The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 28 December 1921, Dornach

Address on Eurythmy

The children's performance on December 28, 1921, was dedicated to eurythmy in education; the conference program stated: “Eurythmy as an educational tool.”

Staff exercises
Me and You
“In the Tree, Dear Little Bird” by Christian Morgenstern
Exercises in anapaests
“The Little Bird” by Friedrich Hebbel
Ball and spread
“A Similar Thing” by J. W. von Goethe
Tone exercises in minor
“Minor Melody”
“Floating Genius” by J. W. von Goethe
Tone exercises in major
Alliterations
“At the Manger”
“At Christmas”
“At New Year” by J. W. v. Goethe
“Wächterlied” (Guardian Song)
“Was treibst du, Wind” (What Are You Doing, Wind) by C. F. Meyer
Scale exercise
“Schneiderlied” (Tailor's Song)
“Waldkonzerte” (Forest Concerts) by Christian Morgenstern
‘Häslein’ (Little Rabbit) by Christian Morgenstern
“Der Schneider in der Höll” (The Tailor in Hell)
“Gigue”

Ladies and gentlemen!

Allow us to add to the recent eurythmy performance with one that is intended to demonstrate the educational and didactic significance of eurythmy. What will be presented today will be performed by children: at the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, founded by Emil Molt and directed by me, we have introduced eurythmy as a compulsory subject alongside physical education in all school classes. And now, after several years of practice, we can already see that this can have a significant impact on the development of the child.

Ordinary gymnastics is designed in such a way that only the laws of human physicality are taken into account. I have nothing against gymnastics – we are not abolishing it, but we want to supplement it with eurythmy, which is, in a sense, a more animated, spiritual form of gymnastics. I will certainly not go as far as a German physiologist, a very famous man, who was once present here in this hall at a eurythmy performance and also heard the words I spoke about the relationship between eurythmy and gymnastics, and who then said to me afterwards: I am very displeased. You describe gymnastics as something that can be justified as an educational tool based on the physicality of human beings ...? For me as a physiologist, he said, gymnastics is not an educational tool at all, but barbarism. As I said, I would never go that far; I am not saying that, nor do I have to justify it further. But what eurythmy is in relation to gymnastics in terms of pedagogy and didactics is that, in terms of feeling and volitional impulses, every movement, every form of movement in the child is always an experience of the soul, of the spirit. The movements are performed in such a way that the child allows its soul and spirit to flow into the movements, and allows them to flow in such a way that it is not only the general experience of a gesture that takes hold of the child, but the meaningful experience of a truly animated language, a visible language.

This also brings about what can be clearly observed in the use of eurythmy as a pedagogical-didactic principle: children at a later age find their way into this language in an equally elementary, natural way, just as they found their way into spoken language and singing in their earlier childhood years. For eurythmy can be used just as much as singing as it can be used as language.

If, in addition, one knows from a real understanding of the human body or of human nature as a whole that the configuration of thinking, the artistic shaping of thinking, is not merely something that depends on the human head or the human limbs, but something that comes from the whole human being — human beings do not learn to think only as their brains are, but as they can move their legs and arms — if one knows this, then one will also understand that — [how] the use of not only the organs of speech, the head, and the chest, in speaking aloud and in singing, shows this and [how it] makes a thoroughly pleasing impression – [one will understand] this bringing out of a visible, moving language from the whole, from the complete human being.

One can also notice something else: one can notice how, through this purposeful, spiritualized gymnastics, something is developed in the human being that, given the needs of our time, the current and future generations will need: initiative of the soul, and specifically initiative of the will. And with regard to the will, the development of the will, eurythmy is an important support in school. Gymnastics makes the body more supple and agile, but it does not draw out what is physical from the soul. And as a result, it is less able to cultivate the will than eurythmy is.

And so, when we begin to look at human beings again in terms of their whole being, body, soul, and spirit, we can develop a thorough understanding of the use of eurythmy as an educational tool. This is what we would like to demonstrate to you today with a few examples: that eurythmy, when applied to children's bodies, is in fact something that presents itself as self-evident. And I believe that what can be seen also evokes the feeling that it is something that lives its way into the human being as something that can be experienced with joy and inner satisfaction. And joy, inner satisfaction applied in a serious sense in education, always yields very good, meaningful results. You, ladies and gentlemen, will perhaps be able to see this from our presentation today.