The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1918–1920

GA 277b — 13 March 1919, Dornach

6. Eurythmy Performance

Dear attendees!

Allow me to say a few words about our eurythmy and eurythmic performance. This will seem all the more justified since you are being asked to turn your attention not to something complete and perfect in itself, but to an artistic endeavor with which, in the opinion of those who carry it out, a goal has not yet been reached, but for the time being only something is willed, perhaps I could even say: with which an attempt is being made to will something. It is obvious that what we are presenting here as a eurythmic art is drawn in parallel with many similar contemporary endeavors, endeavors in the arts of movement, the arts of dance, and the like. And it must be said that much is being achieved in these fields at present, and to an extraordinary degree of perfection. But if you were to think that we want to compete with these neighboring arts, then you would misunderstand our intentions. That is not the point; the point is to develop a special new art form, which, however, as far as we have come with it, is only at its beginning.

The basis of this endeavor is basically in the same direction as our other endeavors: the continuation of what is inherent in Goethe's conception of the world and of art. And here, in particular, it is a very specific area in which we are trying to develop Goethe's conception of art in a way that can correspond to more modern artistic views and feelings.

Goethe, who perhaps more than any other has grasped the essence of art, once said, “Art is a revelation of certain laws of nature that could never be revealed without its activity”. Goethe was able to see in artistic design and creation something akin to a revelation of secret natural laws, of such natural laws that cannot be revealed by the sober, dry, scientific mind, because it is precisely this mind that, through its comprehensive view of the world, has received a deep insight precisely into nature and its mysterious entities. I would just like to say that one receives a small glimpse of this vast, comprehensive Goethean view of nature when one allows Goethe's significant treatise, which is indeed characteristic of a view of nature, to take effect on one , the treatise on the becoming and weaving of the plant organism, from which Goethe's view and thoughts on the becoming and weaving of the living in the world in general then radiate.

I can only briefly mention how Goethe sees that each individual part of a living being is, in a mysterious way, like an expression of the whole living being and, in turn, like an expression of every other individual part. Goethe observes the developing plant, leaf by leaf, up to the flower and the fruit. He is of the opinion that what we admire as a colored petal is only a transformation of the green leaf, and that even the finer flower organs, which in their external shape are very unlike an ordinary green leaf, are only a transformation of this green leaf. There is metamorphosis everywhere in nature. The formation of living things is based on the fact that metamorphosis is everywhere. And so every single link, every single leaf, is an expression of the whole. Goethe sees a whole plant in the individual leaf, in the individual petal, in the individual stamen. But this can be applied to all living things, especially to the archetype of all living things, to human form and to human movement, to human living activity itself. And that is precisely what should be expressed in this eurythmic art. The mysterious laws of nature of the human being itself should be expressed.

That is the idea. But the idea is not the main thing. The main thing is that an attempt has been made to really dissolve and implement this Goethean view of the weaving and essence of the organism in artistic perception. Man speaks by revealing the language of sounds and tones to his surroundings; he speaks with a single member of his organic form, with the larynx; he sings with the larynx and with the neighboring organs. Just as the individual leaf is an entire plant, so, in a sense, what the larynx and neighboring organs are, the foundations of human speech, is the whole human being. And again, the whole human being can only be understood as a complicated metamorphosis of the larynx.

This attempt has been made to bring the whole human being into such movement and into such positions that, as through the larynx, speaking and singing is done in sound, so in the visible through the whole human being, speaking and musicality is brought to bear. This does not mean that the movements that are made should be interpreted in some kind of crazy way; but only that, as in the case of the musical art itself, where everything proceeds according to law and yet everything is felt elementarily - the movements of the eurythmic art, like musical harmony and melody themselves, are felt in their inner lawfulness, without going back to the just mentioned, then the artistic of this eurythmic will arise.

What lives in the human soul, as it is otherwise expressed through the organ of human speech, through the larynx, should be expressed through the whole human being, through his movements, through his postures. The whole human being should, so to speak, develop before the spectator as a larynx.

But human speech contains not only that which is otherwise expressed in sounds and sequences of sounds, but the whole of the human soul is expressed - feeling, inner warmth, sensation, mood and so on, and so on. That is why our eurythmic art also strives to visibly represent everything that comes to expression through the medium of language.

We are therefore dealing with a movement art in general, with movements of the individual human being, but also with movements of groups, with movements of groups that have to express moods, sensations, warmth that glow and permeate language. Everything that, so to speak, expresses the proximity of the larynx is in turn expressed through our group positions and movements. Rhyme and rhythm, by which the poetic and artistic in language is achieved, are sought to be achieved through these movements of groups, through the mutual positions of the dancing people and so on.

What characterizes this eurythmic art, esteemed attendees, and distinguishes it from all neighboring arts, is that it does not seek the momentary gesture, the momentary pantomime. Just as in music, in its inner laws, nothing is sought as an instantaneous expression - then it would be musical painting - so in the eurythmic art, conscious mimicry is not striven for through instantaneous gesture. It is not that which lives momentarily in the soul that is expressed through a momentary gesture or a momentary pantomime, as it is in neighboring arts. Rather, it is the case that the whole is based on an inner lawfulness, just as in music itself. So that, when two eurythmists present the same thing, their differences will be no greater than when two pianists play the same Beethoven sonata according to their own subjective understanding. The difference will not be greater. Everything is objectified. And where you will still see that a pantomime, a mimic, that gestures of the moment occur, there the matter is still imperfect, there we will still have to overcome many a thing – precisely in order to do justice to our views.

This way, one can actually hear the spoken word or the music on the one hand, and on the other hand, this poetry, this music is translated into human [movements] and into movements of groups of people. So that what is expressed in these movements, in these positions, should have as direct an effect as the vibration of the air, the movement of the air, which also emerges as a real movement from the human larynx.

So we turn our attention to the sounds we hear and not to the movement that remains invisible. With our artistic movements, with our eurythmy, we want to see in space what people, as it were, do not see in space because they only turn their ear to how something is spoken and cannot turn any organ to what develops in the larynx as a continuation of the larynx's own movement in air vibrations, in rhythms, in harmony and so on.

This is the fundamental idea of our eurythmic art. In this, we are of course still at the beginning of our endeavors, and I ask you to take this fully into account. You will find something imperfect presented, but something that should be a beginning for further development in this direction. And if you have the kindness and goodwill to look at what can still be imperfectly presented today, in this imperfection, then your attention will certainly give us further impulses for perfecting this art, which wants to take its place among other arts.

In any case, however, we would like more and more people to feel that the forms of artistic expression have not yet been finalized. The essential nature of the style of eurythmy art will be seen particularly clearly if we go back to Goethe's healthy view, which he expresses in the words: Style is based on the deepest foundations of knowledge, on the essence of things, insofar as we are allowed to present this essence of things in visible and tangible forms. And it is Goethe himself who ultimately relates everything that can be represented in art to what can be perceived by the human being himself. In his beautiful book about Winckelmann, Goethe seeks to express the essence of art by saying: The whole world is reflected in man; in man the most secret laws of nature are revealed, and precisely by representing them in and through himself, he represents a summit of the essence and becoming of all things. Goethe says: Man, by rising to the summit of nature, becomes perfect in himself and in turn produces a summit himself. He tries to have within himself all the perfections that are otherwise spread out over individual things in nature; he tries to unite order and harmony within himself, in order to ultimately rise to the production of a work of art.

An attempt, but as already mentioned, an attempt that will seek its perfection, that is what we want to offer you today at the beginning. Turn your attention to this attempt, as it is just beginning. For we are convinced, dear ladies and gentlemen: in what is now still in its early stages lie the seeds of something more perfect, regardless of whether this perfection will be achieved by ourselves or whether others will continue what we have begun in this direction of art. It appears to those who are connected with this particular branch of art as a basis of the deepest conviction: Either we ourselves or others after us will find a way out of the small beginnings, out of the imperfections that can still be seen, to a branch of art that truly leads to the depths of human existence and its possibilities, and that can be placed alongside other branches of art.