What are the 6 Bartenieff Fundamentals?
David Craig
Updated on March 21, 2026
What are the 6 Bartenieff Fundamentals?
The Basic 6 include: Thigh Lift, Pelvic Forward Shift, Pelvic Lateral Shift, Body-half, Knee Drop, and Arm Circles. The preparatory exercise included is Rock and Roll.
What illness did Bartenieff focus on in her physical therapy practice?
Polio Patients She combined her Laban-based understanding of movement with her physical therapy training in the clinical setting. As Bartenieff observed her first polio patients she became intensely aware of their individuality in coping with the sudden loss of function and changes in self-image.
When was Bartenieff Fundamentals created?
After coming to the United States in the 1940s and becoming a physical therapist, Bartenieff developed the method in the form of a set of exercises, based on concepts and principles of kinesiological functioning, that can be extended into all types of movement possibilities.
What are bartenieff fundamentals in dance?
Bartenieff Fundamentals℠ is a construct that focuses on movement integration and harmony. When moving, our coordination is affected by body connections, center of weight and the relationship to initiation and follow through of a given action.
What did Ingrid bartenieff study to determine patterns of movement?
As a physical therapist, she applied Laban’s theories and the principles of human development to her work with polio patients as well as dancers, originating a physical reeducation method that develops movement efficiency and expressiveness.
Why do we study Bartenieff Fundamentals?
Bartenieff Fundamentals℠ (BF) helps an individual learn to move more easily and more expressively. Athletes from many sports have improved their performance and reduced the risk of injury after incorporating Bartenieff Fundamentals℠ into their training.
How many bartenieff fundamentals are there?
six
According to Bartenieff: ‘The six are considered basic because they are applicable to all activity in that they are concerned with the internal support of the body as it develops into uprightness.
What is Bess in dance?
Laban Movement Analysis is broken into four major categories: Body, Effort, Space, and Shape, or BESS for short Here is a brief and modest explanation of those four categories: Body is the “WHAT” of movement.
What are bartenieff fundamental principles?
For Bartenieff, the totality of human movement analysis expanded on Laban’s theories to include four elements: Body, Effort, Shape, and Space (BESS). Bartenieff based her work on what she perceived as universal truths as far as the body and its connection to the world: to self, to space, to other bodies.
What is bartenieff technique?
What is Laban Bess movement theory?
The Laban method addresses that body language according to four main categories: Body, Effort, Shape and Space (BESS): Body the “WHAT” of movement. What parts of our body do we use when we are moving? How do these body parts relate to each other while in movement? Effort the “HOW” of movement.
What is Laban’s Bess theory?
Who is Irmgard Bartenieff?
Irmgard Bartenieff (1900–1981) was a dancer, physical therapist, cross-cultural scholar and pioneer in the field of dance/movement therapy.
What are Bartenieff Fundamentals?
When moving, our coordination is affected by body connections, center of weight and the relationship to initiation and follow through of a given action. Bartenieff Fundamentals℠ was developed by Irmgard Bartenieff in applying Rudolf Laban’s movement theories to the physical/kinesiological functioning of the human body.
What is Laban/Bartenieff Institute?
One of Rudolf Laban’s star pupils, Bartenieff was among the first to promote his work in the United States, ultimately founding what would become the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, LIMS® in New York City.
What did Maria Bartenieff study in college?
During the 1920s Bartenieff studied Modern Dance, Movement Analysis, and Movement Notation at the Rudolf Laban School in Munich and danced with the Tanzbühne Laban. She taught and performed in Germany through her own studio and company, Romantisches Tanztheater Barténieff, in Berlin and Stuttgart.