What is that behind the curtain?
safety pin for safety pin…
I come from a salt of the earth working class farming family, with a practical no nonsense upbringing. As a young man, I came across the works of Rudolf Steiner through a spiritual, esoterically inclined drug dealer in San Diego California. Like many young people of that time, I was licking my wounds from the past, through self medication, art and movement. Rigorous self-study sobered me to my own suffering, which seemed to be mirrored in others and our ailing planet. Now, twenty seven years later, as the first, self named, Applied Eurythmist, I offer this work in process document, as testament to my hopes and concerns for young people and the earth they stand upon.
the whole part…
The whole concept of eurythmy is quite unique. By using the entire body, the eurythmy dancer strives to create a visible expression of the sounds, forms and dynamics that our larynx makes while interacting with the environment, during the activity of speaking and or singing. Peering closer, I found that Eurythmy sets a clear example of a Wholistic paradigm, stated as, “ within a part, the whole is reveled”. For example, my hand is a “part” of my “whole” body, yet written within the very lines and form of my hand is a map of my “whole” body. Even in the smallest “part” of my being, a single cell, there it is again, an imprint of the “whole”, my DNA. The larynx is the “part” and the entire body as the ”whole”, becomes in essence an attenuation or amplification of the larynx. Rudolf Steiner was a wholistic pioneer of his time. If you take the time to even browse through his works, you will continually come across concepts that reflect his wholistic thought processes. The whole to parts and part to whole method of inquiry has been a rock solid way to conduct my research into the art, pedagogy and healing disciplines of Eurythmy, thus giving birth to the fourth complementary discipline of Applied Eurythmy.
I observe, therefore I begin…
Observation is key to any serious inquiry. By observing a phenomenon, patterns and processes will begin to arise. These patterns and processes, upon closer observation, for example, will have numerical qualities within them. Numerical qualities reveal universal archetypes. A simple example; there will always be seven colors to a rainbow, yet the very quality of each color is also reveled, as a qualitative archetype within the quantity of seven. Whole to parts, quantity to quality.
he said she said…
I must say, I gratefully got my diploma in speech and tone eurythmy after living in Dornach for four years. A convenience of living there is that I got to witness lots of eurythmy performances. The one thing that stands out in my mind, in bold relief, is the fact that during the breaks and after a eurythmy performance, the greater portion of the audience and especially the eurythmy students and teachers, were all in conflict and discussion around what they witnesses in the eurythmy performance.” Was that really eurythmy or not”, or “It was way to athletic to be eurythmy” or ”To astral to be true etheric movement”…….Get real people!…….. For gods sake,…… stop and look at that behavior. If so many Anthroposophist spend so much time disagreeing about what is Eurythmy or etheric movement, how the hell do you expect the rest of the world to understand it?….Do some of you even care if any one else on this planet has a grounded experience of Rudolf Steiner’s work?
free forces…
Unfortunately eurythmy seems to have died decades ago when Anthroposophist lined up for years behind an empty concept of “etheric movement“. With that, there has been a long tradition of embolding young individuals into believing that “etheric movement” is something that can be learned or trained into a person. An Applied Eurythmist makes an effort to view the following statement as a catalyst for beginning the long over due paradigm shift into an inclusive, Wholistic application of eurythmy. ……………………………… ”Etheric movement is our birth right!”………… Just as it is our birth right for the body to heal itself after being injured or weakened. Our life force, our etheric movement body, is one given grace we all have in common. It dose not need to be tricked or trained into action, it is, just as the life fluid of water is, and is everywhere in the body, so there is life, there is etheric movement. Fortunately the world is rich in movement disciplines that are all about cultivating the life energy of the body, like the farmers and gardeners of the earth, cultivating the free forces of heaven and earth.
knock…knock…
Preserving the past is an important task for Anthroposophist in Dornach. Think about it…It is the place you go to see and hear the original works and contemporary renderings of Rudolf Steiner. Where else would a new budding Anthroposophist (like I was) go to be inspired by Steiner’s original works, but Dornach, the one place where you go to experience first hand, the faithfully preserved works of the Doctor. When I was there, I really appreciated the earnestness and dedication of my instructors for carrying such a task so well. That’s awesome they do that, it really is so necessary. Eurythmy training centers teach the seminal principle and elements of etheric movement and the connection that Rudolf Steiner made between the laws of speech/ music and our bodily movements. What has survived from Steiner’s time to the present day is a real snap shot of how to move the body about in a very particular movement style, which was influenced by the times Steiner lived in, and which has been faithfull preserved to the very present.
heads up…
Good common sense informs me that a center is more “head like” and the periphery more “limb like”. The Goetheanum, by its very nature, is head like. The Anthroposophical centers all over the world are more limb like. The Goetheanum preserves the past, is the Scribe and Historian, as tendency toward head. Anthroposophical centers around the world forge the future, are the Pioneers and Merchants, a tendency toward limbs. The veritable pulse of the Zeitgeist is living and weaving all about the world, and is continually coming to rest and stillness in the calm annals of history. Obviously then, Dornach is the place to go to get your historical perspective on the past. So then, spread about the globe, are all the various Anthroposophical centers, where you will find the cutting edge perspective on the future. Dornach is the world center for Anthroposophy, hence the world center for eurythmy, where eurythmy principles and elements are faithfully preserved for future generations to experience. Dornach is not the center for research and development into the future of Eurythmy. It is not in its nature as a center. That would be the task of the periphery.
it is time…
Dornach is the center, and I am part of the periphery, for example, living out here in Santa Cruz, California. The inherent task of the periphery, like our sense organs and limbs, is to be influenced and interact with the environment. Eurythmist around the world are the sense organs and limbs of the Anthroposophical (Eurythmy) center. The dialogue between center and periphery is essential for good health and vitality of any organization. Part of the task of the center (head), is to listen to what the periphery (sense impressions and limbs) are receiving and experiencing. It is an organisational imperative for the center (Dornach) to show a genuine interest in the periphery ( eurythmist and movement researchers from around the world), free ofsympathies and antipathies, to inform the center, with the most up to date information and experiences. Other wise, Dornach stands as a statue of what the task of the center is. This would be like putting the Goetheanum into an isolation chamber. How would the world center of Anthroposophy have even a clue of what the Zeitgeist is up too, all shuttered away like that. If the center is not in the habit of having an open interest in the rest of the worlds eurythmist and movement researchers, then truly it is only a matter ofchanging a prevailing attitude, so that the old habit, that no longer serves the well being of the organization, will be transformed into a productive, health giving habit.
ouch…
If their is one thing that my experiences as a eurythmist have taught me, it is that as soon as human movements tend toward dance like, physically strong or riped athletic expression, the typically trained eurythmist will make statements and claims that what they are seeing is not “etheric movement” but “physical movement”, or that what they are witnessing is “ethericly bruising”. I have heard alot of strange statements and have found myself making such ungrounded claims , but finally I have gleefully found a glaring paradox that arises in a traditional eurythmy performance that can shed some fresh light on the claims of “etheric movement”.
as above so below…
When the humorous pieces in a eurythmy performance are shared, a window into that movement paradox arises. Let’s break it down…… Almost all of the movements performed up to the humorous stuff, in a classical eurythmy performance, traditionally embodies the upright attitude, where the eurythmist body is mostly being inhabited and articulated from the diaphragm up, thus their movements are being lead from the head and or the upper torso areas. Yet, when the humorous stuff is practiced and performed, the eurythmist’s movement center drops down into the hips and legs. The movement center has to drop down into the hips and leg in order to hop around, play the part of an animal or do a cartwheel for example. Once the funny stuff is over, the traditional eurythmist is back to tippy toing around the dance floor as though what they just performed was almost naughty of them, as though they had a little movement quickie, sweat beading off their brow, and then back to the rigid style of leading predominantly with head and upper torso.
head, heart and hips…
What is passed on as “etheric movement” by eurythmy training centers can be easily summed up as, learning how to lead your movements from almost entirely the head and upper torso areas. Sports and athletic movements, due to the sheer physics of the activity, must utilize and lead from the lower movement center and in concordance with the torso and head, thus inhabiting, articulating and using the entire human body as an instrument of expression. That is the paradox,……. it has become an acceptable, common practice to access the trunk(lower movement center) only during the naughty humorous portion of a eurythmy performance, but not encouraged to be developed any further by eurythmy students as part of their training. Steiner himself wrote that performing a cartwheel, the eurythmist is expressing the sound “R”. I was asked by one of my eurythmy instructors to incorporate a cart wheel into one of my performances. She thought it would spice it up a bit and then she qualified her actions of asking me to choreograph a cart wheel into the performance by describing how Rudolf Steiner connected the “R” sound with the cart wheel. If that is so, then where in the four year eurythmy training are there lessons in gymnastics given or acknowledged. In order to do a cart wheel, let alone perform a cart wheel well, I would need some formal lessons on how to throw my body about. And by the way, I must have figured it out, while energeticly throwing my body about expressing the “R” sound, I was encouraged by my instructors that I was still doing Eurythmy. hence moving ethericly.
are you experienced…
It is not possible to pick and choose when you are going to move ethericly. Etheric movement is not like “The Clapper”… you know the sound actuated light switch that turns on and off your house lights with a simple clap. Clap on!… etheric movement…clap off!…. etheric movement. If there is difference between physical movement and etheric movement, then somebody please, show me the “bench marks”, somebody please, show me the standards and criteria that are used by world training centers to sense perceptibly determine if someone is moving ethericly” or not, or for that matter, “physically” or not. How dose a master eurythmist determine wither someone is really moving ethericly or just faking it? Somehow I qualified, and went on to teach etheric movement directly after my graduation, at the Sacramento Waldorf School.
piecemeal…
So now you see, other disciplines like sports, dance and martial arts, for example, get judged as “physical movement” by the prevalent eurythmy traditions. Now then, let us open the whole can of worms, with the glaring inconsistencies of the Spatial Studies, Bothmer Gymnastics movement people and the Eurythmist within the Anthroposophical society. The Spatial Studies / Bothmer people, rightfully want to justify their movement craft, and have done so by qualifying “etheric movement” as “conscious movement”. Now both of these resentful groups can have their peace. Again,…… for gods sake,…….. the level of consciousness you put into something is your free choice. This is not a competition as to how much consciousness you have, or the determining factor of the phenomon of the etheric itself. The gift and grace to grow and heal and move with our bodies is our birth right! Any training, in any movement discipline, will allow someone to cultivate a life time of bliss and etheric pleasure, splashing around in their particular movement discipline. Steiner is pointing out that within the bedrock of our bodies, thus in our very movements and expressions are the footprints left by the prevailing laws and patterned archetypes of human speech and music. Rudolf Steiner is merely pointing out that all movements can be distilled down into archetypes, thus creating groupings and patterns, like what Pythagoras did for music with the first documented research of the mono chord. Steiner has mapped out the lawfullness of speech and music embedded within human movement.
chin up…
As eurythmy training centers around the world have dissolved, it seems the prevailing lack of standards and criteria around what etheric movement is, would be a major draw back. By treating etheric movementas a learned capacity, with little or no documentation, you create the breeding ground for cult behavior. Eurythmy movements have become that ”special something” that a cult would use for control. I would ask that people stop making Eurythmy into a special something. Please stop putting Eurythmy on some unattainable pedestal in the sky! Engaging in “pedestal pushing” creates a separation from the very thing we admire and “look up to”, yes another paradox, yet what is a beginning solution to this madness? How about for starters, by seeing what you put up on high, was a part of you before you separated it out. What goes up must come down. You get the idea, both states are necessary. Looking up to someone or some thing shows your humility, I think the lesson here is just don’t forget to turn your gaze back inwardly. What is within and what is without. Wow…that whole and parts thing again.
the mask comes off…
Now remember people, Eurythmy is an Art….so then I should be able to go to the art store and get my art(eurythmy) supplies, go home and practice that art….free…. on my own…that is Art. Think about that. Has it been the prevailing mood and practice of eurythmy training centers to treat eurythmy like any other art? Could you be trusted to do Eurythmy properly on your own without harming yourself? No way! The stories are so vastly numerous. The practice of dissuading individuals from cultivating a free relationship with this apparently “new art” as it has been packaged and sold over the years are undeniable.
scary…
Eurythmy is fraught with superstition and folk lore. For example; It is customary and possibly even considered polite, for a group of trained Waldorf teachers to not do the exercise Halleluiah with each other unless a trained eurythmist is present. Even though members of the group have done that exercise hundreds of times, the old school master teacher will dismiss the possibility of doing it without the eurythmist there to lead the group, and then will even defend it to no logical end, as more superstition about the dangers of doing Eurythmy unsupervised come rolling out of the mouth of the seasoned professional. That was a mouthful. Such an example could be passed off as just one fixed perspective within Anthroposophical circles, you know, “human nature”, but sorry, I don’t think so, the stories are out there, of fear and control over the art of Eurythmy.
now isn’t that special…
Waldorf teachers learn a bit of all the arts in their training and yet are not allowed to even teach the basic elements of eurythmy to students or among colleagues. Teachers are empowered to take risks and teach a bit of all the other arts, sculpting, painting, drawing, story telling, acting, music, handwork, woodworking, cooperative games, but not eurythmy…… “It’s to special”. When it comes to eurythmy, call in the pros. This is not just quality control at work for your tuition dollars, with every thing else just said, it also amounts to job security.
triple threat…
That is a dilemma!….not only is the discipline of Eurythmy given more bandwidth than the other arts within the Waldorf movement, but the eurythmist themselves are given special accommodations for employment at Waldorf schools. Double dilemma!! Now top that off with the fact that eurythmist will not accept that what they are doing with their bodies is dance. They want the rest of the world to give them a whole new category in art, for their type of dancing…..Triple dilemma!!!
a drop from the bucket…
Waldorf education emphasizes that the child is not an empty bucket that is to be filled with information and experiences, but that the child is “whole” and the teacher is there to artistically draw out what are the living “parts”, as living potential within the child. Now that would be nice if eurythmy training and Anthroposophical centers around the world had a similar view of etheric movement. Because that point of view would be fueled with whole to part and part to whole consciousness, wholistic living thinking.
ring…. ring….
Hello…..this is your body calling….I know you are all really busy, but all this defered awareness of the lower movement center has obscured the common knowledge of free etheric forces. Seriously, not until a true acknowledgement that etheric movement is our birth right, will Eurythmy and for that much, Waldorf education, who hire eurythmy teachers, begin to have some positive cultural significance in our world, free of religious dogma, much like the sucess that Bio-dynamic farming and Anthroposophical medicine has contributed. The roll of Applied Eurythmy is to develop the capacity to see and document the etheric principles and elements in all movement disciplines. All movement disciplines are etheric by nature and that all movement disciplines share a common thread which lives and weaves within all of us, the universal objective laws of speech and music. What Eurythmist and enthusiasts will be doing, is the real research of de-coding what movements they experience on a day to day basis, revealing the laws of speech and music, the imprint of the etheric, in all movements. Yes, that even scratching your ass and picking your nose is still etheric movement and embedded within those perfunctory movements, the elements of speech and music are still alive, real and present.
ouch!!!
I offend myself when I belive that I have, as a trained eurythmist, somehow been initiated into conjuring up etheric movement forces, like some kind of wizard, that no one else can, unless of course….you go get your ego spanked at one of the full time, four year eurythmy training centers around the world. Then you will believe, I surly did, living in my post training Gnostic bubble….but the children that I ended up teaching throughout my career have truly fueled my search for a phenomenological approach to Eurythmy. The world wide issue here is that eurythmy training centers around the world have an overly religious approach to their art, pedagogy and healing modalities. A pseudo priest and priestess hierarchy has arisen around the job description of a eurythmist, regardless if the eurythmist was the most grounded worker bee ever, before entering into the training. The very standards habits and practices of the certified training centers widen the gap of equality amongst not just fellow Anthroposophist but generally the entire population.
dance, dance, dance
That is what I hear inside my head when I read or hear the statement that, ”eurythmy is not dance”. The body is the medium of expression and so the rest of the world calls that “dance”, OK….. Let me separate this out. I can see that in principle, I could agree that eurythmy is not dance, yet in practice, if you are moving your body to express something, then you are dancing. It doesn’t matter if you as a eurythmist are showing your visible text and notes with your arms or not, you are still dancing. Eurythmy is not dance in principle, it is a method of “decoding” spatial human movements through the universal principles and elements of human speech and music . In practice, Eurythmy, as an art of spelling and entoning in the air, as eurythmist do, is dance.
surprise…
If one were inclined to learn eurythmy at one of the world training centers, they would be unconsciously immersed in the Wholistic paradigm, which was one of the root tecniques in Steiner’s thought process in developing euythmy. Yet most likely you would be walking away with a hard earned diploma in hand, yet with little or no practical tools on how to conduct one’s own wholistic thought process so that the research into eurythmy can live on. I unexpectedly gained a wholistic understanding of Eurythmy, only after my high school students at Sacramento Waldorf began schooling me. So I started listening and observing everything in my life, as having inherent qualities of speech and music. If I wanted to clearly dance out those laws in a traditional Steiner era style performance or exercise, then that is fine, but that enchanted stye of movement is purely historical. Now since the historical perspective on eurythmy has been so faithfully preserved, not just in Dornach, as it should be, but in almost every eurythmy training center around the globe, as it probally should not be, then you see, you are not going to get students excited about joining you in such movements for the sheer historical experience of eurythmy. It is the underlying principle that is worth striving for, that everybodys movements, along side every breath we take, live universal principles and elements of speech and music. It is not enough to just religiously belive in eurythmy, it has to be proofed. Your sucess as a Eurythmist will come down to not only being a good teacher, but inviting your students into the discovery of their birth right.
really…
Yes, really! In general, to date, eurythmy training centers around the world are like little mini Goetheanums, archiving and preserving what Steiner originally made accessible. A very important task for Dornach as the center, is to preserve and archive the original works of Steiner, which is in alignment with centric principles. What is toxic to the future of eurythmy is for the training centers around the world to neglect their task as limbs and sense organs of the center, The Zeitgeist lives in movement, movement that has a natural sympathy for the worlds becoming.
monkey see, monkey do…
This is just a bad chase of over imitation. Earlier in this article I wrote about how eurythmist pretty much refuse accessing their lower movement center. That stylistic tipsy toeing around is then circuitously named, conscious movement, hence it is etheric, and then all the tribes of Anthrosophy are satisfied….wrong!…I am a tribal member and I call your bluff. Let’s go back to the embryo, when larynx and sexual organs were at one with each other. When they parted and went their separate ways they ended up developing two very distinctly different creative powers. The larynx became the organ of primal raw imitation, and how do we learn our first language? Imitation is how. The sexual organs became the primal raw organ of co-creation, and how do we propagate our future? the Tango baby! because it takes two, not just to procreate, but even more importantly for our future, to collaborate! By eurythmy training centers ignoring to access the lower movement center, they then only really end up exercising their powers of imitation. Again a very centric head like activity. Without accessing, exercising and expressing the lower co-creative center, where our life force is most predominate, the body becomes frail, sick and life less, estranged from our co-creative core and social future.
event horizon…
This all reminds me of that Goethe story of “The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lilly”, where the snake says, “the time is at hand”. The struggle between belief and perception has come to a head within the Anthroposophical movement. It is time to listen to the limbs for a change. “What is more refreshing than light?” and the snake replied, “speech”. Yes speech, not just the light of self knowledge but the living conversation.
dp