Eurythmy
At Silver Willow Cottage School, we are indeed very fortunate to have the benefit of Eurythmy
and especially with Teacher Janine Hayward.
and especially with Teacher Janine Hayward.
Eurythmy–A Healing Movement Art Unique to Waldorf Education
Excerpts taken from Sanderling Waldorf School written by their Eurythmy teacher, Amy Schick.
See link below.
A common question parents ask when they first come to investigate Waldorf Education is what is Eurythmy? Why does my child have to do this? What benefit does it provide? Here are answers to these questions.
What is Eurythmy?
Eurythmy was developed by the founder of Waldorf Education, Austrian philosopher and educator, Rudolf Steiner. Steiner wanted to introduce a new impulse to dance, in particular, an alternative to modern dance, with its emphasis on personal expression. Steiner sought to reconnect dance to its origins as a sacred art form inspired by the Muses. However, rather than looking back and recreating the ancient temple dances, as Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis strove to do, Steiner wanted to create an organic movement art suited to the inner and outer needs and character of modern humanity. The word Eurythmy derives from the Greek roots, meaning harmonious rhythm.
In 1912, a woman named Clara Maier questioned Rudolf Steiner regarding a profession for her daughter, Lory, in dance or gymnastics. She asked whether one could, by means of rhythmic movements, stimulate and strengthen the naturally occurring life forces in human beings and thus promote healing. Their conversation led Rudolf Steiner to develop a series of exercises, gestures, and movements to the spoken word, which he taught to Lory. Thus, Eurythmy was officially born.
Initially, Eurythmy was a performance art used to enhance the “mystery plays” that Steiner had written. When the first Waldorf School was founded in 1919, Steiner strongly believed that Eurythmy should be part of the curriculum. He once said that Eurythmy and gardening were two absolute essentials in a true Waldorf School.
Excerpts taken from Sanderling Waldorf School written by their Eurythmy teacher, Amy Schick.
See link below.
A common question parents ask when they first come to investigate Waldorf Education is what is Eurythmy? Why does my child have to do this? What benefit does it provide? Here are answers to these questions.
What is Eurythmy?
Eurythmy was developed by the founder of Waldorf Education, Austrian philosopher and educator, Rudolf Steiner. Steiner wanted to introduce a new impulse to dance, in particular, an alternative to modern dance, with its emphasis on personal expression. Steiner sought to reconnect dance to its origins as a sacred art form inspired by the Muses. However, rather than looking back and recreating the ancient temple dances, as Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis strove to do, Steiner wanted to create an organic movement art suited to the inner and outer needs and character of modern humanity. The word Eurythmy derives from the Greek roots, meaning harmonious rhythm.
In 1912, a woman named Clara Maier questioned Rudolf Steiner regarding a profession for her daughter, Lory, in dance or gymnastics. She asked whether one could, by means of rhythmic movements, stimulate and strengthen the naturally occurring life forces in human beings and thus promote healing. Their conversation led Rudolf Steiner to develop a series of exercises, gestures, and movements to the spoken word, which he taught to Lory. Thus, Eurythmy was officially born.
Initially, Eurythmy was a performance art used to enhance the “mystery plays” that Steiner had written. When the first Waldorf School was founded in 1919, Steiner strongly believed that Eurythmy should be part of the curriculum. He once said that Eurythmy and gardening were two absolute essentials in a true Waldorf School.
The goals of Eurythmy throughout the progression of the grades are:
· The gradual building of specific movement skills which are age-appropriate and designed to aid a child’s growth at specific developmental stages.
· Learning to implement these skills correctly within the context of language and music.
· Engaging in projects that encourage the children to find their own movement expression, using Eurythmy skills they have learned.
The aims and benefits of the Eurythmy program for students in a Waldorf School:
The children experience:
· Movement, music, poetry, and stories in an age-appropriate and joyful way.
· Support and strengthen language development.
· Musicality and the power to listen.
· Integration: the coordination of hands, arms, legs, and spatial movement combined with eye, ear, and balance, as well as thought processes.
· Intentional movement that creates complex neural development.
· Develops a positive feeling toward focused attention.
· Joy and a sense of freedom in movement.
· Confidence and balance of the inner and outer social capacities.
· The ability to work on problem-solving collaboratively in their group.
· Creative thinking and action.
· The gradual building of specific movement skills which are age-appropriate and designed to aid a child’s growth at specific developmental stages.
· Learning to implement these skills correctly within the context of language and music.
· Engaging in projects that encourage the children to find their own movement expression, using Eurythmy skills they have learned.
The aims and benefits of the Eurythmy program for students in a Waldorf School:
The children experience:
· Movement, music, poetry, and stories in an age-appropriate and joyful way.
· Support and strengthen language development.
· Musicality and the power to listen.
· Integration: the coordination of hands, arms, legs, and spatial movement combined with eye, ear, and balance, as well as thought processes.
· Intentional movement that creates complex neural development.
· Develops a positive feeling toward focused attention.
· Joy and a sense of freedom in movement.
· Confidence and balance of the inner and outer social capacities.
· The ability to work on problem-solving collaboratively in their group.
· Creative thinking and action.
Eurythmy through the Grades 1-3
GRADE 1- Guidance into form and space through imagination.
In first grade Eurythmy, all the exercises are designed to aid the children in developing greater awareness of left/right, up/down, and front/back spatial orientation. We also work to increase dexterity, coordination, and balance. In first grade, the social rather than the performance aspect of Eurythmy is emphasised, and, therefore, the children work mostly in a circle, imitating and following the movements of the teacher as opposed to an orientation toward an audience. Also, in first grade, much of the work involves helping the children find their way into a sense of form and order so that cooperative movement can take place.
The main part of the first-grade Eurythmy lesson is centred on fairy tales, which intentionally parallels the class’ main lesson. Through the telling of the fairy tales, the children practice Speech Eurythmy gestures that create living images of the alphabet, which the children experience through the movement of their limbs. Through performing the fairy tales, the children also experience how different characters require different types of movement. This experience nourishes a child’s ability for dramatic expression, which they demonstrate in their performance of the annual class play.
In first grade, the children learn to draw various forms from straight and curved lines. This is especially important as they are learning to write the letters of the alphabet. In Eurythmy, the children will practice choreography based on straight and curved lines within the context of a story. In this way, they absorb these forms through an act of will by moving their bodies in a living, imaginative way.
Starting in first grade, piano music is included. The children now experience little dances and music for various activities, such as galloping and trotting, that take place within a story.
GRADE 1- Guidance into form and space through imagination.
In first grade Eurythmy, all the exercises are designed to aid the children in developing greater awareness of left/right, up/down, and front/back spatial orientation. We also work to increase dexterity, coordination, and balance. In first grade, the social rather than the performance aspect of Eurythmy is emphasised, and, therefore, the children work mostly in a circle, imitating and following the movements of the teacher as opposed to an orientation toward an audience. Also, in first grade, much of the work involves helping the children find their way into a sense of form and order so that cooperative movement can take place.
The main part of the first-grade Eurythmy lesson is centred on fairy tales, which intentionally parallels the class’ main lesson. Through the telling of the fairy tales, the children practice Speech Eurythmy gestures that create living images of the alphabet, which the children experience through the movement of their limbs. Through performing the fairy tales, the children also experience how different characters require different types of movement. This experience nourishes a child’s ability for dramatic expression, which they demonstrate in their performance of the annual class play.
In first grade, the children learn to draw various forms from straight and curved lines. This is especially important as they are learning to write the letters of the alphabet. In Eurythmy, the children will practice choreography based on straight and curved lines within the context of a story. In this way, they absorb these forms through an act of will by moving their bodies in a living, imaginative way.
Starting in first grade, piano music is included. The children now experience little dances and music for various activities, such as galloping and trotting, that take place within a story.
GRADE 2 - Moving from unity into cooperative duality.
Second-grade Eurythmy lessons reflect the second-grade curriculum, centred on fairy tales, animal fables, as well as verses and prayers that relate to stories of noble people.
To quote from an article on second grade: “If the circle is a picture of First Grade, all whole and unified, each part sustaining the rest, the Second Grade may be seen as two parallel lines. For the child is no longer carried by the dreamy sense of security in all that encircles him but begins to experience a delicate quality of apartness, of ‘identity’. At this age, criticalness may suddenly appear, along with a tendency to squabble endlessly or feel persecuted by “everybody”, bereft of friends. The fables point out the foibles suddenly appearing all over; the legends of noble people calm, console, and reassure.”
Second-grade lessons include exercises and dances that may be performed in opposite pairs; they are designed to help the children cross the vertical midline, which is important for the development of mathematics and reading. The children learn to move mirror forms, which develops a sense of symmetry and is also an exercise that addresses the reversal of letter writing and dyslexia.
All the rhythmic exercises that were begun in first grade that aid the children in developing greater awareness of left/right, up/down, and front/back spatial orientation are continued in the second grade.
Second-grade Eurythmy lessons reflect the second-grade curriculum, centred on fairy tales, animal fables, as well as verses and prayers that relate to stories of noble people.
To quote from an article on second grade: “If the circle is a picture of First Grade, all whole and unified, each part sustaining the rest, the Second Grade may be seen as two parallel lines. For the child is no longer carried by the dreamy sense of security in all that encircles him but begins to experience a delicate quality of apartness, of ‘identity’. At this age, criticalness may suddenly appear, along with a tendency to squabble endlessly or feel persecuted by “everybody”, bereft of friends. The fables point out the foibles suddenly appearing all over; the legends of noble people calm, console, and reassure.”
Second-grade lessons include exercises and dances that may be performed in opposite pairs; they are designed to help the children cross the vertical midline, which is important for the development of mathematics and reading. The children learn to move mirror forms, which develops a sense of symmetry and is also an exercise that addresses the reversal of letter writing and dyslexia.
All the rhythmic exercises that were begun in first grade that aid the children in developing greater awareness of left/right, up/down, and front/back spatial orientation are continued in the second grade.
GRADE 3 - Awakening to self within one’s surroundings.
Third-grade students experience a greater sense of differentiation and separation between themselves and their surroundings. The children are becoming more independent and wish to meet the challenge of learning and memorising the exercises so that they may lead their classmates or be called upon to perform something on their own. At this stage of development, practicing contraction and expansion of the circle to both verse and music helps the children to experience harmonious, rhythmic breathing, as well as preventing them from separating too much.
More complex forms, such as spirals, figure eights, triangles, squares, and the Cassini Curve, are incorporated into the lessons.
The children now practice moving the rhythms of speech and music with precision. They also learn that Eurythmy is a “secret” language and that each sound of speech has a corresponding gesture. Now they are ready to learn consciously which sound each gesture represents. In tone Eurythmy, third-grade students are ready to move from working with music in the pentatonic scale to working with pieces composed in the diatonic scale. The children practice the C major scale in a variety of ways and the major and minor third may be introduced.
The material in Eurythmy lessons relates to their main lesson curriculum with Old Testament or creation stories, Jewish Festivals, crafts such as spinning and baking, house-building, farming, and gardening.
Third-grade students experience a greater sense of differentiation and separation between themselves and their surroundings. The children are becoming more independent and wish to meet the challenge of learning and memorising the exercises so that they may lead their classmates or be called upon to perform something on their own. At this stage of development, practicing contraction and expansion of the circle to both verse and music helps the children to experience harmonious, rhythmic breathing, as well as preventing them from separating too much.
More complex forms, such as spirals, figure eights, triangles, squares, and the Cassini Curve, are incorporated into the lessons.
The children now practice moving the rhythms of speech and music with precision. They also learn that Eurythmy is a “secret” language and that each sound of speech has a corresponding gesture. Now they are ready to learn consciously which sound each gesture represents. In tone Eurythmy, third-grade students are ready to move from working with music in the pentatonic scale to working with pieces composed in the diatonic scale. The children practice the C major scale in a variety of ways and the major and minor third may be introduced.
The material in Eurythmy lessons relates to their main lesson curriculum with Old Testament or creation stories, Jewish Festivals, crafts such as spinning and baking, house-building, farming, and gardening.
Reference: https://www.sanderlingwaldorf.org/sanderlingblogs/2022/3/11/eurythmya-healing-movement-art-unique-to-waldorf-education
See the Curriculum for Eurythmy in Class 2
https://www.waldorf-resources.org/vertical-curriculum/eurythmy
https://www.waldorf-resources.org/vertical-curriculum/eurythmy
Useful sites for more information:
https://www.waldorfpublications.org/blogs/book-news/16583529-what-on-earth-is-eurythmy