The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1912–1918

GA 277a — 24 September 1912, Bottmingen

The Dionysian Course IX

On that day, sad that it was the last time, yet filled with the hopeful desire to finally engage seriously with all this wonderfulness, we walked once more along our beloved path through all the autumn splendor, through rustling leaves along the little river, out to Bottmingen. I had written down a series of questions, some of them about sounds we had not yet discussed, but also some of a more fundamental nature.

Rudolf Steiner, however, immediately began to record and explain another, complementary serpentine dance – question and answer. He specified the exact rhythm in which this round dance should be danced. It is actually an anapaestic pentameter. We were now to form a serpentine opening from the inside out as a question with the first six regular anapaests [vv-|vv-|vv-|vv-|vv-|vv-]. And with the second part of the stanza, the pentameter, the two anapaests twice, a high tone [vv- vv- - vv- vv- -], a serpentine concentrating from the outside inwards, give the answer. We also felt and experienced, quite naturally, that one must open oneself to the world with questions and leave behind one's previous ego-centric point of view, but we also felt that an answer described and justified from all sides, with its advice or its yes...

vv- | vv- | vv- | vv- | vv- | vv- |
vv-vv--vv-vv--
serpentines

After Dr. Steiner had performed this last serpentine dance, he looked at me with a kind, inviting smile: “Well, what about your questions?” Delighted, I pulled out my piece of paper. “Yes, Doctor, it says w first. You haven't told me yet how to make the w.” " Yes—w,“ was the somewhat hesitant reply, ”w, that's so deep, you can't actually do it!“ Summoning all my courage, I asked: ”But we have so many important words with w: wind and wave, meadow and forest, world, woe, bliss, wisdom and madness, become and wither, all the question words—I've written down many more. “ - ”Well, then make a very long u for every w." And so I made this long u for almost a year, until Erna Wolfram-van Deventer told me: Dr. Steiner had once told her in Leipzig that she should write the w like a long #, but with heavy, heavy hands. I don't know when and where this undulating, mobile third w was introduced, but I do know that when I once asked Rudolf Steiner something, he said in astonishment: “Yes, but haven't I told you that for a long time?” And then: “Oh no, I didn't know that back then.”

My next question was about the umlaut ö. As if reflecting, almost as if feeling his way, he formed two very delicate circles, the second slightly smaller than the first. He said and wrote nothing about it, but just looked down at it thoughtfully. Then, however, he drew a very definite line under the two circles and, just as decisively and, I would say, resolutely, he drew and formulated the third, final circle; with a dot in the middle!

ö/ Round dance and from a / point in the / middle / jumped / ä

I would be very happy if my readers could understand the event I have just tried to describe from the two drawings and thus experience it for themselves. Of course, round dance and jumping from a point to the center was not always easy in practice; usually one only jumped toward the center, never jumping out of the formation, always narrowing it. When I then tried to find a corresponding arm movement myself, an o that narrowed jerkily into an e, but without touching the e, seemed to feel most satisfying.

This “feeling good” or “feeling satisfied” had to be a benchmark in the very early days, as I lived and worked for over half a year without any correction or confirmation from the teacher—and if a chosen poem had an ö as its first sound (e.g., “How beautifully the morning star shines”), and one was supposed to follow a strict rhythm, an arm movement was necessary. Of course, the ü was even more problematic. Most of the time, there was simply no one there who could “dance past” me or whom I could dance past.

Now I was still missing ü and t. Rudolf Steiner did not provide any further explanations for ü, but very quickly and naturally drew the two paths dancing past each other.

Ü as ü the dancing past each other

But when I asked about t, he looked at me, I can still feel it today, with real pity, as if to say: You really could have figured that out for yourself! – and quickly, almost as an afterthought, formed a t with his hands, placing his flat right hand horizontally on his upright left hand for a brief moment. However, the drawing and the written explanation left open many other possibilities from the outset. But here, too, he only acted and wrote and drew a final line under it.

let something touch the head / from above

I was about to ask a new question when Rudolf Steiner picked up his pencil again and suddenly wrote down the last sentence, which seemed to have no connection whatsoever with everything that had gone before.

Every sound must correspond to a foot movement in the dance.

What he went on to say also seemed to have little to do with all the vowels and consonants, the forms and rhythms. For example, he recalled a castanet dancer who only makes her castanets sound as if by a preparatory or introductory foot movement. The same applies to dances in which the various possibilities for making a tambourine sound are practiced. Here, too, each sound is followed almost syncopically by a foot movement. “Even in a real comical folk verses, the boy only slaps his thigh with all his might after a powerful stomp.” So we would also take this hint into account and develop it into an exercise and wait to see why and what he wanted to achieve by giving it.

And then I was also able to ask the question that was particularly close to my heart (perhaps I suspected that it would take more than half a year before Rudolf Steiner would see our work and help us further): “Once I have practiced all the sounds, first individually and then in sequence, what kind of poem could I choose and try first?” Very decisively, as if there were no doubt or hesitation whatsoever, he said: "Goethe's ‘Meeresstille’ (Sea Calm). There you have a poem that you should only do vocally; there is nothing, absolutely nothing of the outside world in it. It is the description of a trance state, a state of the soul that takes place only within, undisturbed or colored by the outside world. But immediately after that, you should do ‘Glückliche Fahrt’ (Happy Journey). That is entirely about the outside world, and therefore you must do it with all the consonants, the word ‘Äolus’ (Aeolus) even with all the sounds. But these two poems belong together. Only together do they form a whole."

In general, one should develop a sure sense of when a poem should be structured vocally and when consonantly, and a good way to achieve this is to take one and the same poem – Goethe's “Prometheus” is particularly suitable for this – and structure it vocally one time and consonantly the next. "Vocal: you will be able to experience and express all of Prometheus' struggles, his defiance, his rebellion and contempt for the gods, his irrepressible desire for freedom for himself and his creatures. Do it consonantically, and you will be standing in the middle of the action, you will be the surging cloud, the boy cutting thistles, and you will be practicing with Zeus on oak trees and mountain peaks, bringing everything to life before your audience!"

Now all my questions had been answered, but Rudolf Steiner still looked thoughtful and then said: “Yes, but now our cause must also have a name!” And without a moment's hesitation, Miss von Sivers spontaneously and naturally exclaimed: “Eurythmy!” Rudolf Steiner immediately and enthusiastically agreed, repeating: “Yes, Eurythmy.” So if mothers are to know the names of their children, then Marie Steiner-von Sivers was also “the mother” of Eurythmy in this respect.

But when the suggestion was made that it would be good and appropriate for me to first learn how to move my limbs correctly and skillfully through some kind of gymnastics, this met with fierce opposition: "Yes, yes, that would indeed be an effective way to ruin the whole thing from the outset. The good thing is that the little girl has never done anything like that before and is therefore still completely unspoiled."

Suddenly Rudolf Steiner continued as if eurythmy were already a fait accompli, as if I could not only teach individual students – “whom I will send to you” – but as if eurythmy could, no, should be brought into the world on such a scale that one day it could even replace soccer. “But when you go out into the world and bring eurythmy to people, you must also charge them for it, and charge them well, because this new art of movement, eurythmy, has been wrested from Ahriman, and he must have an equivalent for it.” I did not want to conceal this statement because I believe it is important for many people, not only for eurythmists. One could really experience that when someone accepted this eurythmy as a “gift” with a light heart, without responsibility, it was never fruitful in the right sense.

And further: “When you have such a student in front of you out in the world, who makes six mistakes for my sake, do me a favor and tell him the seventh first. You were there at the rehearsals in Munich, so you will have noticed that I never actually correct anything, and in the end, people did it the way I wanted them to.”

This advice affected me in the same way as much of what the teacher said to me: “I heard a song that I didn't understand, I learned to understand it late...” And then later, I tried to avoid or eliminate the seventh mistake by trying to understand and imitate—on my own, of course, and very discreetly—why these mistakes were made, and then I introduced an exercise that corrected things in a positive way. Perhaps it was a student who was tense and unrelaxed in his shoulders and neck. It really wouldn't have helped him to always hear: “Don't raise your shoulders, keep your head free!” But there were instructions about head postures that express something very specific. If a poem was found that seemed to exemplify these head postures, it was practiced with everyone, and the efforts to execute these head postures well and convincingly could often help. Then it was possible to say: That's not convincing yet. And perhaps repeat and discuss in detail what Rudolf Steiner had specified as a kind of law for head movements. Rudolf Steiner had explained and specified many things down to such practical details and hints, and the fact that we all now observed our head positions and movements and lived with them for a long time and made an effort helped the one, unnamed person to become really more relaxed and free, because she was able to work in a positive way, not to avoid something, but to achieve something. And it didn't harm the rest of us either.

That was the only educational advice Rudolf Steiner ever gave me. And to the extent that I gradually succeeded in following it, it also bore fruit. Actually, it meant: anticipate a mistake, make an effort to avoid it, and perhaps invent a little exercise that would correct a mistake or even just an inaccuracy on the part of the person concerned. Why, for example, shouldn't a group do the seven-part stick exercise with an intermediate movement: arms stretched straight out in front at shoulder height and width, in order to check for themselves that right and left really are right sideways and left sideways and not very energetic, but comfortable, in the middle? Even if only one person had made the mistake. Sometimes you could come up with ideas that were as effective as they were simple, if you just worked with a student intensively and lovingly enough. The rewarding feeling of a treasure hunter was then the reward: “I had a feeling what a treasure lay hidden there.” - But just as often, I was ashamed to see how one of the first six mistakes developed into a strong and beautiful idiosyncrasy that was simply different from what I carried within me as the ideal. [As it says in a poem by Christian Morgenstern:]

Of two roses one smells different from the other rose. Of two angels one may be
different from the other in beauty. So in count-
less tender
differences the heavens may be, the Father's sons of God— richly seraphic may be graded ...

One must only ensure that the fragrance and beauty are genuine and true.

There was such abundance, such richness, so many perspectives that even today many possibilities and consequences have not yet been exhausted. This first part of eurythmy is called “Dionysian eurythmy.”

Rudolf Steiner's preparatory notes for this lesson

W-like a long U so deep that there is no movement

ö - Round dance and jumping from one point to the center - also a jerk U - dancing past each other - back of the hand

3 types of jumps: ö within the form - into the center of the form. 1 2
u — pointing upwards — 1 2
Äu - touching the floor again after a jump is the main thing - / always a dissonance

Further notes by Rudolf Steiner in preparation for the lessons

The following notes by Rudolf Steiner can be found on the preparation sheets for the lessons in Binningen-Bottmingen – a grouping of sounds according to articulation and the information for “I look up” and “Truth has triumphed,” which was first given in Munich in 1913.

B M R W / Lips R / D N R L / G. NG. R. CH / F. V.S. SCH

“I look up” — bowing down with arms outstretched / and rising again "truth has triumphed —