40. Eurythmy Performance

On the other hand, one can observe how certain bird species express their sound changes, their song structure, in accompanying movements. When one studies such things properly, one comes to be able to transfer what would otherwise remain invisible in the movements of the larynx and its neighboring organs to visible movements of the whole human organism, so that one can indeed evoke a kind of mute language through it. Only the organ of expression for this mute language is the whole human being. And so, as you then see the moved person in front of you in human movements that are carried out by the limbs of the person themselves, movements that are carried out by the person in space, movements that come about because people in a group in certain spatial relationships and the like – all this is no more arbitrary than the succession of melodies or the harmony of chords in music is arbitrary. It is music that takes place in space through movement. And if two people or two groups of people in different places were to perform one and the same thing in eurythmy, there would be no more individuality in these different performances than there is between two pianists playing one and the same sonata in their own way. So any arbitrariness in the play of gestures and so on is completely excluded here. What you will still see of this can only be attributed to the imperfections that still cling to our eurythmic art.