What is eurythmy? It is a tough one to tackle effectively without drifting into abstraction or superficiality. Who's asking, has often been my starting point.
Can you answer this question in less than 33 words? No prizes beyond the personal satisfaction of catching the butterfly. I will start off -
Eurythmy is how God created the world. It is all colour and movement and light swirling around.
Eurythmy is what little girls and boys are made of before their parents get hold of them.
Eurythmy is the whispering of the archangels to the angels.
And of course: eurythmy is movement that speaks and sings.
I promise you this is the truth. I have not been asked this question for a good number of years. I have been proactive about it. I planned my strategy to meet the question before it was articulated. I decided that nobody would leave a single one of my classes without real experiences to wrap that question around. Try this... what did you experience? Each and every experience of eurythmy can raise the head of that question. So I ask folk: did you notice what happened in the room just then? What happened here? What was different this time? What brought those experiences about?
What do folk say about eurythmy to me? Variations on: well, I can experience what eurythmy is, but it is difficult to talk about. Folk move to a place where the question lives beyond the scope of language. In some, the questioning continues as an inner dialogue, in others it curls up and sleeps.
Is it important to talk about these inner experiences? Is an experience that is undefined by words less self-conscious than one we can talk about? For many, such experiences melt like dreams with the morning mist. How can we hold onto these inner experiences so that we can talk about them? One way is to say it was like this... and show the eurythmy gesture that incarnates it. My students are required to spend time reflecting and thinking about their experiences of eurythmy. This definitely helps. Are these experiences what we want to discuss and share in the eurythmy group?
Read the other questions that have been contributed to the group. If you do not have an answer, it can help to start talking about what you do know, and new insights may be called forth in others.
I will be back in 3 weeks, so leave me a message...
Eurythmy is thinking with your body.
This is a fascinating post John.
"Thinking with your body" seems a good enough slogan to me. Talking could then described as speaking with your larynx. (actually it should say something like "entire vocal apparatus" rather than larynx but wotever; lets be popularist here).
Imagination could be described as listening with your eyes.
For intellectuals then, Eurythmy could be called "epistemology of movement"!
For me eurythmy is a chance to condition my will using imagination and memory simultaneously. PoF and the social dimension come into this too because as body thinkers we participate in a common grammar of movement..
Memory and self esteem I think can be openly coupled too. I think what really alienates people is the public mien of reverence shown during eurythmy. I think the idea of personal movement memory is useful here. People unconsciousy revere their own past sufferings and crises. If it is pointed out that to some extent in eurythmy one listens to ones musculature echoing ones past , then the solemnity and concentration are not perceived as so misplaced.
Enough. Thanks for the chance to ramble.
Love
Bryn
ps I hate to say this but eurythmy sometimes looks like its going to fade away entirely as anything but the most earnest , and esoteric activity of a self styled spiritual elite. Hard words I know for a PS!
Elite Eurythmy
I hate to say this but eurythmy sometimes looks like its going to fade away entirely as anything but the most earnest , and esoteric activity of a self styled spiritual elite. I have a little experience with Eurythmy (very little - I learned a few things at some anthro-med conferences) and love to do do it myself but do not see it catching on in a big way unless our culture changes in some fundamental ways.
I saw the symphonic euruythmy performance a few years ago and thought that, while it probably is fantastic to actually do (be a performer in it), it was actually rather boring to watch...
As far as I can tell the only way that eurythmy will ever 'catch on' is from the grass-roots level.
That is, people have to be shown on an individual level and then have to see the positive results in their life from continued practice (and, amazingly, it seems to take very little eurythmy to have positive effects).
The problem is that our culture has become so materialized that the average american will think you are nuts if you show them this stuff...
With that being the case its easy to see how this activity could remain simply in the domain of a 'spiritual elite' (self styled or not).
Hard words I know for a PS!
What's a PS?
Public Eurythmy Classes
How valuable is eurythmy if it is merely a spectator activity? I have often heard people say they would like to experience eurythmy but only once in my experience have I heard of a eurythmy class offered for regular people. I wonder if someone organized a network of eurythmy teachers who offered a public class for regular people if they would find enough participants? Of course these things need to be properly promoted.
Look how successful yoga, dance and all the various public exercise programs are. People in the USA, anyway, are looking to join classes where they can move and be active. It seems to be the same issue with all of anthroposophy. More imagination is needed to have more involvement with the world or it does remain exclusive.
Pop Eurythmy
I have spoken with a few anthropops about this and from what I garnered, many prominent eurythmists turn up their nose at the idea of doing any kind of mass marketing (such as simply making a tape or DVD that people can use at home to experience the basic movements).
This resistance comes from 2 sides - the high-minded side that says "People should come to eurythmy out of their own karmic destiny - if we make a tape and set it next to the yoga tape in a New Age bookstore it will demean the activity"
And the other, fear based, that says "If we make eurythmy available via a tape or DVD then people will no longer need eurythmy teachers, which will put our teacher training programs in jeopardy."
I think it is fairly obvious that both of these positions a flawed.
The first position is obviously elitist - if Steiner had thought this way he would never have written a single book for the 'masses' (which have turned out to be not so massive) and would have spent his time in an ivory tower waiting for a 'worthy student' to appear.
The second is just plain backwards. If you popularize something you increase the demand for instruction - you certainly do not decrease it.
Anyway - the above two reasons were given to me by some well respected anthro-med doctors, who have asked this question before from some 'high ranking' (if I can apply that term here) eurythmists...
Boggles the mind...
If you want to find clouded thinking you don't have to go much farther...
Bang on Jay
Abolutlely right on the money, Jay.
Fear of the unknown direction for the future is evident in both your examples. Elitism sounds a little part of the equation and that method of preserving an art form often ends in its slow and sure demise. I would buy one maybe 10 DVD if they were available. In fact if any eurythmy group is interested I would love to share my knowledge on how to get the product to DVD in a cost effective high quality manner. Distribution is visible everywhere.
As far as the teacher training comments, I practise Tai Chi and have for 30 years, and still study with masters [teachers] as well as own numerous DVD from other masters. The same goes for the rest of the students I know.
Jay, it does boggle my mind too...but there are simple solutions. One just needs to desire to do it.
Cheers
Cisco
Public Eurythmy Classes
I'm surprised by your question--I know of many eurythmists who offer classes for "regular people". Of course if you mean people who have no other knowledge/contact with anthroposophy this would limit it further. Most of these classes are connected with a Waldorf school or anthroposophical circle in some way. But some people do come to classes who just really like eurythmy and don't have much other connection to the anthroposophical movement.
My husband has offered a weekend intensive course for several years (in Spring Valley, NY). This seems to be a good format for people who don't live nearby, or don't have time for a weekly course, but can come for a weekend several times a year. If anyone is interested in the details they can email us at weekendeurythmy@gmail.com.
It there a central
It there a central information source where someone can find out about eurythmy classes in their local area? Are there enough classes going on to make it worth the effort to post eurythmy class information online somewhere?
Ps means post script-a point added after main body of text.
no text
Show and tell
As a eurythmist who has offered open classes, introduction courses, tasters before a performance and one off testers, I am amazed to hear about the scene in the US.
Is it really such a eurythmy desert? Are your eurythmists really so unapproachable? Is a public class just another stage?
Some years ago I was touched deeply by an appeal from a well known speaker to eurythmists to help their audience to get more from performances. This was someone who made an effort to go to see eurythmy but felt unable to get into what was being presented. I seem to remember that colleagues said that he should go to classes and he said that this had not helped.
I hope that eurythmists who sign up here will listen up to the appeal for more access. In the UK eurythmy has never been easily marketable. I could certainly do more open work.
What do you folk banging on our door want to get from eurythmy classes? My favourite is: let's be creative and explore something interesting. I do not often teach eurythmy for its own sake, rather let's do something in/with eurythmy. Do you want something like a yoga or Tai Chi workout? Do you want step by step instruction into the occult moves?
I have to admit that I do not feel that imagination is needed, rather the get-up-and-get-on-with-it. Respect to those who are doing just that!
Eurthymy to U2
Hi there,
I do Eurthymy to U2 - and it is so nice - i've developed my own form of movement and it's sort of a cross between slow Tai Chi and stretching. I am not part of a group and enjoy doing the routine outside under the stars! but then my dog normally wants to take part and can't understand why he keeps getting these kicks aimed at him .. no offence dog lovers!
I like what Bryn said Eurthymy is thinking with your body - that's great - and the poem you wrote John - lovely (before parents get hold of them!) What music do you generally move too?
What moves me?
It is interesting to hear that you are being creative with eurythmy, Caryn.
I work with mostly classical music when I can, sometimes folk music. I do not work with recorded music at all. Most often I work with texts, stories, poetry or drama. My great love is to explore language through eurythmy.
Eurythmy and PoF have inaccessability in common.
I think Jay put his finger on it when he pointed out that our culture would have to change a lot before eurythmy would become popular. Its that accessability thing in a nutshell.
My opinion at the moment is that regarding groups of any description, not just eurythmy groups, its the karmic ones that will bring the most satisfaction and change. I think the situation with eurythmy is that of any occult or clairvoyant experience; such experiences make very bad currency. You just "have" them then sit and watch the world go by as usual. There's not that much to be said.
My teacher for the past 15 years has obviously been on a path with this.issue. I remember so many attempts over the years to put eurythmy before the people so to speak; all well meaning, but tonight ,for example, we have had to cancel because there are only two of us-including him!
There seems to be an assumption that the world will "recognize" eurythmy if only they are shown it. Its probably true, but in reverse! People see eurythmy and intuit "Spirit!" and then run in the opposite direction! It is a very uncompromiseing spectacle and it does produce a reaction. I recognised it instantly, but I aint typical.
Hard to come up with any clear conclusion.:-)
Love
Bryn
Running away
There are so many reasons for well intentioned individuals to turn away from threshold experiences.
Comfort is not a threshold experience. Challenge and discomfort, not forgetting depression are much more common.
Do the associations of discomfort and dissatisfaction with eurythmy demonstrate that eurythmy is successful in bringing people closer to the spirit? Or are our eurythmical endeavours just not up to the mark? Are these reactions and responses to eurythmy or to eurythmists?
These are just some of the questions that accompany my work.
Borrowed definition of eurythmy
From Carl Flygt in a post to the Conscious Conversation Group:
Eurythmy is a method by which we can begin to sense per se the geometrical properties of space and time, of other beings and of our own constitution. Eurythmy, of course, is based on choreographed movements of thought in extended spaces, supplemented by color, light and sculpture.
Carl kindly agreed that I could borrow the extract. Read his full journal entry in context here.