In 1927 he moved to Berlin, opening the Choreogaphisches Institut and soon after he was appointed Director of the Prussian State Theatres. Collaborating with his pupil Kurt Jooss he made political anti war ballets and anti poverty dances educating socially aware dancers. By 1934, in Nazi Germany, he was appointed director of the Deutsche Tanzbuhne, and at the height of his career his name and work was destroyed by the Government Propaganda Ministry. In 1938 he took refuge in Britain.

Laban greatly influenced the movement education culture in Britain, opening the Art of Movement Studio in Manchester, in 1946. His experimental work excelled with choreographic processes. Later his school relocated to London, The Laban Centre for Movement and Dance.

He was able to express himself through movement and writing, and developed dance systems for body, space and time. He was both a creative artist and creative theorist who influenced Opera, Contemporary Dance, and Ballet.

During his years in England he studied movement behaviour, particularly the behavioral needs of industrial workers and psychiatric patients. At this time Laban laid the technical groundwork for ‘movement and dance therapy’, as well as developing an expressive movement practice for actors. Throughout his life he maintained a movement laboratory and his legacy continues today in studio practices, education, professional training, and theoretical methods for analysis, body-space dynamics, and choreography.

Rudolf Von Laban raised the status of dance as an artform, creating a written language and techniques for theory and practice.
Today his work is established in dance training and education, choreographic process, dance notation, and movement learning for actors, artists, and dancers to explore, express, and develop creative processes.