EURYTHMY

The art of Eurythmy (beautiful or harmonious movement) was founded in 1912 by the Austrian philosopher, artist and scientist Rudolph Steiner. Although new in our time as an art of movement, the origin of Eurythmy goes back to the ancient Greek temple dance of the Mysteries, where dance was performed as the expression of the spiritual in the human being.
Eurythmy, however, is neither dance nor mime, nor is it confined by the physical possibilities of the human figure. Just as sculptors mould stone and wood, and painters choose their colours, Eurythmists work with the vowels, consonants, grammar and rhythms of speech and the tones, intervals, pitch, timbre, harmony and rhythms of music. In Eurythmy, the body is the instrument and movement and gesture are the media. Eurythmists do not dance to reveal their personal choreographical ideas, but try to reveal, to make visible, the qualities inherent in speech and music. They seek to sing and speak through movement that "sounds" in space.
Steiner considered that when we speak the air expelled from our lungs and given form by our mouths produces "gestures" in the air, and he believed that it is possible to discover the "inner being" of man through an understanding of how we produce sounds.
It requires much study and an intuitive sense for language and music to find these "air gestures" and translate them into movements visible to all. It also requires years of work (the basic training is now 4-5 years) to do these gestures in such a way that the formative power from which they stem can live in them and be fully expressed. Many people, however, will find that they have a natural sense for these gestures, can recognise them when seen, and even discover them for themselves.
An important characteristic of Eurythmy is that it is based especially on the naturally expressive movement of the arms and hands. The movement is, at the same time, reflected in the subtle mobility of the whole body. The uprightness so typical of the human stature is essentially nurtured and worked with. The fact that man is vertically poised between the worlds of height and depth, levity and gravity is inextricably bound up with his having become an independent, thinking being capable of speech and song - a creator in his own right.
In a performance of Eurythmy the body should be seen as clothed in the movement inherent in sound. It should move in such a way as to make visible the unseen movement of speech and tone. Therefore, the style of dress, the flowing silk gowns and veils worm by Eurythmists, is designed, not to emphasise the body and it's physical movements as such, but to help the audience experience the flow of movement around the body.
Owing to it's very nature, Eurythmy brings to expression the formative forces which create and sustain all life. It therefore has great therapeutic value and is also used, in adapted form, as therapy and in education the world over. As a social and cultural activity it is both stimulating and enlivening.

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Information supplied by The Brighton Natural Health Centre

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