The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 25 December 1922, Dornach

Eurythmy Address

TIAOAIT: Words to the spirit and love from “Gate of Initiation” by Rudolf Steiner with music by Leopold van der Pals
“Immanuel” by Vladimir Solovyov
Sarabande by J. S. Bach
Saying from the Soul Calendar (37) by Rudolf Steiner
“Die Sonne schaue” (The Sun Shines) by Rudolf Steiner
From the “Christmas Oratorio” by J.S. Bach
“Röslein Rot” (Little Red Rose)
“Christmas” by Albert Steffen
“Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen”
“Die Krippe”
‘Vöglein’
“Ihr Kinderlein kommet”
“Das Marienbild”
Gavotte
“Irmchen”
‘Rondeau’ by F. Couperin
“Der Gingganz” by Christian Morgenstern
“Fée dragée” by Peter Tchaikovsky

Ladies and gentlemen!

Allow me to say a few words before today's performance. The eurythmy we are about to present is not a form of dance, mime, or anything of the sort, but a truly visible language. It emerges from the whole human being as much as singing and spoken language do, both as the movement of the individual and as the movement and posture of groups of people. Those who view human spoken language with an open mind, but trained by sensory-supersensory vision, if I may use Goethe's expression, will find not only the organization of language in speech or the organization of singing in song, but also an expression of the whole human being. The whole human being lives itself out in singing, in sound, in the pronunciation of words. But it is the case that in singing, that which resides in the whole human organism is stripped away, passes over into feeling as movement, is held fast, as it were, as movement, and precisely through this rises up into feeling. So that we can say: Singing actually arose because movements that humans perform in a dance-like manner and that repeat a movement of the entire organism in space are captured indirectly through feeling in the sound, the sound organs among themselves.

An even more complicated process is the development of human spoken language. Even a superficial observation can teach us how closely connected [that which underlies human soul life as sensory content] is to that which [the most spiritual organs] of the human organism — the arm and the hand — can express through movement, [and even a superficial observation can teach us] how this is recorded by movements that are transformed into what lives in sound. It can be said that in speech, a bodily movement passes through the human organism into the movement of the larynx and from there into the moving human being. Simply because this transformation takes place, because with every word, with every sound, the human arms actually want to be active internally of their own volition, but their movements begin to transform into the movement of air in the larynx, the human being is able to put thoughts and feelings into this transformed mobility of his organism.

And conversely: if one can see the whole connection in the sensory-supersensory, then conversely, what is expressed in human words, in sentence structure, artistically in metrical and poetic language, can be transformed back into movements of the whole human organism, but especially of the arms and hands. And this does not result in the usual arm movements with which the more lively person supports their speech with mimicry and gestures. If this is like the babbling of a child in relation to speech, then this, I would say, mimetic babbling can be transformed into perfect organic movements of the human organism, so that the main thing lies in the movement of the arms and hands, and this movement of the arms and hands is only supported by what is then the movement of the human being in space.

And just as there is something underlying human spoken language that can be called musical, rhythmic, metrical, melodious, so too, in a sense, there is something underlying that visible language which in eurythmy is mainly brought about by the movement of the arms and hands. [there] is something underlying it that is dance-like and musical – the movements of the individual human being in space, the movements of groups of people. And anyone who perceives the whole picture of eurythmy aesthetically correctly with their eyes will see the musical element that lies in language in the quiet and intimate dance-like basis [of eurythmy] in the spatial movements of the individual human being in eurythmy. Insofar as it accompanies the musical, one has actually represented a different kind of soul connection with the artistic than one has with artistically represented language, recitation, or declamation.

In recitation or declamation, one has an image in the eurythmic representation that corresponds completely to the language. In music, one has, in a sense, that in the movements in which I would like to say are visibly sung – one can sing visibly to music just as one can sing in tone; you will see a sample of this later – just as eurythmy is added to recitation and declamation, so eurythmy is added to music as visible singing. But it is the case that what appears as arm movements to the actual musical, that precisely in eurythmy, in the eurythmic representation of the musical in forms, that what the human being adds in movements of his arms and hands actually expresses in an intimate way how he speaks inwardly, as it were, to the music and pours eurythmic feeling into the experience of the melody. So artistically speaking, there is actually a fundamental difference between the eurythmic representation of a sound image, of music, and the dance-like representation – and what is to be represented is now such that the representation is no longer dance-like in its main aspect, but rather that which is intimately connected with the human voice and speech, the movement of the arms, the artistic shaping of the arms.

That is why what lies at the basis of speech in eurythmy is perhaps even less understood today. Some people even think that it is wrong in eurythmy to use the arms and hands. But that is precisely what matters. It is still something unfamiliar in artistic form language and artistic means. But once you not only understand—that's not what matters—but feel what lies in every single arm movement in eurythmy, something just as expressive as in music, then you will be able to feel and sense and also look at it with pure aesthetic enjoyment, without asking: What does this mean, what does that mean, what is being expressed by the moving human being through eurythmy?

When eurythmy is accompanied by declamation and recitation, I would say that only then is the complete picture there. You can see from the movements on stage what the whole person is experiencing. It would create disharmony if the person moving in this way were to speak as well. For speaking consists precisely in holding back what we actually want to express as a movement within our soul, what lies as a movement in our will. If it nevertheless becomes apparent, as in eurythmy, then speech, recitation, and declamation must go hand in hand. Then one can actually have a completely clear harmony between what is on stage and what is recited and declaimed.

However, recitation and declamation must be connected with the fact that true poetic art already contains the germ of eurythmy within itself. True poetic art, when it reveals itself through sound or word, does not focus on the prosaic content of poetry. It is a modern bad habit, characteristic of our unartistic times, to see something special in declamation and recitation in the emphasis of the prosaic content. Goethe himself rehearsed his iambic dramas with his actors like a conductor with a baton. He was much more concerned with the artistic expression of language than with the prosaic content. We must return to this artistic understanding of declamation and recitation.

In speech formation – on the one hand in the musical element, the melodious, rhythmic and metrical, and in the imaginative speech formation trained in the sound image, as it is revealed in the different timbres of the sounds, i.e. in the plastic formation of language – must lie that which will be able to recapture a true art of declamation and recitation. This will be able to draw in a very unique way on what will come to light artistically in this visible language, in eurythmy. More and more, what appears as recitation and declamation and what takes place on stage in terms of movements that are directed precisely at eurythmy are forming a unity for us here. What lives in the whole human being as real inner linguistic content, revealed in the movement of arms and hands, is the artistic side of eurythmy.

Another side is the pedagogical one, which we practice compulsorily in all school classes at the Stuttgart Waldorf School. This shows that eurythmy can also be a soulful, spiritual form of gymnastics. Children find their way into this spiritual-soul gymnastics with the same love and inner pleasure with which they immersed themselves in spoken language and singing in earlier years. It is something that not only takes the physical into account, but also, without neglecting the body, influences the body, soul, and spirit, that is, the whole human being.

A third aspect is the medical-therapeutic aspect, which is cultivated here at the Clinical-Therapeutic Institute in Stuttgart and Arlesheim. What is given to you here artistically is transformed into something hygienic and therapeutic. And since the movements of eurythmy are drawn from healthy human beings, what is reflected in this healthy thinking has a healing effect on the human organism in its weakness, indeed in its illness.

Every time there are eurythmy performances in our presence today, I still have to appeal to the audience's forbearance. So today, too, I would like to ask the esteemed audience for their forbearance, as we are only just beginning with eurythmy. However, we also know that, however imperfect it may still be today, it has truly unlimited potential for development. And that is because it makes use of the instrument that actually contains all the secrets of the world in concentrated form. The human being is a microcosm, a small world. And if one uses oneself as an instrument, as is already done in the art of mime, but only in a babbling way, but if one uses this instrument by drawing out of the human being all that is eloquently contained in the mobility of the human limbs, then something must ultimately come about that will stand alongside the fully-fledged older arts as a fully-fledged younger art.