54. Eurythmy Performance

First of all, it is important to note how this mute language comes about. I may use the expression that Goethe often used. What comes about is that what occurs in movements comes about through sensory-supersensory observation, through observation that enables the human being to recognize the supersensible in the sensory in terms of its meaning, in terms of its essence. When developing this eurythmic silent language, one must have a sensory-supersensory power of observation for what actually happens when the speech sound comes forth in speaking or singing. We know, of course, how movement comes about, how all the vocal organs are involved in a particular movement and how this movement is then transmitted to the external air. However, when we listen to someone speaking or singing, we pay attention to what we perceive through the sense of hearing, and what is present in terms of movement escapes our perception. If you study it, you would not get anywhere if you only took what is present in terms of movement phenomena, of real movement phenomena, during speaking or singing, but you have to take the movement tendencies. Because the fact that in the larynx and in the other speech organs that come into play when speaking, the vibrating of the sound is directly connected with the external air, means that movements are produced in the quickest way. But all these movements, which quickly represent a vibration, are based on movement tendencies. And these main directions of movement – when making a sound or otherwise when speaking – can now be transferred to the whole human being according to Goethe's principle of metamorphosis.