Eurythmy

Eurythmy

Had I not seen this DVD, I would not have believed it possible to present the movement art of eurythmy so clearly and so deeply through the medium of  video recording.  It is nothing less than brilliant and wonderfully thorough. 

Herbert Hagens, owner of Hagens Recording Studio, has been involved with anthroposophy and Waldorf education for many years.  His video Waldorf Education, A Vision of Wholeness was in fact the first video that managed to effectively and beautifully capture the life of a Waldorf school on tape.  Eurythmy ~ Making Movement Human is, if anything, even better. 

By beginning quite literally at the beginning with the context of the world during Steiner's lifetime, and then explaining not just with words but with example after example of eurythmy performance and pedgogy that illustrate what those words mean in reality, Hagens has done what no one else has yet accomplished: made eurythmy as an art form comprehensible to those outside of eurythmy schools.

In a slow, relaxed fashion, Hagens covers the history and types of eurythmy, as well as the pedagogical benefits of eurythmy as taught in Waldorf schools.  You will find yourself captivated by the performances recorded around the world, in love with what good eurythmy teaching can mean for students, grateful for the therapeutic effects of eurythmy, and, really, just so happy to have made the discovery of what eurythmy is really all about.

Color and Gesture

Reg Down's Color and Gesture is a monumental work that explores in depth and with beauty the inner life of color as expressed through eurythmy and Rudolf Steiner's spiritual vision.  What appears is a world of incredible richness, depth and beauty in the most common, unlikely and unexpected of places: that of gesture.  Gesture reveals the human soul, and the fabric of the soul is color; as a result, we find that the souls' infinite expressiveness, with all its goodness, pathos, waywardness and humor, is intimately woven through with color experiences.

When we approach gesture via color, we discover whole gesture families, with, at times, the most unforeseen of bedfellows.  We gain new insights into soul gestures, acting gestures, animal, planetary and zodiac gestures.  The underlying eurythmic gestures of speech and music are also explored, and we learn to expreience how the color chords and underlying gesure are themselves a structured, musically-ordered language.

When we approach color via gesture, we find inner laws, relationships and dynamics that allow us to gain, via artistic activity, not only a deeper understanding of color as a whole, but also a conscious foothold in the astral and etheric worlds.

~ from the author's description with additions of my own - this is an amazing book!

Movement for the Young Child

Eurythmy for the Young Child is a stunning collection of stories, songs and poems that will serve your children equally well as the basis for eurythmy, storytime, circle time or simple, delightful interludes throughout the day.

Estelle Bryer has had 45 years experience working with kindergarten children as teacher, adviser, puppeteer and eurythmy therapist but specializing as kindergarten eurythmist. The all-encompassing contents are a culmination of her work. The delightful lessons are suitable for circle time or eurythmy lessons (ages 3-8years), and are complete in themselves. They cover the seasons, festivals and stories such as the Turnip or Golden Goose and more, and include written music. They have separate suggestions for use by the kindergarten or eurythmy teacher.

There are also helpful suggestions and instructions for the kindergarten teacher or eurythmist in handling problems, creating moods and using descriptive gestures or vowels and consonants. The importance of eurythmy and the why and how it effects the development of the young child is clearly gone into as well as all the vital elements used for healthy growth. The stories, songs and poems are highly imaginative and fun!

This is another wonderful contribution by our friends at WECAN.

Eurythmy Therapy

Steiner’s comprehensive lecture course, republished here in a thoroughly revised translation, describes the principles of therapeutic eurythmy and provides many specific exercises. Intended primarily for practicing eurythmists, these lectures also contain much material of special interest. Steiner reveals the intricacies of rhythmic interplay between human physiology and the life-forces in the world around us. He describes the qualities of language and the dynamism contained in the individual vowels and consonants, elucidating their relationship with eurythmy movements and human experience. Through such movements, individuals are able to access the healing etheric forces.

The exercises, which Steiner calls “inner gymnastics,” contain enormous potential for psychological and physiological well-being. Gaining increasingly wide recognition today, they complement conventional medicine and offer a therapeutic process for mind, soul and body.

This new edition of these important lectures includes an appendix with reminiscences by early eurythmists, as well as commentary from Dr. Walter Kugler.

The Physiology of Eurythmy Therapy

Eurythmy is a modern art of movement, and eurythmists work in the areas of art, healing, and education. The benefits as a healing social art are well known for both children and adults.

Rudolf Steiner gave a course on eurythmy therapy in which he described the process of “re-enlivening the whole physiology.” The authors of this book have researched eurythmy therapy for many years and The Physiology of Eurythmy Therapy is a comprehensive overview of their work.  As such, it is also the clearest, most thorough explanation available in English as to the nature of the transformation of sound into eurythmy gestures and the effects of those gestures on the human body and soul.  For practicing eurythmists and anyone who would like to explore and understand the profound healing potential of eurythmy as therapy.

Kinesthetic Learning for Adolescents

Each elementary school child has opportunities on a daily basis to learn by using his hands, by moving, singing and through other activities. Learning with movement activities brings joy and success. Is this learning modality given the attention it warrants at the secondary level? Do high school students need to just grapple with information or do they need to be engaged and active in their learning? This book addresses these questions and presents many examples, most notably through eurythmy.

Kinesthetic Learning in Adolescent Education

Kinesthetic (movement/touch oriented) learning is not only a dominant learning style for some people, it is an important facet of everyone's learning process - one that enables the student to retain and integrate the information learned. This extremely valuable paper explores how to integrate movement into academic subjects on behalf of the students' increased learning and more balanced psychology. Highly recommended!

From the author's abstract:

Movement education is often considered a peripheral subject in school curricula, yet it is essential for the teenager and it should form a central focus in education. Eurythmy and spatial dynamics are co-creators of a balanced and creative approach to movement educaiton, and they provide criteria by which other forms of movement can be introduced.

Students need not only a balanced movement education but also movement introduced into lessons, projects and demonstrations in order for them to integrate learning on both physical and psychological levels. Without such integration education imparts information which cannot be retained and remains undigested within the personality. Concepts that are not integrated, according to Rudolf Steiner, lay the basis for later anger toward the judgments of society.

In this paper examples of classes integrating movment include physics, earth science, history, eurythmy, literature, and biology. Suggestions for generating curricula are presented.

Foundations of Curative Eurythmy

In 1921, Rudolf Steiner delivered a series of lectures on curative eurythmy. Over next years, when his advice was sought in cases of illness, he added to the initial therapeutic exercises and indications. For those who were unable to attend the original courses, Dr Kirchner-Bockholt published the basic principles and an authentic collection of Steiner’s advice.

This is Dr. Kirchner-Bockholt’s comprehensive handbook. It is both a guide for curative eurythmists in their therapeutic work as well as an introduction to this effective mode of therapy.

The Human Being as Music

Lea van der Pals was very much involved in the founding of eurythmy. She performed and taught the art throughout her life, traveling extensively in Europe and North America. The Human Being as Music reflects van der Pals' extensive experience as teacher. The book is specifically aimed at students of eurythmy and assumes some prior knowledge of the subject.

Rest and Repetitions in Music

This book provides an introduction to Peter's convition of the power of music as essential to the development of well-rounded, balanced human beings. It is an exact yet sensitive study of the phenomena of rests and repetition in music.

For musicians and eurythmists, the import of the 'rest', the absence of sound, and its position between and relationships to the sounds before and after is fundamental. So, too, is the effect of repetition. For parents and teachers, Peter's shows how theses phenemena are more generally applicable in educaiton and life.

**Having taught at the Hanover Waldorf School for 22 years, Christoph Peter became Director of Music at the Stuttgart Teacher's Seminary. He was composer, promoter, performer and author whose magnum opus, Die Sprache der Musik in Mozarts "Zauberflöte" [The Musical Language of Mozart's "Magic Flute"], was published (in German) by Verlag Freies Geistesleben in 1983. This massive volume explores the intricacies of Mozart's Magic Flute.

Eurythmy

This book offers a concise introduction to the principles and practice of eurythmy, a new art of movement initiated by Rudolf Steiner.

A historical context is provided by means of a brief survey of dance, from its beginnings in the ancient mysteries to today's forms of dance. The author explains Steiner's insight into the hidden laws of movement —which Steiner designated as belonging to the realm of the etheric.

Eurythmy provides a way to make speech and music visible. The author discusses eurythmy and stage performance and its importance in terms of education and therapy.

Eurythmy

Sylvia Bardt has created a thorough overview of the why's, wherefore's and content of pedagogical Eurythmy as taught in Waldorf schools.

Her particular instructions are intended for Eurythmy teachers and will probably not mean all that much to those of us who are untrained. However, the love the author holds for her art and the children in her care shines through and informs all of us in so very many ways. Her accounts are insightful and warm - anyone wanting to gain an better understanding of what lies within the intent of pedagogical Eurythmy will be well met by this book.

How the New Art of Eurythmy Began

This book traces the story of the first eurythmist, Lory Maier-Smits, with artistic care and loving detail. The author describes her early exposure to anthroposophy; her training under Rudolf Steiner from 1912; the first performance of eurythmy during the Theosophical Society festival in 1913; Rudolf Steiner's lectures on the new art of movement; the staging of eurythmy under the direction of Marie Steiner; and Maier-Smits' later work as a trainer of eurythmists. Also given is an account of Maier-Smits' path of personal development, her marriage and family life.

Born in Stuttgart in 1917, Magdelene Siegloch trained in eurythmy under Else Klink at the Eurythmeum in Stuttgart.

A Lecture on Eurythmy

An important introductory lecture on the new art of eurythmy given prior to a performance during a conference in Wales.