# The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1912–1918

## GA 277a — 8 March 1915, Leipzig

### Notes on the Development of Eurythmy

*Erna var Deventer, compilation from: “Memories”; notebook 1913-16, with entries by Rudolf Steiner (notes NZ 7516-7523); notes; entries in galley proofs for GA 277a (1965) ; letter dated February 7, 1965; Marie Steiner, notebook 144; Rudolf Steiner: notes NZ 5917-5919*

*On March 7, 1915, Rudolf Steiner gave a public lecture in Leipzig, followed by a members' lecture on March 8. On that day, he visited Erna Wolfram(-van Deventer), who was working there with a group of eurythmy students. She demonstrated the work and also had the opportunity to talk to Rudolf Steiner, during which she was able to ask him her questions about eurythmy. She wrote about this to Edwin Froböse on March 3, 1965: “The information from March 8 was such that everything developed in the course of the conversation with Dr. Steiner while he was drawing or looking at my drawings.” Copies of the drawings in her notebook, some of which were made by Rudolf Steiner himself, were made in the 1960s in preparation for GA 277a ‘1965’. These copies are still available in the Rudolf Steiner Archive, but the notebooks themselves have been lost. However, around 1915/16, Marie Steiner copied Erna Wolfram's notes – especially those relating to March 8, 1915 – into her notebook 144. - In the following, Erna van Deventer's report on this day includes her explanations of the exercises from galley proofs and letters, as well as Rudolf Steiner's drawings in her notebook, supplemented by the transcript in Marie Steiner's notebook 144; it is not possible to clarify exactly which parts refer only to March 8 and which to other dates.*

This day, when Rudolf Steiner visited Leipzig, was apparently only one episode in the history of eurythmy's development. On that day, I had prepared a eurythmy performance with my students, in which we wanted to show what we had been working on since his last visit.

My students, some men and women, and I were dressed in white eurythmy smocks. In the lodge room, we presented what we had worked on to Dr. Steiner and his wife. There were about ten of us. We showed vowels, consonants, spirals, the weekly verse, and the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, even though tone eurythmy did not yet exist, as we only received our first lessons in tone eurythmy in September [August] of that year in Dornach. At the end of our “performance,” we presented a few group and solo poems.

“Eurythmy”? The word had not yet been coined. But we felt that we could express what Beethoven expressed in the Moonlight Sonata through eurythmy. And so we presented rhythms and expressed what seemed to us to be an equivalent of the music with sound movements of the arms. And in C. F. Meyer's “Chor der Toten” (Chorus of the Dead), we sought to express through forms of thinking, feeling, and willing that we knew, what in this poem was for us in Germany such a real image of the interaction between the dead and the living: war itself.

Encouraged by this spirit of work, I then dared to ask Rudolf Steiner a whole series of questions after he expressed his satisfaction after the performance and said, “And now, do you have any questions?”

One of the main problems was: What are serpentines? What variations are possible? We had learned serpentines going from the outside to the inside, as Dr. Steiner had given them to Lory Smits in 1912. We ourselves had worked them out in 1913 with exciting and calming consonants, as Lory Smits had described them.

*[The following appears to be another variation of the information given on January 29, 1912, in Kassel, as well as further exercises relating to the “you” form and the serpentine with questions and answers in the Dionysian course.]*


> Lemniskates  
> Every 8 in 8 anapaests.  
> For 1. a-, e-movement,  
> 2. a, u;  
> 3. au, a;  
> 4 a, i;  
> 5. a, e;  
> 6. a ,u;  
> 7. e,  
> 8. i, s.8 I


For Pfle inner harmony  
Cultivating healthy cheerfulness  
Serpentines. Question and answer


font! Dr.

But in the period after the outbreak of war in August 1914, we eurythmy teachers were each left to our own devices, and so each of us probably had different experiences. I myself gave a lot of lessons, and because Rudolf Steiner had called these serpentines “exercises from the Greek mysteries,” also “sacred dances,” I saw something particularly important in them. During the winter of 1914/15, I had filled sheets of paper with drawings of serpentines and sketched out many possibilities.

We had presented many things in our performances. But the opportunity to spend a whole day asking questions did not arise until March 8, 1915.

After Dr. Steiner had spread my “serpentine experiments” out on the table, he gave some basic instructions.

> Serpentines must never cross each other.
> Rhythm: Serpentines always in anapaest or in very pronounced iambs, for example from Goethe's “Pandora.”
> Verbal comment by Dr. Steiner in 1913, which I had worked out for 1915 and modified with Dr. Steiner on March 8, 1915, into several possibilities. “It would be nice if entire avenues of serpentines were depicted, but in such a way that the space in the middle remains empty.”
> Preparatory drawing for GA 277a ‘1965’, edited  
> Center empty. / Dr
> 7 pairs in a row, first all together unwinding and winding a spiral; then the first pair, after unwinding, in an arc to the new spiral, the others winding back in the meantime. Very suitable text: “Creation has gone to rest, oh, awake in me” (Fr. Rückert)
> 1st movement: All form a spiral and unwind it again  
> 2nd movement: 1-4 continue from the arc towards the center to form a circle, 5-8 form a spiral inwards while doing so.  
> 3rd movement: 1-4 perform a shape in the middle, while 5-8 unwrap the spiral again.  
> 4th movement: 1-4 return the wrapping spirals to their starting positions, 5-8 remain standing.


1. All eight make a spiral inward in the same direction.

II. All return to the outer circle.

III. 1/3/2/4 go back into the inner circle and continue running on the inner circle, while 5/6/7/8 continue running on the outer circle in their curve. So: 5, 6, 7, 8 remain on the outer circle, which is much larger, while 1, 2, 3, 4 end up in the small inner circle.

According to the poem, once 5, 6, 7, 8 have “changed” the large circle, they can either remain standing at their starting point (5 at 5, 6 at 6, etc.) or start again from the beginning.

1, 3, 2, 4 also move around in their circle, then stand still, or move out again in mirror image, then the shape is not crossed!


I. All eight people first move inward in a winding spiral and then back to their starting positions in an unwinding spiral.

II. 1/3/2/4 move inward in a winding spiral; 5/6/7/8 remain,

III. 1/3/2/4 move one place (1/8 of the circle) along the middle circle and enter the second inward spiral, the inner circle. 5/7/6/8 remain where they are, “walking” on the outer circle.

IV. 1/3/2/4 remain inside, or go back the way they came until they rejoin 5/7/6/8 on the outside.

[Comments by Erna van Deventer] only 12, the 13th is always invisible / see Donner!) 12 people in the 1st start alone (x) then move inward during the 2nd [x"], the others follow. / Can turn in and out this way. / Dr


> 12 people in a semicircle: First, everyone winds and unwinds a spiral. Then, while 2-12 wind and unwind a spiral, 1 goes to point [x], winds and unwinds a spiral from there, and then moves on to the next spiral, while 2 follows to point [x], and so on.

One of the students who was present that day, EvD,Erinnoch, recalls how Dr. Steiner corrected his r after the demonstration and ran through the lodge room with his coat tails flying to show that the r must be “as if blown by the wind.” A little later, Rudolf Steiner gave another r-intensification. If one were to draw the consonant r schematically, he added: r like this, two r's one above the other, if one wanted to emphasize the r strongly.


> Press through the wrist (a) / and roll, first weakly, then / more strongly (2x) /

On the same day, he gave another new way of expressing the “Pater noster” meaningfully, so that “feeling and will must be combined in this prayer.”

One of the core pieces was also the exercise for thinking, feeling, and willing, which Annemarie Dubach-Donath describes very beautifully in her book “Die Grundelemente der Eurythmie” (The Basic Elements of Eurythmy), pages 113-115 [see p. 528f.]. However, the drawing on page 114 must be viewed in such a way that the viewer is imagined at the top of the drawing, i.e., the drawing is depicted upside down [see p. 529]. Never forget that Rudolf Steiner always wanted the drawings to be seen and applied from the viewer's perspective.


> Thinking, feeling, willing / Greek tragedy

This drawing led us to discuss variations in tacting, which resulted in a type of tacting that Dr. Steiner described and demonstrated as follows:


At the same time, he reminded us that we must not forget to practice tacting in o and i, that is to say: every shortness as o and every length as i. This exercise later proved to be very important for therapeutic eurythmy.

In the afternoon, variations on the Hallelujah were given, after we had shown it in the morning. Rudolf Steiner called this form “the crown.”


Alone: to strengthen the etheric body

Together: harmonizing the etheric bodies

Main form for Hallelujah


> H/a/ 11x 7 crescendo, 1st climax / e / 1 x 3 / u climax j / a / fulfillment / h

Several people can do it standing in a row. Connecting steps. Always count irregularly. You can also use a pentagram, etc.


Finally, I would like to mention how Rudolf Steiner guided us by suggesting things, answering questions, and then waiting to see if what he had given resonated in our souls. On that March 8, 1915, following the serpentines, he spoke about narrow and wide curves and sketched both types briefly in my notebook.


In Dornach in August 1915, he then gave the “Cassin curve” as an educational form. In conversation, Rudolf Steiner added that it would be “good to observe and study such curves.”


Further curves / Cassin curves / Ellipse / x + y = a Ellipse /  
x - y = a Hyperbola / x - y = a Cassin curve / x / y = a Circle // Serpentines / always in anapaests, possibly / iambs if / they are very sharp, as in Pandora

But was this March 8, 1915, just a random episode, or did Rudolf Steiner want to use this opportunity after our performance to provide answers to our search and sow the seeds for the further development of eurythmy, which then came to fruition six months later in the Dornach course in the White Hall? How much of September 1915 was a response to our search!

*Rudolf Steiner: We seek the soul, the spirit shines upon us*

*The following exercise in Rudolf Steiner's handwriting can be found immediately after Marie Steiner's copies documented above in her Nb 144 from Erna Wolfram's notes.*


> We seek the soul / The spirit shines upon us  
> We seek the soul / The spirit shines upon us / Vita eurythmo = Geometrio

*Rudolf Steiner: Form for Christian Morgenstern: “Swallows,” with explanations by Erna van Deventer*

*The following form by Rudolf Steiner for Christian Morgenstern's poem “Swallows,” which is broken down in Erna van Deventer's drawings, can be found in the notes for March 8, 1915, but could also have been written later.*


> Christian Morgenstern: “Swallows”  
> 1 Swallows, drifting through the evening  
> 2 calling softly, now and then,  
> 3 writing short, swift arcs,  
> 4 golden glimmers in their plumage.  
> 5 Oh, how I would like to show them to you,  
> 6 these sun-red backs!  
> 7 And the divine dance  
> 8 would delight you as it delights me.


> 4. in the form of 3 stand


*Annemarie Dubach's description of the exercise that Erna Woifram received on that day, in her book Die Grundelemente der Eurythmie (The Basic Elements of Eurythmy) (Dornach, 5th edition, 1981, pp. 113-115):*

These Apollonian forms, expressed solely through head movements, are used, for example, in an exercise for harmonizing thinking, feeling, and willing, in which one of the three people performing the exercise indicates the corresponding meaning form for each individual word of the text with their head alone, while at the same time walking in a dactylic rhythm — a Dionysian form of thought — in dactylic rhythm to a text recited in anapaestic meter. The following translation from Antigone provides a good example:

> The most fruitful thing for happiness is always a prudent mind; And therefore never violate the laws of the gods!
> The presumptuous always pay for their presumptuous words with severe judgment! Until, in old age, they finally learn to be wise.

It is entirely possible to accompany any meter with a different rhythm; you just have to translate both rhythms into music first, in this case into 4/4 time, by counting the stressed syllable as equivalent to two unstressed syllables, thus obtaining four equal parts of the bar. Now you can bring out the dactyl by treating the first two short syllables as its length and the following long syllable as two short syllables. The amphibrach, which in this exercise is set to the same text by a second rhythmist, is obtained by the following division: the first short syllable of the anapest coincides with that of the amphibrach; now the second short syllable and the first half of the long syllable are left together as one long syllable, and the last rhythmic short syllable movement occurs on the second, albeit inaudible, half of the long syllable, i.e., apparently on a pause:


In this amphibrachic meter, the second person moves (also with the arms) in an emotional form. The third person has a form of will, a circle, to describe. She strides anapaestically and eurythmizes all the consonants of the text. The one who walks the triangle in the middle [...] — representing thinking — has to reproduce the vowels. So she has the most difficult task: walking the Dionysian form with her feet beating time to the dactyl, expressing the vowel movements with her arms and the Apollonian forms with her head.

*[The accompanying drawing is upside down according to Erna van Deventer's instructions.]*