The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 18 August 1922, Oxford

Address on Eurythmy

The performances in Oxford took place on August 18, 19, and 23 at Keble College. Rudolf Steiner's speeches, of which no transcripts exist, were translated by George Kaufmann. No speeches by Rudolf Steiner have been preserved from the performances on August 23 and 26, 1922. The performance on August 19, 1922, included some performances by children. An “Introduction to Eurythmy” was printed on the back of the programs for the performances on August 19, 23, and 26, 1922. It is not known whether Rudolf Steiner wrote the text in German or whether an English member compiled it from earlier program introductions. - For the texts presented in German, there was a booklet with English translations, see the appendix, pp. 692-699. In addition, several photographs of the eurythmists were taken in Oxford, see pp. 705f.

Introductory text to the performances in Oxford, August 18-26, 1922

Program for the performance in Oxford, August 18, 1922

Harmonious prelude with music by Max Schuurman
“They that have Power” (Sonnet 94) by William Shakespeare
“World Soul Spirits” by Rudolf Steiner
‘Lebenszauber’ by Edvard Grieg
“The Secret Gate” by Fiona Macleod
Doppelgänger scene from the 4th picture of “The Awakening of Souls” by Rudolf Steiner
Music by Anton Bruckner
Scene with Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings from the 6th scene of “The Guardian of the Threshold” by R. Steiner with music by Max Schuurman
“Dirge: Fear no more” from “Cymbeline” by William Shakespeare
“Spring” by Rudolf Steiner with music by Leopold van der Pals
“Die Spröde” and “Die Bekehrte” by J. W. von Goethe with music by Max Schuurman
“Balthazar's Song: Sigh no more” from “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare
“The Pied Piper” by J. W. von Goethe

Ladies and gentlemen!

Allow me to introduce our eurythmy performance with a few words. This is not to explain the performance, because any interpretation of a work of art is, after all, something inartistic. Art must work through itself and will make its impression through direct observation. Since our eurythmy is an art form that uses certain artistic means that are still unfamiliar today and draws on artistic sources that are also still unfamiliar today, allow me to say a few words about these artistic sources and this artistic form of expression.

It is easy to confuse eurythmy with certain related arts, against which nothing is to be said here, which are to be fully recognized, but eurythmy wants to be something else, not dance, not mimicry, nothing pantomimic or similar, but eurythmy wants to work through the artistic means of a real visible language. What you will see here on stage are not gestures, nor is it mimic or pantomimic expression, but rather the movements of individual human beings in their limbs or the movements and positions of groups of people, which represent a real, visible language. It is possible to study what happens supersensibly within a person when they sing, that is, when sound emerges from their organism; one can study what happens within a person when the sound of speech emerges from their organism. Through a kind of sensual-supersensory vision, one discovers that intentions to move — I am not saying movements, but intentions to move — permeate and interweave the whole person.

These intentions to move are held back; at the moment they arise, they are held back and transformed into individual organ movements of the larynx and its neighboring organs, which are then communicated to the air and thus convey the singing tone, the musical, or also the speech tone, the vocal. What can be discovered through supersensible observation as intentions of movement in human beings can unfold as a visible language when the discovered intentions of movement are transferred to the whole human being or to groups of human beings. So that you will see the most expressive limbs of the human organism, the arms and hands, moving.

This should not be interpreted in individual gestures. Individual gestures should not be related to anything spiritual, just as individual sounds should not be directly related to anything spiritual, but rather in their configuration, in their connection with other sounds, and so on. And so it is with eurythmy: it should make its immediate impression through what is presented as movement.

And in this way, ladies and gentlemen, when eurythmy is accompanied by music, one can sing visibly. When it comes to poetry, when poems are declaimed or recited, one can use the visible language of eurythmy to express and reveal the poems. There is nothing nebulous about this, but rather something that comes from the whole human being with the same naturalness as movement, just as sound and tone come from the larynx.

Therefore, one should also develop a feeling, a sense for the sequence of movements – more than for the individual movements. Just as in music it is the melodic harmony of successive tones or the harmonic harmony of successive tones that is important, not the individual tone, so here it is not the individual movement that is important, but what is created from the movement.

But then, once you have this visible song or visible language, you first have to shape it artistically. Eurythmy is initially just language, just sound. The artistic vision should then come about by feeling what is already hidden in the music or poetry in terms of eurythmy. For this must always be emphasized: the true poet already has this hidden eurythmy, which is visibly expressed here, in his soul, even if unconsciously. He shapes his poetry from the whole human being, not just from a single organ, if it is to be a true work of art. Therefore, when poems are declaimed or recited in parallel with a eurythmy performance, it is important that the art of declamation and recitation also appears in a different form than, for example, in a mere emphasis on the prose content.

Poetry is about shaping language so that what is musical or pictorial in language, what is shaped in sound and image, must come out in declamation and recitation. Otherwise, these arts, these speaking arts, would not be able to accompany eurythmy. It is therefore not enough to simply emphasize the prose content. For this reason, we had to go back to older, more artistic ages than the present one, to train the art of recitation and declamation in such a way that more emphasis is placed on the musicality and the shaping of language than on the emphasis of the prose content. But precisely because recitation and declamation must be particularly prominent, it is necessary for me to offer you my apologies, ladies and gentlemen. Dr. Steiner, who will be declaiming in a language she is not fully accustomed to, at least not as a language of recitation, Dr. Steiner apologizes, but she must recite and declaim in English for the reason that this is also a presentation of a special art form of declamation and recitation, and this art form is still in its infancy, We must wait until she has fully mastered this art of recitation and declamation in various languages. Therefore, Dr. Steiner apologizes for reciting and declaiming in English as a non-English speaker. I would just like to mention this in advance.

What you will see here, my dear audience, on stage, I would just like to add that eurythmy has two other sides to it. One side, which I will only mention very briefly, is the therapeutic-hygienic side. Since all the movements you see performed here – although they are only artistically designed – are drawn from the human organism with an elementary naturalness and necessity, just like language itself, one can say that these movements are the revelation of healthy human nature. Not the movements you see here, but other movements, metamorphosed, transformed movements, are considered therapeutic eurythmy. That is why we have already developed eurythmy therapy as a special therapeutic form in our medical-therapeutic institutes in Arlesheim in Switzerland and in Stuttgart, and it has been shown how much it can be used for hygiene and healing when it manifests itself in forms other than those seen here, where it is intended to be purely artistic.

The third aspect is the pedagogical-didactic aspect. However, since we will have the great pleasure of presenting eurythmy with children here tomorrow, I can refrain from speaking about the pedagogical-didactic aspect, the third aspect, today, and [I] will preface tomorrow's children's performance with a few words about the educational and didactic value of eurythmy, which has already been demonstrated since the Waldorf School in Stuttgart was founded, where eurythmy has been introduced as a compulsory educational and didactic subject alongside gymnastics. And just as naturally as they grow into this visible language and this visible song, children grow into spoken language and singing in their younger years.

And so I would just like to add what I never fail to say, that I ask the esteemed audience for their apologies and forbearance, because eurythmy is still very much in its infancy today. And every art form that is just beginning must necessarily be imperfect. We are our own strictest critics, we know what is still lacking in eurythmy, but we also try, I would say from month to month, to keep moving forward.

For example, you will see here today what you could not see a year ago: how the entire stage design is to be eurythmically arranged so that you see not only the moving human beings in eurythmy, but also the forces of light that reveal themselves within the individual scenes of the performance. The main emphasis will now have to be placed not on the individual color lighting, but on the sequence, I would say the dynamic sequence of lighting effects, which should also fit eurythmically into the rest of the eurythmic picture.

And so, if on the one hand we mention the shortcomings of this eurythmy, based on an awareness of the artistic means that can be used and the artistic sources that can still be drawn upon, we can say that it will be capable of immeasurable perfection in the future. For it makes use of a tool that must, in essence, be the highest artistic tool: it uses the human being itself, the entire human organism, as a tool. And all the secrets of the world, all the laws of the cosmos, are contained within the human being. Therefore, when one draws a visible language out of the whole human being, one simultaneously draws out something that speaks of the entire sum of the world's secrets and laws. Human beings are microcosms, and so when this microcosm is used as an artistic tool, it can express the secrets and mysteries that are spread throughout the entire universe. Therefore, despite the imperfection in which eurythmy still finds itself today, we can hope that it will be perfected in the future and will one day stand alongside the older, fully recognized art forms as a fully recognized art form in its own right.

Just a few words about the performance itself. We divide the program into two parts. At the end of the first part, a scene from one of my mystery plays will be performed. The “mystery drama” deals with the development of a human being who gradually becomes attuned to the supersensible world itself. Eurythmy is particularly well suited to depicting what connects human beings with the supersensible. The scene that will be performed here at the end of the first part will show how Johannes Thomasius, because everything he has experienced with dear friends — Capesius, Strader, and so on — rises in his memory, becomes so deeply engraved in his soul that it appears in the soul of his double, that his own youth appears before his eyes, that what is called the guardian of the threshold, the guardian before whom man stands when he enters the spiritual world, appears, that the other figure, the figure of Ahriman, the embodiment of the cunning, the evil, appears. These are inner processes that are presented in the soul of Johannes Thomasius himself. Everything that points to the supersensible is represented in eurythmy and recited by Dr. Steiner. Johannes Thomasius himself, however, as a naturalistic figure, will be played on stage. For everything that is naturalistic must also be expressed on stage. On the other hand, everything that plays into the supersensible can be presented in a higher way precisely through eurythmy.

This is at the end of the first part. At the beginning of the second part, a scene from one of my “mystery dramas” is also presented, depicting the powers of mysticism, of fanaticism, the Luciferic powers on the one hand, and on the other hand the Ahrimanic powers of evil, cunning, cleverness, and guile appear before Johannes Thomasius, who this time does not appear on stage, but in his dreams, which is indicated by a special figure who speaks before Johannes Thomasius awakens from this dream vision. So here, at the end of the first part and the beginning of the second, we are dealing with scenes from “mystery dramas,” and I ask you to bear that in mind.