Eurythmic Art

Eurythmic art is based on a visible language formed out of the human being. This reveals itself in movements that are performed by an individual through their body or limbs or that are performed by groups of people. It is not a matter of a gesture-like, mimic or dance-like movement, but of a real language that is as far removed from dance, mimicry and gestures as singing or spoken language itself. No single experience of the soul, no sensation or feeling, is arbitrarily associated with a form of movement. Rather, the possibilities for movement that are inherent in the organic structure of the whole human organism were formed into a means of expression in the same way that this occurs naturally with a single group of organs in speech and song. And so the individual movements follow each other, like tones and sounds in singing and speaking. The movements that are revealed in eurythmy are also present in singing and speech in their disposition (as an organic and cognitive tendency); but in singing and speech they are transformed as they arise into those that the singing and speaking organs carry out. These tendencies are captured in eurythmy through sensory and supersensory observation, and in this way the whole human being is made into a singing and speech organism (expressing itself in a visible way).

Thought and will are expressed in human speech. Thought is the inartistic element here. In the poetic treatment of language, the power of thought is traced back to the will-like element in measure, rhythm, imagery and so on. Eurythmy carries out this transformation to the end. The human being in space becomes the manifestation of soul and spirit. On the one hand, eurythmy can be accompanied by music. In this case it is visible song. On the other hand, it can be accompanied by recitation and declamation. In this case, the real artistic-poetic content comes to direct view. When they accompany the eurythmic element, recitation and declamation are obliged to hold back in all (prosaic) emphasis of the content of the poem and allow the pictorial and musical, and thus the truly artistic, to emerge. In addition to the artistic side, eurythmy also has a hygienic-therapeutic and a pedagogical-didactic side. In these latter aspects the forms used in eurythmy as an art are transformed accordingly. It is to be hoped that this art form, which is still in its infancy today, will be able to perfect itself to an unlimited extent, for its tool is the human being itself in a more comprehensive sense than is the case with other art forms.