The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1918–1920

GA 277b — 16 May 1920, Dornach

68. Eurythmy Performance

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen.

Allow me today, as I have always done before these eurythmy attempts, to send a few introductory words in advance. This is not done here to explain anything of what is presented, because of course the artistic must work through its immediate revelation itself, and it would be inartistic to base such an attempt on any theoretical or ideological explanation. But I may say that this eurythmic art is an attempt to descend to certain sources of art within the human being and to seek certain forms of artistic expression that are particularly well suited to revealing the demands of all art: to bring the artistic into the sensual-supersensible.

The expression 'sensuous-supersensuous vision' was coined by Goethe, drawing on the depths of his world view and artistic ethos. For example, this sensuous-supersensuous vision underlies the entire development of our eurythmic art.

On stage, you will see all kinds of movements performed by individuals and groups of people. And at first one might have the impression that the attempt is being made to express something poetic or musical, which must of course be accompanied by the eurythmic presentation, for which the eurythmic presentation is only another expression. One might have the impression that arbitrary gestures, invented gestures, facial expressions are added to the poetic, to the musical. This is not the case at all. Rather, it has been discerned – precisely through a careful sensual-supersensory study – in human speech the movement tendencies that underlie the speech organs themselves.

In ordinary speech, the movements, the sliding movements, the movement tendencies of the palate and so on, are transferred directly to the air, where they become fine tremors that underlie hearing. Of course, it is not these tremulous movements that are at issue, but rather that which, as it were, underlies an entire system of such tremulous movements as the resultant. This has been studied and transferred from the speech organs to the whole human being, in accordance with Goethe's principle of metamorphosis, according to which, for example, the whole plant is only a more intricately designed leaf.

So one could say: what you see on the stage are movements that are not at all arbitrary, but are movements that are strictly lawful, as lawful as the movements of the speech organs themselves when speaking – through tones, through sounds or when singing and the like. This makes this moving sculpture something that is indeed imbued with an inner necessity, just as the succession of tones in musical creation. And what is presented here is actually a visible language, a completely lawful visible language, which is presented as eurythmy.

However, the present age will first have to find its way into this visible language. For the present age really has so much that is inartistic in it. What was still common practice in the Romantic period, for example, of listening with great devotion to poems that one did not understand literally, but listening only to the rhythm, to the beat, to the inner structure of the spoken word, has declined considerably today.

Even in recitation, which, as is the case with music, and mainly so, has to be accompanied by eurythmy performances, we will emphasize this artistic eurythmy element in recitation because it could not be done any other way, since the actual artistic element is already in the poetry itself. For it is not the literal content of the prose that is the essence of the poetry, but rather the formal structure that the artist himself brings forth.

So you will see that wherever we try to a great extent to create forms, spatial forms through groups, something is expressed that is not a mimic expression of the content of the poem, but rather that which follows from the character of the treatment of the poem that the poet has given to the literal content. Even when it is grotesque and comical – as we will try to show in the second part today, after the intermission, towards the end – you will see that we are really not concerned with a naturalistic representation, not about imitating any content, but about creating the context, the harmonious context, so that the individual does not want to have an effect through its content, but that the whole wants to have an effect through the coherent form.

On the whole, it can be said that eurythmy is going back to the sources of the artistic because this artistic must be based on the fact that it is not thoughts that affect us. If we cultivate science in today's materialistic sense, then only thoughts affect us. But this means that we can only penetrate the sensory content of the world. Here, however, the artistic aspect of eurythmy is effective in that the whole person or groups of people are the tool for what is to be expressed, for example, as a sensual-supernatural character. So you can say: The human being, the inspired human being, the spiritualized human being, puts soul and spirit into every movement, such soul and spirit as we can still hear from the true sounding poetry.

All this shows us how the sensual - as we see the human being in his limbs - how the sensual at the same time carries the spiritual on its wings. It is therefore truly sensual and supersensory. And it is so beautifully expressed, what Goethe basically demands of all art, when he says: “When nature begins to reveal her secret to anyone, he feels a deep longing for her most worthy interpreter, art.

For Goethe, art is in a sense an emotional experience of nature. And what better way to correspond to this nature than to reveal the possibilities of movement that lie within the human being, to let the whole person move out of their will in such a way that a visible language is expressed through them. The intellectual, which art otherwise rejects, is excluded by precisely this: only the will is expressed in the movements. And because the human personality - but in an impersonal way - is incorporated into these movements, an eminently artistic, a sensual and supersensual quality is expressed in the performances in this very way.

Then our eurythmy also has a significant pedagogical-didactic effect, in that it is in fact an animated form of gymnastics. And if we think about these things more objectively, we will realize that what has been valued about gymnastics for a long time – and we certainly don't want to do without it – is given a special boost when we add something to it, as we do in the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, when we add this soulful gymnastics for children to it. You will be able to see some of this eurythmy today in the second part of our program.

However, ordinary gymnastics also strengthens the body, so we don't want to do without it for that purpose. But what is special about eurythmy, which is not just for the body but for body, soul and spirit, is that it has a particularly educational effect on the will, on willpower. And will energy is something that future generations will truly need in their lives, which will become ever more difficult.

Then our eurythmy has an important hygienic side. The movements of the human being, as they are brought out of his or her range of movement, are at the same time those through which the human being best integrates into the whole rhythm, into the whole harmony of the world. All unhealthiness is fundamentally based on the fact that the human being breaks out of this rhythm. If we take our time, where we have so many reasons to do so – nothing reactionary is being done here, so I ask you not to take what I say as if I wanted to rebel against necessary cultural phenomena, because we have many things in our time that are of course necessary, that we need, and we certainly cannot eliminate it if we consider doing so. We have to say that there is much cause for people today to disengage from the necessary rhythm, from the necessary harmony of the world, basically every time we take the train or even sit in the car, not to mention other things that happen in our time, take us out of the rhythm of the world and gradually creep into people's health, undermining it in a way that goes unnoticed. Only someone who is familiar with the more intimate connection between the human being and the world can see this when considering all of this and recognize how the world is currently striving to give the human being something healing again.

Where do we often look for what is healthy? Yes, esteemed attendees, I know that I am contradicting a great deal with this. But these are things that people will think about more objectively. For example, people tried – and this did happen even before this terrible world catastrophe befell us – to stage 'Olympic Games' here and there. This is a terrible thought that is completely beyond the understanding of children. The Olympic Games belonged to the Greek body. In such matters, people do not consider that each age has its own particular requirements.

But that is what we are trying to do in our eurythmic art: not to take something old from abstract theory and present it to humanity or demand it for humanity, but to find out what the present age demands from human nature in order to find something for humanity that is suitable for the present organization of humanity. Of course, such things cannot be proven anatomically or physiologically, because today one cannot dissect ancient Greeks. But anyone who has spiritual scientific means to look into the development of time knows that today's human being, in terms of his physical and especially his soul-spiritual organization, demands something different. The beginnings of such demands, which the age itself makes, are to be found with eurythmy; they are to be met with eurythmy.

You, esteemed attendees, know what we can offer: that this is only the beginning, that it is an attempt, perhaps only the beginning of an attempt. We are also convinced of this because we are honestly striving to work from the demands of the age, that if perhaps no longer we, but others, develop what today must be presented as an attempt, that a more perfect art direction will emerge that will be able to present itself worthily alongside the older sister arts.

For today, however, we must ask for forbearance, because, as already mentioned, it is a beginning, perhaps only an attempt at a beginning; but this beginning should also be developed. — With this in mind, I ask you to view our presentation with forbearance.