Valerie Preston-Dunlop

Valerie Preston-Dunlop is a leading pioneer in choreographical studies. She received her MA in movement studies and her PhD in choreology. She is a consultant at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance London. She conducted extensive research of the life of Rudolf Laban and wrote many books that contributed to the field of dance. She is a teacher, lecturer, researcher, a dance scholar, and a mentor to many young dancers.

At the age of sixteen, Valerie Preston-Dunlop began her training under Rudolf Laban. She attended the School of Russian Ballet and Folkwanghochschule in Essen under Kurt Jooss and Albrecht Knust. Later, she performed with the British Dance Theatre(1949–52) and soon after, she began to focus mainly on dance education. In 1950, she received a Laban Diploma. Continuing her focus on dance education, she received her Advance Diploma of Education in 1977. She worked internationally teaching at Keio and Kinki Universities in Japan and Bologna University in Italy. Preston-Dunlop was a senior lecturer at Dartford College(1955) and Laban Centre for Movement and Dance(1978–1955), a director of Beechmont Movement Study Centre(1965), part of the dance faculty at the Art of Movement Studio ( 1953), a found member of the Society for Dance Research(1982), and currently a consultant at Trinity Laban ( 1995-date). 2012 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Trinity Laban.

She contributed to the development of choreological studies, a practical theory for dance as a performing and performative art. In 1981, she did research in CHUMM analysis (Choreutic Units and their Manner of Materialisation), Like Laban, she had an interest in dance theory and continue to explore Motif Writing. She regularly contributes the Dance Theatre Journal, UK’s leading dance journal. She did her postgraduate work in choreutics and choreography. She researched Rudolf Laban’s life and published her award-winning book Rudolf Laban: An Extraordinary Life in 1998. She also recreated Laban's Kammertanz repertoire (1923–28)

Books

• Handbook for Dance in Education (1963)
• Practical Kinetography Laban (1969) - This book introduces Motif Writing and establishes a connection to symbols in the main system.
• Dance is a Language, isn’t it? (1979) .- This text uses theory to determine if dances could be regarded as a language or not. The readers receive an introduction to The Star which is the starting point for the development of Choreological Perspective.
• Dancing and Dance Theory (1980)
• Schrifttanz: A View of Dance in the Weimar Republic (1990)
• Dance Words (1995)- This book includes verbal language of dance practitioners and researcher. It includes various social and theatrical domains of dance.
• Rudolf Laban: An Extraordinary Life (1998)-The book provides meticulous details of the life of Rudolf Laban through political and social unrest that shaped his career. It won the de la Torre Bueno prize in 1999.
• Looking at Dances (1998)
• Dance and the performative: a Choreological Perspective – Laban and Beyond (2002) .-This book explores the interaction of spectator and performer in a performative dance through a choreological perspective. Part one (chapters 1–6) outlines the choreological perspective as an approach to dance study. Part two(chapter 7–13)applies the concept of a choreological perspective to different example including ballet teaching, recovering ‘lost’ Laban dances, and choreography of Trisha Brown and Merce Cunningham.

"Rudolf Laban: Man of Theatre" Dance Books Ltd. (2013) Rudolf Laban's provocative, experimental, explosive dance theatre works have lain hidden since the Third Reich deliberately annihilated his name. This book exposes Laban's audacity and his significance for dance theatre today, giving access to his creative practices as he provided dance audiences with shock, amusement, awe, curiosity, beauty and meaning.

Videos

"Living Architecture" (2008) "Die Grünen Clowns 1928 to Green Clowns 2008" (2009) "Rudolf Laban's Nacht" (2012) "Laban's Solos and Duos 1924" (2012) "Laban's Der Schwingende Tempel" (2013)

Articles

• 'Rudolf Laban's Cultural Environment', Working Papers, I. 1987.
• 'Laban and the Nazis: Towards an Understanding of Rudolf Laban and the Third Reich', Dance Theatre Journal, Vol 6 No 2. 1988.
• 'Choreological Studies, 1928 and 1988', Movement and Dance, No 77, May. 1988.
• ‘Rudolf Laban: the seminal years in Munich, 1910–14' Dance Theatre Journal Vol 7, Nos 3 and 4. 1989.
• 'Laban in Zurich, 1914–1919: the nightmare years', Dance Theatre Journal, Vol 10 No 3. 1993.
• 'Dance Dynamics', Dance Theatre Journal,Vol 13 No 2. 1996.
• 'Symbolism and the European dance revolution', Dance Theatre Journal, Vol 14 No 3. 1998.

• "Valerie Preston-Dunlop". Verve Publishing. 14 April 2009. <http://www.valerieprestondunlop.com/>.
• "Valerie Preston-Dunlop". Verve Publishing. 14 April 2009. <http://www.valerieprestondunlop.com/>.
• "Valerie Preston-Dunlop". Verve Publishing. 14 April 2009. <http://www.valerieprestondunlop.com/>.
• "Valerie Preston-Dunlop". Verve Publishing. 14 April 2009. <http://www.valerieprestondunlop.com/>.
• "Valerie Preston-Dunlop". Verve Publishing. 14 April 2009. <http://www.valerieprestondunlop.com/>.
• "Valerie Preston-Dunlop". Verve Publishing. 14 April 2009. <http://www.valerieprestondunlop.com/>.
• "Valerie Preston-Dunlop". Verve Publishing. 14 April 2009. <http://www.valerieprestondunlop.com/>.
• "Valerie Preston-Dunlop". Verve Publishing. 14 April 2009. <http://www.valerieprestondunlop.com/>.
• "Valerie Preston-Dunlop". Verve Publishing. 14 April 2009. <http://www.valerieprestondunlop.com/>.
• Briginshaw, V. (2003). Dance Theatre Journal vol 19(3): 48.