29 boxes is followed by a summary of the contents of each of the 233 folders.
2 A listing of selected types of key documents and where they can be found. This will give researchers a little more detail about the extent of the collection. The list is not comprehensive!
These are listed below:
Writings by Articles about Laban: Published and Unpublished articles, and Handwritten Notes
Correspondence
Schools, Congresses and Summer Schools
Laban’s nonartistic activities in England: Industry and Therapy
Laban’s choreographies: Publicity, Reviews, Scenarios and Descriptions
About Laban: Articles, Reminiscences
I have included edited interviews I conducted with my teachers, Warren Lamb and Geraldine Stephenson between 2001 and 2014. I have also included edited highlights from transcripts made of interviews conducted by John Hodgson in the 1970s and ‘80s.
About The Archive
