Rhythm is not a subject, not a thing, but rather a predicate; it is a description of processes and patternings in time and space: a petrol engine ticking over, someone hurrying to the railway station, the way someone stands on the platform as they wait for a delayed train, or someone else waits for their lover to arrive. Rhythm is essential to understanding how someone or something is moving. The rhythms of movement were a constant fascination for Rudolf Laban (1879 - 1958). Laban was a pioneering teacher of dance and movement and as a choreographer helped create Modern Dance in Germany. The first half of his career in Switzerland and Germany was devoted to the promotion of dance as an artform. When he moved to England in 1938, he then applied his understanding of movement to help factory workers increase their productivity. So how did he end up in the 1940s helping workers on factory floors increase their productivity? Rhythm was the conceptual bridge between these two worlds.
Dick McCaw (Fri,) studied this question.