Eurythmy
Eurythmy is an expressive movement art originated
by Rudolf Steiner in conjunction with Marie von Sivers in the early 20th
century. Primarily a performance art, it is also used in education,
especially in Waldorf schools, and as a movement therapy.
The word eurythmy stems from Greek roots
meaning beautiful or harmonious rhythm; the term was used by Greek
and Roman architects to refer to the harmonious proportions of a design or
building.
Movement
repertoire
The gestures in
the eurythmist's movement repertoire relate to the sounds and rhythms of
speech, to the tones and rhythms of music and to soul experiences, such as joy
and sorrow. Once these fundamental repertoire elements are learned, they can be
composed into free artistic expressions. The eurythmist also cultivates a
feeling for the qualities of straight lines and curves, the directions of
movement in space (forward, backward, up, down, left, right), contraction and
expansion, and color. The element of color is also emphasized both through the
costuming, usually given characteristic colors for a piece or part and formed
of long, loose fabrics that accentuate the movements rather than the bodily
form, and through the lighting, which saturates the space and changes with the
moods of the piece.
Eurythmy's aim is to bring the artists' expressive
movement and both the performers' and audience's feeling experience into
harmony with a piece's content; eurythmy is thus sometimes called
"visible music" or "visible speech", expressions that
originate with its founder, Rudolf
Steiner, who described eurythmy as an "art of the soul".
Most eurythmy today is performed to classical (concert) music or texts
such as poetry or
stories. Silent pieces are also sometimes performed.
Eurythmy
with music
When performing eurythmy with music (also called tone
eurythmy), the three major elements of music, melody, harmony and rhythm, are all
expressed.The
melody is primarily conveyed through expressing its rise and fall; the specific pitches;
and the intervallic qualities present. Harmony is
expressed through movement between tension and release, as expressions of
dissonance and consonance, and between the more inwardly directed minor mood and
the outwardly directed major mood. Rhythm is chiefly conveyed through livelier
and more contoured movements for quick notes, slower, dreamier movements for
longer notes; in addition, longer tones move into the more passive (listening)
back space, quicker tones into the more active front space.
Breaths or pauses are expressed through a larger or
smaller movement in space, giving new impulse to what follows. Beat is conveyed
through greater emphasis of downbeats, or those beats upon which stress is
normally placed. Beat is generally treated as a subsidiary element. Eurythmy
has only occasionally been done to popular music, in which beat plays a large
role.
The timbre of individual instruments is brought into
the quality both of the tonal gestures and of the whole movement of the
eurythmist. Usually there will be a different eurythmist or group of
eurythmists expressing each instrument, for example in chamber or symphonic
music.
A piece's choreography usually
expresses elements such as the major or minor key, the shape of the melody
line, the interplay between voices or instruments and the relative dominance of
one or another voice or instrument. Thus, musicians can often follow even the
finest details of their part in the movements of the eurythmists on stage.
Particular musical forms (e.g. the sonata) can
have special characteristic choreographic expressions.
Eurythmy
with spoken texts
Eurythmy is often performed with spoken texts such
as poetry, stories or plays. Speech eurythmy includes such elements
as the sounds of
speech, rhythms, poetic meters,grammar and
mood. In speech eurythmy, all the sounds of language have characteristic
gestural qualities: the sound of an 'Ah' is formed by raising your arms over
your head in a v-shape, designed to show the open quality of that sound. An
'n', however, uses a sharper, jerking movement (as if touching something hot
and then jerking your hands up), again complementing the sound of the letter.
Note that it is the audible sounds themselves, not the letters of the written
language, that are expressed.
History
Eurythmy was born in 1911 when a widow brought her
young daughter, Lory Smits, who was interested in movement and dance, to the Austrian philosopher Rudolf
Steiner. Due to the recent loss of her father, it was necessary for
the girl to find a career. Steiner's advice was sought; he suggested that the
girl begin working on a new art of movement. As preparation for this, she began
to study human anatomy, to explore the human step, to contemplate the movement
implicit in Greek sculpture and dance, and to find movements that would express
spoken sentences using the sounds of speech. Soon a number of other young
people became interested in this form of expressive movement.
During these years, Steiner was writing a new drama
each year for performance at the Anthroposophical Society's summer
gatherings; beginning in 1912, he began to incorporate the new art of movement
into these dramas. When the Society decided to build an artistic center in Dornach, Switzerland (this
later became known as the Goetheanum) a small stage group began work and offered weekly
performances of the developing art. Marie Steiner-von Sivers, Steiner's wife,
who was a trained actress and speech artist, was given responsibility for
training and directing this ensemble. This first eurythmy ensemble went on tour
in 1919, performing across Switzerland,
the Netherlands and Germany.
Steiner saw eurythmy as a unique expression of the anthroposophical impulse:
It is the task of Anthroposophy to bring a greater
depth, a wider vision and a more living spirit into the other forms of art. But
the art of Eurythmy could only grow up out of the soul of Anthroposophy; could
only receive its inspiration through a purely Anthroposophical conception.
—Rudolf Steiner
In 1924, Steiner gave two intensive workshops on
different aspects of eurythmy; transcripts of his talks during these workshops
are published as Eurythmy as Visible Speech andEurythmy as Visible
Singing.
Eurythmy ensembles in Stuttgart, Germany and
at the Goetheanum soon became established parts of the cultural life of Europe.
The Goetheanum ensemble was recognized with a gold medal at the Paris Expo of
1937/8. The Stuttgart training and ensemble, led by Else Klink, had to close in
the Nazi period
but reopened shortly after the close of World War II.
There are now training centers and artistic ensembles in many countries.
Eurythmy
as a performing art
There are notable eurythmy ensembles in Dornach, Switzerland; Stuttgart, Germany; The Hague, Netherlands; London, England; Järna, Sweden, and Chestnut Ridge, New York(near New York City).
All of these groups both perform locally and tour internationally. Many smaller
performing groups also exist (see list). High schools
that have their own performing ensembles include the San Francisco
Waldorf High School ensemble.
Pedagogical
eurythmy
When the first Waldorf
School was founded in 1919, Eurythmy was included in the
curriculum.It
was quickly recognized as a successful complement to gymnastics in
the school's movement program and is now taught in most Waldorf schools, as
well as in many non-Waldorf pre-school centers, kindergartens and schools. It
is taught to all ages from pre-schools through high school and into college.
Its purpose is to awaken and strengthen the expressive capacities of children
through movement, stimulating the child to bringimagination, ideation and conceptualization to
the point where they can manifest these as "vital, moving forms" in
physical space.
Eurythmy pedagogical exercises begin with the
straight line and curve and proceed through successively more complicated
geometric figures and choreographed forms, developing a child's coordination
and concentration. An extensive set of special exercises has also been
developed for pedagogical purposes.These
include metamorphosing geometric patterns and dynamic movement sequences.
Rods or balls are sometimes used in exercises to
develop precision in movement, to expand the experience of space, and to
objectify the movement experience. The rods are usually approximately the
length of an arm; the balls are of a size to fit comfortably in one hand. Both
are generally made of copper, a material receptive to warmth. Various
therapeutic exercises also employ these.
Though there are some independent post-graduate
trainings for pedagogical eurythmy, this aspect is frequently included in
courses focusing on artistic work.
Therapeutic
eurythmy
Eurythmy is used therapeutically, normally on the
advice of a physician, to compensate for somatic or psychological imbalances;
the aim is to strengthen the organism'ssalutogenic capacity
to heal itself. Case
studies suggest that therapeutic eurythmy may be helpful for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD).
There are post-graduate trainings in the therapeutic
use of eurythmy.
Socially
therapeutic uses of eurythmy
Eurythmy has also been used in many social contexts,
including workplaces and prisons, with the aim of rejuvenating individuals and
their social relationships.
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