The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 25 December 1921, Dornach

Address on Eurythmy

The performance, which took place in the dome room of the Goetheanum, was shown as part of the Christmas course for teachers from December 23, 1921, to January 7, 1922 (see the cycle “The Healthy Development of the Human Being,” GA 303). At the suggestion of Millicent Mackenzie, English teachers, joined by colleagues from the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Germany, and Switzerland, came to Dornach for this course. As the number of participants was so large, Rudolf Steiner gave the lectures twice in the so-called White Hall in the south wing of the Goetheanum. - As part of this course, eurythmy performances took place on December 25, 28, and 31, 1921, and on January 1, 1922.

According to the conference program, “Eurythmy in relation to Christmas” was presented.

“Words to the Spirit and to Love” from The Portal of Initiation by Rudolf Steiner, with music by Leopold van der Pals
“Die Sonne schaue” (The Sun Looks) by Rudolf Steiner
From the “Christmas Cantata” by Johann Sebastian Bach
“Christmas” by Vladimir Solovyov (Russian)
“Olaf Ästeson” with music by Jan Stuten

Ladies and gentlemen!

When I introduce our eurythmy performance today with a few words, it is not in order to explain the ideas that are supposed to be artistic – for explaining art would be an inartistic beginning – but because the art of eurythmy, as it is cultivated here, still makes use of unfamiliar artistic means and forms of artistic expression, and because it draws on equally unfamiliar artistic sources. And [about these sources] and artistic means of expression, allow me to say a few words.

What will happen here before you are forms of movement produced by individuals or groups of people. One might therefore think of this movement as some kind of mimic or pantomime art, or something like dance. Eurythmy does not want to be any of these things. Eurythmy does not want to be random gestures added to what we express in language, but rather eurythmy wants to be a real, visible language. It is based on a study – through sensory-supersensory observation – of what is present in the whole human being as a tendency to move, not as actual movement, but as a tendency, when the human being sets out to express something through language.

What is present in the human being as a tendency to move can be seen through sensory-supersensory perception and can then be transferred to the whole human being, to the human limbs, which are set in motion in this sense. When the human speech organs prepare to express something of the soul, this is based on the fact that the intentions of movement, the tendencies of movement that underlie the whole human being, are transformed at the moment of their emergence into other movements that underlie speech and singing, which are communicated to the air, where they propagate themselves in order to convey hearing. And that which is transformed in this sense in the larynx and the other speech organs can be traced back to its original forms and can then be transferred to the whole human being. Then what the whole human being or groups of people reveal is real language—not gestures, not mimetic games, not facial expressions, but a real visible language. This must then first be translated into art so that the actual eurythmic art can come into being.

Just as one can express music and language in the usual way with the organs of speech and singing, one can also sing and speak in a truly adequate way through this visible language. And that is what underlies the unusual artistic form language of eurythmy. This leads to the removal of what lies in mere thought from musical or linguistic expression. Thought as such is, after all, an inartistic element. Either thought must adapt to the external communication needs of human beings—it becomes a conventional means of expression, a means of communication—or it must adapt to what is knowledge, what is thought work. In both cases, the thought leads to something non-artistic.

In eurythmy, one goes back to the volitional, which is expressed in language – and one bridges the merely intellectual and goes back to the volitional. As a result, eurythmic expression is not a one-sided revelation of human nature, as is the case with language and singing, but rather an expression of the sensory human being, the whole human being, and above all an expression of the will, which is always at the basis of true artistry. One can also perceive how eurythmy is already, I would say, the basis of real poetry, artistic poetry, if one observes things with an unbiased mind.

For the real poet does not start from the prosaic nature of language, but from the rhythmic, the metrical, the musical or pictorial, so that a secret eurythmy is already contained in every real poem. This then leads to expressing the actual artistic nature of poetry—which the poet strives for if he is a true artist—through eurythmy. One sees how these things behave when one accompanies the eurythmic—as must happen in a poem that the poet has composed through recitation or declamation.

One cannot recite or declaim in the way that is popular today, emphasizing the prose content and seeing the particular artistry of recitation or declamation in it. Rather, one must return to the older, more artistic form of declamation and recitation, focusing less on the prosaic and more on the rhythmic, the metrical, the pictorial, the musical expression that wants to reveal itself through the word. And just as one can express the poetic in the sensual, visible language of eurythmy, so too can one express the musical. Just as one can speak in eurythmy, one can also sing in eurythmy: just as one can otherwise speak and sing through the larynx and its neighboring organs, one can also accompany all musical forms with eurythmy.

The essential thing here is that in eurythmy, the whole human being serves as a tool, as a means of expression, not as an objective instrument, and that it serves as a tool of expression to a greater extent than is the case in mimicry or acting. And because everything that is contained in the laws of the world is contained in the human being, it is not the personal that is revealed through eurythmic expression, but rather the revelation that the human being is an expression of all the secrets of the world. As a result, it is inevitable that eurythmy, even though it is only at the beginning of its development today, will continue to evolve and then be able to stand alongside the other [sister arts] as a legitimate art form.

But what the application of eurythmy particularly guarantees is revealed to the soul when one wants to express through eurythmy in a stylized way not only what naturalistically reflects external, physical reality, but also what rises to the supersensible, to that which can only be seen in the spirit. The human mind can indeed relate to purely spiritual experiences. What is naturalistic expression can perhaps also be represented through unstylized forms—without offending the human aesthetic sense. But what is borrowed from the supersensible worlds requires a stylized form of expression.

We will give an example of this in the second part of today's program. We will perform an old folk song from Norwegian folk life in eurythmy: the “Dream Song of Olaf Åsteson.” This dream song has resurfaced today due to efforts in Norway to promote Landmål, the old Norwegian dialect, alongside Stadsmål, the modern, educated colloquial language in which Björnson and Ibsen, for example, wrote their poetry. In a way, Landsmål preserves a folk character that existed in Norway centuries ago. And it preserves not only the language, but also the entire spirit of this folk culture.

In Olaf Åsteson, we see a young man who, as the Christmas season begins, enters a dreamlike state. He dreams his way through the entire number of holy nights, right into January. And during this dream state, he experiences in the supernatural realm the connection between humans and the supernatural worlds. Everything that the soul can feel when it truly experiences its connection with the supersensible worlds, not in the way we would express it today, based on the methods of knowledge of the present, but as expressed by simple, elementary folklore, is expressed in the “Dream Song of Olaf Åsteson.” It unites original, elementary folklore [with that] to which human beings can aspire. In what is expressed in this folkloric, poetic way, the stylization made possible by the art of eurythmy is particularly evident in the “Dream Song of Olaf Åsteson.”

It should be said that eurythmy has many other aspects. However, as these other aspects will be highlighted in special performances over the next few days, I will not talk about them today. There will be a special performance that will particularly illustrate the educational aspects of eurythmy.

I would just like to add what I always add when I begin such a performance: I would like to ask the esteemed audience for their indulgence, because we know very well that eurythmic art is only at the beginning of its development today. Although we strive to make progress from month to month, it must be emphasized again and again that we ourselves are our strictest critics in this regard. But those who are familiar with the sources and forms of expression of this art of eurythmy also know that it offers unlimited possibilities.

And if every art consists of taking harmony, measure, and meaning from the world and then revealing them through some means of expression, then something particularly artistic must come to light when a person expresses harmony, measure, and meaning not only through an external tool, but when he seeks this measure, this harmony, and meaning in the mysterious essence of his own organism and brings to external, visible expression that which is inherent in this organism in terms of laws. And it is precisely for this reason that we can hope that eurythmy will one day become what it is destined to be: a fully-fledged younger art form alongside the fully-fledged older art forms.

Today we will first have a shorter part, followed by a break, because the second part – the “Dream Song of Olaf Åsteson” – will be a little longer.