46. Eurythmy Performance

Of course, what you will see here is nothing more than a beginning, because the eurythmic art is still very much in its infancy. But we are convinced that if our contemporaries show a certain interest in this beginning, it will be capable of ever greater perfection. For indeed, the human arbitrariness that works through our speech ceases in eurythmy, and it can be that by using the human being himself, the movements inherent in his entire organism, as an instrument, it can be that thereby fulfill the Goethean artistic spirit in the way that Goethe expressed in the beautiful words with which he sought to characterize the great Winckelmann: “When the healthy nature of man works as a whole, when he feels in the world as in a great, beautiful, dignified worthy and valuable whole, when harmonious comfort gives him pure, free delight - then the universe, if it could feel itself, would exult as having reached its goal and would admire the summit of its own becoming and being.” Such an artistic attitude can best be fulfilled if one does not use the abstract, but the human being itself, who is a microcosm, as a means of expression, as a tool for the artistic. But, as I said, this is only the beginning. If our contemporaries and future generations take an interest, our conviction that our eurythmy can become more and more perfect will be fulfilled. At the moment I must ask you to be lenient with us in this area, because it is really only a beginning, perhaps only an attempt at a beginning. But this beginning will either be developed further by ourselves or probably by others, the latter probably more so, so that eurythmy can establish itself as a fully-fledged art form alongside the other fully-fledged, but older art forms.