A short history on Eurythmy
In 1911, Clara Smits asked Rudolf Steiner whether Swedish Gymnastics was a good career choice for her daughter Lori. Lori was looking for a profession in which she would not have to sit the whole day and would be able to help people. R. Steiner replied that Swedish Gymnastics certainly helped people physically, but if she wished to include soul, mind, and spirit, he could help her develop a new art of movement.
Lori agreed and together with R. Steiner’s wife, Marie von Sievers who was a speech artist and developed the art of Speech Formation, they set out on the new task which involved speech, rhythm, form and later also music.
When the first Waldorf School was founded in 1919, the new art of Eurythmy had developed so far, that R.Steiner included it in the Waldorf curriculum as a central subject to support the healthy development of the children by learning through structured, rhythmical and imaginative movements which are deeply connected with the becoming of a human being.
For example, in Class 1, the children learn the alphabet through stories, which they embody in Eurythmy through moving the stories and the gestures for the different sounds of the alphabet.
Class 3: The children have to find a new relationship to the world and to themselves (the “Rubicon”), which is supported by expressive movements of the musical major and minor moods.
Class 4: The children are ready for more structure, measurements, and grammar are introduced, which they move in Eurythmy with musical beat and rhythm, and specific “grammar forms” to support the learning.
Class 5/6: Texts from different cultures and epochs are practiced in Eurythmy to help create and experience the mood and character of the respective times and peoples.
In High School, increasingly more complex forms are introduced which make visible social and cognitive processes and encourage the young people to take responsibility for the outcome of their learning processes. This eventually leads to the Class 12 Eurythmy performance with individual and group pieces in poetry and music, highlighting the individual within the community.
All these different themes bring into movement the topics covered in class to add an experiential soul element, and are accompanied by specific age-related pedagogical exercises to support the children and young people throughout their school life.
Around the time of the founding of the first Waldorf School, another branch of Eurythmy was developed as a therapy to support patients at the anthroposophical Clinic in Arlesheim/Switzerland, in their individual needs of recovery and health management. At the request of the teachers, this therapy was also introduced in the school to support individual children whose needs went beyond the class Eurythmy. These range from physical ailments like allergies, asthma, or irregularities in the metabolic system to more psychosomatic and neurological or mental health conditions, for example, anxiety, depression, ADHD, and OCD.
In the last thirty years, neurological research has confirmed the importance of learning through movement. In fact, healthy brain development goes hand in hand with the healthy development of movement. Research has shown that through structured and varied movement, neurological connections are formed and consolidated through repetition.
I believe that this was at the heart of Steiner’s specific directive for Eurythmy in the Waldorf School, even though the scientific world took another 100 years to prove it. Yet, Eurythmy adds to the purely physical aspect of movement the artistic and creative element, which engages our imagination and connects it to the whole human being. Thus, we have a unique pedagogical and therapeutic tool to support children and young adults in their healthy development and becoming in the world.
Christiane Janowski, High School Eurythmy
