The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1912–1918

GA 277a — 16 September 1912, Bottmingen

The Dionysian Course

As Rudolf Steiner was unable to give his first lessons in eurythmy as originally planned during rehearsals for the Mystery Dramas in Munich due to an excessive workload, it was not until the end of September in Basel, where Rudolf Steiner was staying for his cycle on “The Gospel of St. Mark,” that nine introductory lessons took place.

With regard to her notes on these lessons, Lory Maier-Smits mentions in a letter to Eva and Edwin Froböse dated January 11, 1964, that she considered it her task "only to recount those things and only in the form in which I personally conveyed or experienced them, either in the lessons with Dr. Steiner or later in my work with him, but that I in no way want to or can say that this is the only way to work. For no one knows better than I how flexible and ‘unpedantic’ everything Dr. Steiner ever said was, and that often it is the statements that initially appear almost contradictory that express the full richness."

The text is based on Lory Maier-Smits' notes for GA 277a ‘1965’, supplemented in part by descriptions from her essays “Erste Lebenskeime der Eurythmie” (First Seeds of Eurythmy, 1951) and “Die Anfänge der Eurythmie” (The Beginnings of Eurythmy, 1956); longer passages from these have been indented for better distinction. Rudolf Steiner's notes are a valuable addition to this; these are, on the one hand, his shorthand preparations and, on the other, his notes for Lory Maier-Smits.

Lory Maier-Smits, notes from 1965, with additions from: “The Beginnings of Eurythmy” and “First Seeds of Eurythmy”; Rudolf Steiner, notes

The Munich Festival Weeks of 1912 ended on August 31 with the final lecture of the cycle "On Initiation. Of Eternity and the Moment. Of Spiritual Light and the Darkness of Life.“ On September 15, the first lecture on the ”Gospel of Mark" was scheduled in Basel. And for this time in Basel, Rudolf Steiner had promised us, my mother and me, to give us the basic guidelines for the new art of movement, as he called it at the time. A kind twist of fate, one might almost say a trick of fate, made it possible for this time to be filled with a wide variety of impressions of nature in the mountains – we spent part of the intervening time as guests of a friend of my mother's, Baroness Emmy von Gumppenberg, in a small farmhouse in the mountains at a considerable altitude, on Bavarian lakes, on Lake Constance, and at the Rhine Falls. And in addition, prompted by changing weather conditions, ever new, sometimes strongly contrasting moods seized the young soul, which was doubly receptive after the weeks just spent in Munich – moods of wonder, admiration, awe, and also fearful overwhelm. And so we arrived in Basel on September 14.

On the very first evening after the lecture, Rudolf Steiner came to my mother and invited us to his home in Bottmingen, a rural suburb south of Basel, for the following afternoon, at 4 o'clock, I believe. Our journey there – we happened to live on the southern outskirts of the city – now took us daily under colorful autumn trees, through rustling leaves, along a small river (Birsig) to the little house that a Basel member had made available to Rudolf Steiner for the duration of his stay there.

We met in a tiny little room on the ground floor, a kind of doctor's waiting room with a table, a few chairs, and a small bench-like sofa on which Rudolf Steiner always sat. There weren't many other objects in the room, but there was also very little free space. We were alone with Rudolf Steiner for the first two or three hours, but on the third day he brought Miss von Sivers with him and said with a smile as he entered: “Yes, Miss von Sivers is now also interested in our cause. She asked me how I could demonstrate all the ‘pas’ in such a small room!” And from then on, Miss von Sivers never missed any of the afternoon lessons.

On that first Monday afternoon, after a brief, affectionate greeting, Rudolf Steiner went straight to the heart of eurythmy, without referring in any way to my preparatory work, which I was supposed to “forget all about”: the vowels. “You must learn to acquire a fine, differentiated feeling for the individual sounds. And to do this, you must learn to let your heart rise up into your head. Not your head into your heart. First the heart must speak, and only later the head,” he added. And then he formulated his instructions accordingly.