The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 19 March 1921, Stuttgart

25. Report on a Eurythmy Performance

After performances in Cologne (March 6) and Freiburg (March 15), at which Leopold van der Pals gave the speeches, a eurythmy performance took place in the Stuttgart Landestheater on the afternoon of March 19, 1921, at which Rudolf Steiner gave a speech. There are no records of this, but newspaper reports were published.

Newspaper report in the Schwäbische Tagwacht about the speech Stuttgart, March 19, 1921

Mr. Rudolf Steiner began by explaining what eurythmy is. [...] The aim is to create a visible language because the human body reveals all the characteristics of each of its limbs, including, for example, the speech organs. One can therefore - says Steiner - represent the movement intentions of the larynx as it speaks a Goethe poem, for example. In doing so, the substantive value of poetry must be dismissed as a prejudice. The “literal”, the sense, is rejected with contempt: the formal, the rhythmic, the indeterminate musical - therein lies the true value of a poem.