Eurythmy

From a flyer given to the families attending a Eurythmy performance...

"Eurythmy is an art in which the heart learns to speak and sing
through flowing movements of the body. The movement choreographed to
poetry and music bring the word and tone to life in the visible world.
Entering the cultural life of man in 1912, under the guidance of
Rudolf Steiner, Eurythmy began as a performing art and soon found its
way into education in the Waldorf school.

Waldorf education is a worldwide movement in which each child learns
not only through thinking but also through their feeling and willing
as well. Every subject is taught so that the child can approach it
with his intellect, experience it artistically and work it into his
will through physical activity.

Eurythmy is the heart of Waldorf education. The wealth of pedagogical
possibilities within Eurythmy is limitless in that it can enhance and
develop imagination, creativity, limb coordination, dexterity,
individual initiative, and an ability to work harmoniously within the
social sphere. Furthermore, it brings the students a deeper
understanding of many aspects of their curriculum, in particular
geometry, music theory, grammar, and poetic structure such as rhythm,
rhyme, assonance, alliteration, etc."

Here is an email I received from Miss Orchid, our Asst. Fairy Garden Teacher and a Eurythmist:

Hello, it was requested by one of the parents that I send her a little
bit more on Eurythmy. Though it is hard to express in to words, below
are a few attempts.  It may be too extensive for all the parents to
want to read or try to understand - but feel free to pick and choose
from these descriptions to pass along as interest may arise in what
the children are actually doing in their eurythmy class.

-OrchidFrom the book "Rudolf Steiner" by Johannes Hemleben

"Architecture, the plastic arts, and painting have been a part of all
civilization. Art always reflects the spirit of the age. The pyramids
of Egypt, the Greek temples, the medieval cathedrals, are each a
manifestation of their age. But Eurythmy is something new. It is
neither gymnastics nor dance nor is it mime. True, it is an art of
motion, but at the same time is is an art of consciousness. To
understand this we have to strip from the word 'consciousness'
everything that is suggestive of 'intellectuality'. No art comes from
the intellect, which is the enemy of all true art. The aim of Eurythmy
is to make visible by gesture and movement the spiritual conformity
and quality of words and sounds, and make of them an artistic
experience. This requires 'spiritual consciousness', which makes the
unseen vital processes that lie behind every uttered vowel or
consonant, every syllable, every word, every sound, something that can
be enjoyed as an artistic experience. From the subjective-objective
experience Eurythmy is borne as visible speech, as visible song.
Starting in a very modest way in 1912, Eurythmy under the aegis of
Marie Steiner developed in three directions: as stage art, as an
educational aid in schools, and as a therapeutic method. "

From Rudolf Steiner:

"Man as we see him before us in complete in himself. But this
completeness is the result of motion...And when we develop eurythmy we
are carried back to the very beginnings of motion...God does eurythmy,
and in so doing produces the human form.  ...for eurythmy means in a
certain sense the making of gestures, yet no transient random
gestures, but cosmic ones, loaded with meaning, such as cannot be
otherwise and are not due to any human caprice.  There is perhaps no
art in which one is made so intensely aware of being at one with the
Cosmos, as in eurythmy."


And here is a description of Euythmy by one of our students and her mother:

Kaia's description of eurythmy (unsolicited - she chose to write this herself, I simply typed what she wrote so I could email it to you):
"Eurythmy is where you do all of these movements, and we each have our own special eurhythmy shoes. If you have a certain kind of color, the bottom of your shoe is hard, like for tapping, and it's the same color as the top of your shoes, which are soft.

I love the stories the most, especially the one where the dragon flies up to the sun and swallows it. We flapped our arms like dragons, and I felt strong.

I like the stepping stones, where we step and say a poem.

I like skipping around the circle while we clap and sing:

"Skippity skip
Skippity skip
Under and over
We never slip
Pepper and salt
Pepper and salt
Over and under
We never halt"

When I do eurythmy, I feel happy because I like to skip and to sing."

Sarah's observations of Kaia:
"I believe we all chose to share and teach what we are most excited to have learned ourselves. And as the eldest of 8 cousins in her family, Kaia loves to teach. She brings home imaginative stories and songs and poems she learned at school and involves her very willing friends and family in a gentle way, guiding each of them through movement and lyrics. Each child is engaged with a part of their own-maybe a cat who chases a mouse or a farmer tending his growing vegetable. Every time we have guests, Kaia encourages everyone to participate ineurythmy because it enlivens her spirit, which is clearly contagious, and eurythmy provides an artistic outlet for her.
I've also noticed that when eurythmy is integrated into the curriculum, Kaia picks up concepts very quickly. Counting and multiples are an excellent example of this: The students learn by incorporated movements how to count by multiples of any number. Kaia's favorite is 4. "One" is counted by touching the toes, "Two" is counted by touching the knees, "Three" is counted by touching the shoulders, "Four" is counted by reaching up to the sky. "Five" starts again at the toes, and each time she reaches to the sky, she knows it is a multiple of four. Another example how eurythmy works is with the memorization of poetry and rhymes. There is an emphasis on the rhythm of the words, and when movement is incorporated into stories, there is a deeper understanding of the message. The golden sun and the apples on the trees are represented by specific movements when recited, so that the students feel confident retelling because they understood it so well to begin with.
I am also grateful for the effects eurythmy has had on Kaia's speech and annunciation, as well as her posture. Young children eventually learn to fine tune their speech and movements, but eurythmy helps guide them in subtle ways they may not even realize. It feels like playful expression rather than scheduled therapy.
Thank you for sharing eurythmy with our family; I have no doubt its effects will be far-reaching."