This handbook, complete with graded exercises, is for teachers and students of both drama and dance, who want to use the Laban system of movement.

Although almost every professional actor and dancer in North America and Europe is familiar with the work of German-born movement teacher, Rudolf Laban (d. 1988), his system of analyzing and recording movement has the misleading reputation of being a "difficult" and "complex" technique.

Author Jean Newlove, a renowned movement teacher, takes the reader step-by-step through the basic principles of movement, with graded exercises at the end of each chapter. She also provides practical examples of how movement training can be used in the development of characters in specific plays.