53. Eurythmy Performance

The basis for such a silent language can only be gained by what one could call a continuation of what Goethe calls sensual-supernatural vision. You know that when we produce spoken language, our larynx and neighboring organs move in a certain way. We turn our attention to what we hear and look away from the movements of the larynx and its neighboring organs. But these movements are also transmitted to the air. They are clearly present in a room where people are speaking. Through sensory-supersensory observation, one can, firstly, become aware of these movements, but secondly, one can also perceive the potential for movement. And this potential for movement, according to the principle of metamorphosis – thought of in the Goethean sense – can now be applied; just as they are applied in phonetic language to the special organ of the larynx, they can be applied to the whole human being. Just as movements are effective in the speech-producing larynx and its neighboring organs, so in eurythmy, according to the same principle of language, we bring the whole human being into motion.