What is Eurythmy?

“Eurythmy is not intended for immediate intellectual understanding, but rather for direct perception and experience.”      ~Rudolf Steiner                                                                                                                                                                      

Eurythmy is an art of movement originating from the sounds of speech and music, expressing the laws of language, and the tones and elements of music.. The word eurythmy is taken from the Greek, meaning “beautiful rhythms.” It is harmonious movement expressng the sounds of speech and music through gestures combined with choreographed forms in space.

From this form of movement which is initially a performing art, programs have been developed for educational-pedagogical, therapeutic, and workplace/social  applications. Eurythmy is practiced with all ages, from young children to adults, in schools, adult classes, workshops, seminars, in factory and business settings, and as a therapy for individuals, nourishing and supporting their health and quality of life.  

Eurythmy developed from the work of the early 20^th century Austrian scientific journalist, philosopher and educator Rudolf Steiner.  Dr. Steiner is the founder of the Waldorf School initiative.

The instrument for eurythmy is the whole human being through which the entire cosmos can be expressed. When eurythmy is performed on stage as well as when it is being taught in a classroom and practiced in its other disciplines, the spoken sounds come to life through movement as visible speech in prose and in poetry, with all the nuances of rhythm, alliteration, and rhyme.  Music is made visible through eurythmy with the gestures for musical tones and intervals, major and minor, and more.

“Eurythmy comes into being when man learns to use the noblest of all artistic media, the human organism itself – this microcosm – as an instrument. The human organism. . . is in reality the microcosm which in concentrated form contains within itself all the mysteries and the laws of the world.  If man reveals through eurythmy gestures that which his being inherently possesses as a language which enables the entire experience of the soul to manifest through the instrument of the physical body, then he should be able to artistically express the mysteries of the world.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ~ Rudolf Steiner

The Winged Victory, Nike or Victoire de Samothrace, is a classic Greek sculpture thought to be from 2nd Century B.C.   The figure personifies the qualities of balance and grace in movement which are the ideals toward which we strive in our work with Eurythmy.   This sculpture is in the Louvre in Paris.