The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1912–1918

GA 277a — 26 February 1918, Stuttgart

Address on Eurythmy

My dear friends! Quite a number of years ago, Mrs. Smits suggested that something might arise from our movement that could later become the art of eurythmy, based on a view of time and its artistic requirements drawn from spiritual knowledge. At that time, of course, if something were to come out of such a suggestion, it was important not to find something arbitrary, something arbitrarily determined, but something that could arise from knowledge, from observation of the human being and his artistic possibilities. When considering what eurythmy is actually about, one must look back a little—even if I can only hint at it in a few short sentences—at the emergence of artistry in human development in general. We have emphasized on this or that occasion that art did not arise in isolation, but that it emerged from the same source from which other human cultural goals developed. Knowledge, that is, what is often called science in everyday life, religion, art — all three basically emerged from the same source. And when you go into the ancient temples, you find that there was no separate art, no separate science, a separate religion, but that there was a knowledge that went directly to the design, to the configuration of the universe, which viewed in ideas that which was then attempted to be expressed in religious cult, so that in this religious cult the relationship of man to what was seen scientifically and cognitively was expressed. And again, art was nothing other than a creation in the human spirit, forms of what was recognized, what was recognized religiously. In short, these three cultural currents: religion, science, and art, they arise from a single source, from a single root. Just as everything that has developed in human life has come about only by separating into isolated currents, so it has been with religion, science, and art. But we now live in an age in which that which had to remain separate for millennia due to developmental necessities is striving to come together again. Richard Wagner already dreamed of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) and also carried it out in a certain direction. But if such a convergence is to take place, not only must the individual branches of art take on a more inner character, a character that is more spiritual, so that they can find themselves in the spiritual realm, but more or less neglected branches of art must also be added to the old ones. And one can say that, as we understand eurythmy, it is actually something that can only arise in our time. With this isolation, with its isolation — for the individual arts have also isolated themselves again — the art of dance has increasingly become an expression of the subjective, the personal in human beings, the emotional. This is not a criticism, but a characterization. It is a matter of finding something that is connected with what is generally human, with what is comprehensively and universally human. This attempt was the first result. What is presented as eurythmy is initially only an attempt, but over the years we have seen that it has progressed, that there is already more eurythmy among us today than there was years ago. Everything progresses, and the fact that we follow this law of progress is proof that there is something alive in eurythmy. It is a matter of creating something truly alive, and we came up with the idea of implementing in a certain way what is already present in human beings.

If you know human beings, you know that they are not just a complete system, a complete organic system, but consist of a number of subsystems. What we call the etheric body or formative forces is structured differently from the physical body. And we can say that in the etheric body or formative forces, insofar as it underlies the human laryngeal organs and everything connected with them: palate, lips, and so on, that this part of the human etheric body, which is the basis of the speech organs, actually dances in a certain way, performing expressive dances, while the human being gives existence to the word, while the human being speaks. We cannot speak without that part of the etheric body which is associated with the larynx and [the] accessory organs, performs certain movements. These movements can now be transferred to the whole human being; they can be performed by the physical body, because by nature not only do the individual systems of the human being merge into one another, as Goethe's theory of metamorphosis shows, but also the whole human being is, in a certain sense, a metamorphosed, single organ system. The whole human being can become a larynx. And it is essentially the art of eurythmy that what the etheric body of the larynx performs invisibly is not spoken or sung, but is performed by the whole human being. So it is not something imagined or conceived, but only the movement of the hands, head, arms, and legs—how to translate into the sensory realm what the part of the etheric body underlying the speech system performs in any case in a supersensible way: the eurythmy of the word, the supersensible eurythmy of the word. The movements performed by the etheric body of the larynx or [the] accessory organs are translated into physical movements, into movements of the physical body.

But there are other movements that the etheric body of the larynx holds back in a certain way, that it stops, that remain latent, to put it in physical terms.

Human beings do not speak merely in an abstract, impassive way, but imbue their words and sentences with what springs from the heart, with feelings, sensations, restrained impulses of the will, and so on. All of this is woven into the movements of the etheric body of the larynx in such a way that it is now held back, that it does not come to expression, that it solidifies into forms. What is transformed into forms from the world of feeling and sensation during speech is now dissolved in eurythmy by allowing the organism itself to move, either within itself or in space, or in such a way that it carries out its movements toward other personalities, so that we transfer to group dances what is expressed in the sensory or other emotional shaping of the word material. Even what is pure rhythm and otherwise restrained movements of the larynx organ of the etheric body are transformed into movement. So that eurythmy, as far as we have brought it to date, consists of two parts: the conversion of natural movements of the etheric body of the larynx and the dissolution of the movements of that which is contained in this etheric part of the human being, which is converted from movement into form.

So you see, it is only the transfer to the whole human being and, in relation to human beings, of what is already there. In a certain sense, this creates something that can actually be described as responding to the needs and longings of the present to a certain extent. You will have heard on various occasions, my dear friends, how the present, unable as it is to give form to certain dark, foreboding impulses, strives for certain artistic manifestations under certain slogans. Slogans such as Impressionism and Expressionism have, I would say, acquired a justified or unjustified resonance in our time. The sound is justified, however, because the striving for Impressionism and Expressionism expresses something that underlies all art and is fully justified. One could say that Expressionist art strives more for what could be called sensuality, for the external sensualization of what in human beings continually strives for vision, but which must not become vision in healthy human beings. For what continually strives for visions in human beings must be kept down in healthy life. If one puts into the outside world what the vision actually wants, but which must not be expressed internally in hallucinations, one has expressionist art. In this sense, eurythmy is, to a very special degree, an expressionist art, an art that is, in a genuine and justified sense, an expressive art, especially when everything arbitrary, everything that comes from the subjective human personality, everything pantomimic, all mimicry and so on, when only the objective, which I have indicated as the implementation of the movements of the etheric body of the larynx, is taken into consideration.

Now, at the beginning, we allowed recitation to take a back seat and intended to present eurythmy as such directly. That may well be the case, of course, but over time it has become apparent that, especially with the development of eurythmy, recitation can very well be cultivated alongside it in an independent manner as another artistic element. For if one can say that eurythmy is truly an expressionist art to a high degree, then recitation and singing are, to the highest degree, impressionist arts. And this combination, this harmonious blending of expressionist and impressionist elements in art, is something that I believe can advance important artistic impulses in our time.

You see, one can only really look into what art should be from a spiritual-scientific-psychological point of view. In order to correctly evaluate art, one must look into the soul to see what is actually going on in the soul life of both the art lover and the artist, the practitioner of art. This is not so easy. For it is precisely in the artistic realm that certain impulses of the soul, I would say like waves in the soul, always surge upward, but before they can be expressed, they are dulled, just as if waves in the sea were to surge upward, but first had to be held back by something. There are two emotional impulses that underlie all artistic feeling and all artistic creation. One is a feeling impulse that, if it were to develop fully, would lead to blushing. Imagine the impulse of feeling that causes people to blush, for example when they feel shame. Imagine this impulse at work deep within the soul before blushing occurs, and you have a rhythmic beat that does not fully express itself.

The other impulse that lives in art would lead to fading if it were to express itself fully. Everything that lives in fear must not lead to paleness. Now imagine these two impulses of feeling, that which leads to paleness and that which leads to blushing, flowing into each other, and you have the soul life that actually underlies art, which in a certain way remains in the subconscious. No extremes must emerge; they must interact.

Now, when recitation and eurythmy are allowed to interact, it is possible to let what would lead to fading through eurythmy and what would lead to blushing through recitation resonate with each other. So we really have something that particularly meets the artistic needs and artistic disposition of the human soul. This allows us to view the matter from a subjective human standpoint.

However, I now believe that the time may soon come when those individuals in our society who have studied eurythmy in depth will bring it to the attention of the general public. This does, however, involve a number of difficulties, because it must be clearly understood that, on the one hand, many efforts in recent years to bring dance to the public, which have tended to cultivate a more emotional art form, have already created prejudices against this type of art. Such psychoses have long been ridiculed, joining other psychoses, as people have performed in various ways in recent years. And on the other hand, what is actually desired in eurythmy, namely to give something that is internally lawful, is not what speaks to subjectivity from the outset, because it does not first need to rise to what is actually present. That is something that many people are averse to from the outset. Until now, I would say — but it is already hanging in the balance — only the art of music has been spared the danger that those who understand nothing about it are actually the right judges, that one does not first have to familiarize oneself with an understanding of it. That too will soon change. But when it comes to the visual arts and all other arts, the prevailing view has long been that the right judgment is made by those who have not familiarized themselves with the laws of art, with what art should be in reality. Now, in eurythmy, it is necessary to familiarize oneself first. Therefore, with all due respect, journalism, which sets the tone today, will rant and rave terribly, and I am already a little apprehensive when our ladies, who have naturally become somewhat sensitive through art and life, have to appear in public and, as you can imagine, be properly scolded. They will inevitably be, that goes without saying, because if they weren't, their art would be worthless. If they were praised, the whole thing would be very suspicious. As I said, I am already a little apprehensive about this, but it must be endured. We must be prepared to prove our worth in this field, too, by having our performances thoroughly criticized. That, you see, should not discourage us in any way, but rather strengthen our backbone. Those are the few words I wanted to say about eurythmy.

Program for the performance

Elisabeth's Prayer (from “Tannhäuser”) Richard Wagner
Various poems C. F. Meyer
O Night, You Source of Stars Christian Morgenstern
Evening Glow Friedrich Lienhard