The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Dear Sirs and Madams:

Allow me to say a few words in advance today, as I usually do before these eurythmic experiments. This is not done to explain the idea itself, that would be an inartistic undertaking. Art must work through direct impression of what it is, and does not need an explanation. On the other hand, it seems necessary to me, since we are not dealing with something that is already fully developed in eurythmy, but with a beginning, perhaps one could even say: with the attempt at a beginning. It seems necessary to me, therefore, to say something about what you see in this eurythmic art and about the sources and tools of the eurythmic art.

This eurythmic art, by being completely derived from the Goethean worldview and Goethean artistic ethos, seeks to be a visible language. When I say that it is derived from Goethe's world view and Goethe's artistic outlook, I must point out, on the one hand, that when we speak of Goetheanism here, we are not concerned with somehow merely expanding what came into the world through Goethe up to 1832, but that for us Goethe is a living power, spiritually effective, and that we are not speaking today of the Goethe who died in 1832, but of the Goethe of 1920, that is, of what can further develop within the spiritual world view, the whole spiritual current that has been introduced into Western culture through him.

On the other hand, I would like to point out that Goethe developed what he called his metamorphosis doctrine for understanding living forms, especially plant forms. What Goethe published as such a unique work in 1790 is, despite many efforts in this field, still not sufficiently appreciated in wider circles today. Once it is appreciated, we will most certainly have access to a rich source for developing an understanding of living beings that can be gained from this idea of metamorphosis.

For us, it is not just any old theoretical insight that is to be gained from this idea of metamorphosis, but, above all, it is the artistic exploitation of this idea of metamorphosis that is at stake for us. Goethe begins by looking at the individual leaf in the context of the whole plant. Goethe begins by distinguishing between what is simply shaped in an outwardly sensual way, but in terms of the idea, in terms of the invisible, what weaves and works in the leaf: The leaf is a whole plant. The whole plant is actually also only a leaf artistically formed within itself, notched, ramified; in turn, the metamorphosis into flower, fruit and so on - for Goethe it is an artistically formed leaf.

The same thing, implemented in many other ways, gives us the opportunity — as I said, in addition to many other things — to create a visible language in such a way that we truly do not unintentionally express this art through people who initially serve as tools, as real tools, for the eurythmic art. However arbitrary such movements may appear at first glance, let me explain that they have little in common with dance movements or the like, which arise from instincts, from drives and so on. Rather, what you will see here on the stage, the movements of the individual human being, the movements of groups of people in space, is all thoroughly studied movement – to use Goethe's expression again – that has been penetrated by sensual and supersensual observation.

The movements correspond to the movement patterns present in the human larynx and other speech organs when speech is formed. Everyone knows that a movement element is at work here. After all, when I speak to you here, the movements of my speech organs are transmitted through the air, and when the air reaches your auditory organ with these movements, you hear what I am saying. When it comes to the design of eurythmy, it is not these tremulous movements, these undulations that are of primary interest, but rather the underlying movement tendencies of the larynx and its neighboring organs, which only then, through a complex process, translate into the combined movements of undulation, waves, vibrations in the air, and so on.

These movement tendencies are now carefully studied to see how they express the being, the character of the person through higher gestural abilities than those actually produced by speech sounds. And just as Goethe regards the individual leaf as an entire plant, so too can the larynx with its neighboring speech organs be understood as a whole human organism in miniature. And what the human being wants to express, but which is held in the “status nascendi”, in the process of being born, in order to be realized in speech, can be perceived through sensory-supersensory observation and can then be realized in movements of the human hands, the human limbs or in forms.

This is what we have been working on more and more, especially recently: the forms that the whole human body or groups of people execute in space. So what you will see is transferred to the whole human being, which otherwise underlies the speech organs as movement tendencies of the spoken language.

It is possible to treat this visible language artistically in such a way that what appears in poetry on the one hand also appears in music on the other, and can be transformed into what can be revealed in the visible language of eurythmy. On the one hand, you will hear music today, on the other hand recitation, and in the middle you will see the moving human being and moving groups of people - virtually the whole person or groups of people - as a large larynx that performs a moving language. What appears as moving language can now be treated artistically.

I would like to say that it is even possible to accommodate certain artistic longings that live in artistic circles today and therefore find little expression, sometimes even caricatured expression, because the various fields of artistic development have not yet reached the point of handling the means. Expressionism and Impressionism are there; but the treatment of the means, that is what has not yet reached a certain significant conclusion in the old arts. There, I believe, even the eurythmic art can, in a sense, provide a kind of stimulus – I will not say serve as a model.

For when we are dealing, for example, with human language, which art makes use of, then, especially in our very advanced languages, an inartistic element always mixes into speaking, into poetry, as a result. And we may say that a large percentage of what is being written today is not really real art. For in poetry, real art is only that which is either based on music or on the plastic, on the pictorial. The literal content is actually prose content that is only used to reveal through language, in rhythm, beat, melodious element and so on, what is to happen in the artistic of the actual poetry. That it is so today has its reason in the fact that precisely the most highly developed languages have almost – because of their use for human communication, for ever more complicated human communication – acquired an extraordinarily strong prosaic element, which is not always, I might say, readily restrained and made useable for that elementarily original, which one needs if one wants to create artistically. On the other hand, the languages formed in the formed cultures and civilizations are the expression of highly developed thoughts. But the thought as such is an image that, when used in art in any way, whether as knowledge or as an underlying expression, kills art, paralyzes art.

Now, in spoken language, in phonetic language, we have a kind of interaction between the intellectual, the thinking, the imaginative and the volitional. When we set our larynx in motion, two currents of the human organization work together in the movements of the larynx. That which is permeated by the imaginative mixes with that which comes from the will. The will comes from the depths of the personality, which in turn is an expression, a microcosm of universal world law. The artistic can live in this. But in spoken language and therefore also in poetry, which makes use of it, this actually elementary-artistic is weakened, dulled by the abstract thought element, which is nevertheless connected with the thought element in word formation.

Now in eurythmy we have the opportunity to strip away this element of thought by not using phonetic language, but by taking that which arises from the depths of the human being, which contains the laws of the world in its depths, in the microcosm, that wells up from these depths, the will-element in the human being, that we stop this will-element before it becomes visionary, that we transform this will-element, quite lawfully, as only speech itself is lawful, into movements of the human limbs or of the whole human being. There is just as little something arbitrary in any single movement as there is something arbitrary in phonetic language or in the tones of a melody. Everything is based on the lawful, internally lawful progression of the movements. And what is involved is far from being merely mimic or pantomime. As long as there is still something of that in it, there is still a beginning to be overcome bit by bit. What is presented in eurythmy – you will see this particularly in the forms we are striving for today – is not a pantomime expression of the prose content of the poem, but a translation into this visible language of what the real artist has made out of language.

Therefore, the accompanying recitation must be different from what is called recitation today. Especially when one finds it good today, one emphasizes the prose content of the poem in the recitation and pays less attention to the rhythm, the beat and the melodious element. But one could not work with the present-day unformed recitation — which is only an artistic bad habit that has an unartistic element in it — one could not work with it in the eurythmic art, but the aim is to really try to find the underlying melodiousness and rhythmic in the recitation, in the declamation. On such occasions I am always reminded of how Schiller did not initially have the literal content of some of his significant poems in his mind, but rather something like an indeterminate melody. And then, out of this melodious element, which contained nothing literal at all, one or other of the poems could become literal. The prose content, which was then used without being, so to speak, the vehicle of the actual artistic content, which consists of the plastic and the musical, was only secondary for Schiller.

We seek to bring all these truly artistic elements to expression in eurythmy by making them the essence of the actual eurythmic art, and thus the essence of everything that we must bring into connection with it and will present to you.

Then there is another essential side to eurythmy: it also has a hygienic side, for example – but I do not want to talk about that today. Since it directly brings movements to people that arise from human nature in a lawful way, it is something truly healing. But that needs to be discussed in detail, and that cannot be done with these few introductory words.

Just one more point should be mentioned. Today you will also see performances for children, and I would like to emphasize that this eurythmic art has an essential pedagogical, didactic side, and thus has an element in it that we have already introduced in our Waldorf School in Stuttgart, the Free Waldorf School founded by Emil Molt, alongside purely physiological gymnastics. This eurythmy is, at the same time, not only of artistic value for the growing human being, but also of importance as a soul-filled form of exercise. When we are able to think about these things more objectively and impartially than we can today, then you will realize, dear ladies and gentlemen, that gymnastics, which is based on the materialistic understanding of the human being – which certainly deserves all the praise that is given to it today, but which at least cannot do one thing that the inspired gymnastics, the eurythmy, can: Where the child is required to permeate every movement it makes with its soul, the soul draws upon an element that cannot lie. This cannot be achieved through physiological gymnastics, which has grown out of materialism. Our soul-filled gymnastics, our eurythmy, awakens in the child the will to act at the right time, in the right age, and thus gives something immensely necessary to our time, which is so sorely lacking in the will to act in the broadest sense.

These are the underlying intentions of the eurythmic art, as I said at the beginning of my welcome. The point is that this art is still in its infancy. We are still very modest about it today and are our own harshest critics. However, we are also convinced that this beginning can be perfected and that, if – probably through others, no longer through ourselves – what can be given today as a stimulus can be given at the very beginning as a stimulus, if this is further developed, then this youngest of eurythmic arts will stand in dignity alongside its older sister arts, which have always been recognized.

[IMAGE REMOVED FROM PREVIEW]

Dear Attendees:

As was usual before these eurythmic performances, I would also like to introduce the presentation with a few words today. Eurythmy art uses a form of expression that is essentially new. However, my intention is not to explain what can be seen on stage, which would be inartistic – and artistic work should not need explanation – but rather to say something about this particular means of expression. Therefore, I would like to take the liberty of saying a few words beforehand.

The point is that this means of expression, a kind of visible language, is a language that works either by the whole person moving his limbs in a way that is intended to appeal to the eye in the same way as audible language appeals to the ear, or by groups of people making such movements, which constitute a kind of visible language. But it is not the opinion that this visible language should be what could be called facial expressions or gesturing or the like, but rather the opinion that the direct connection between gestures and expressions and what is going on inwardly in the soul must be must be avoided here in the artistic, as it is avoided in ordinary language, which, although it has arisen from the direct expression of feeling and external observation, is not exhausted in what could be understood as a play of gestures. It is a careful, intuitive study of the development of spoken language that leads, as it were, to the formation of this visible language.

If one develops what Goethe calls sensory-supersensory vision, one can see which movements, but especially which movement tendencies, underlie the production of audible speech by the larynx and the other speech organs. It is well known that speech is based on a kind of movement. As I speak here, the movements that are carried out by my speech organs are transmitted to the air, and it is precisely the content of what is spoken that is conveyed to the ear through the air. But it is not about these immediate vibrational movements, but rather about what, as it were, lives in these vibrations as a tendency to move, which is now carefully studied for each sound, each sound formation, for sound contexts, but which is also studied by name for sentence structure, for the internal laws of language. And all that can be studied in this way and remains unnoticed as something that only underlies the spoken language, because one draws attention to what is heard and not to what underlies the movement, all that remains unnoticed in spoken language, is transferred to the whole person. In this way the whole human being appears before the spectator as a living larynx, executing those movements which are otherwise present in the larynx as a tendency, and through which this visible speech comes about.

It may be noted that in the present day, this eurythmic art, which is born out of our anthroposophically oriented worldview, which is a further development of Goethe's view of art and artistic attitude, that this eurythmic art meets certain aspirations that live as longings, as artistic longings in our time. Who would not know, if they have only delved a little into the artistic striving and working of the present, that the arts are wrestling with new means of expression, with a new formal language? And who would not know how different the paths are on which the struggle is waged? But how unsatisfactory it is to create something out of color, out of form, and also out of words, in order to gain a new means of expression.

If we want to describe what actually prevails in newer, in modern artistic striving, then at the same time we have what still makes it difficult for viewers to directly perceive the artistic representation of the eurythmic art. For what are today's modernizations of artistic striving based on? We see how, in the development of modern times, the human being has more or less lost the ability to develop forces from within, through which he can give himself to the outside world, through which he can completely merge with the outside world.

If we look back at earlier artistic epochs, which are no longer fully understood even by many today, we have to say: something like a Raphael or a Michelangelo work of art, they arise precisely from the artist's ability to inwardly experience what the being he is depicting experiences. This inner co-experience with nature, with the world in general, has been gradually lost by people in recent centuries and is increasingly being lost in the present to the external perception of life.

Art has always tried – one need only recall Goethe's definitions of art – to reflect what one could experience through inner involvement with the other, with other beings, with external nature. They tried to replace this, let us say, with the impression of fate, with the momentary impression as in Impressionism, in the consciously impressionistic state that art wants to become, because one could not grow together with the object, as one had to, so to speak, fall out of the object; therefore one surrendered to the momentary impression. This impressionistic devotion to the momentary impression cannot lead to a real, genuine means of artistic expression, for the simple reason that this momentary impression can no longer be understood once it has passed. To a certain extent, you have to believe that such a momentary impression, captured in the impressionistic work of art, was once there. Impressionism, which seeks to be naturalistic, removes you from the actual essence of things. Man cannot bring his inner self into the world. So, artistically, he becomes an impressionist.

But then, as a kind of opposition to Impressionism, the expressionist principle has arisen in recent times. It appeared, so to speak, provocatively. Man, having lost the ability to immerse his inner self in the outer, wanted to directly express this inner self as an expression of the soul through the usual artistic means of expression.

But this, in turn, brings with it, I would say, the other danger, that what is experienced quite subjectively, subjectively experienced in the deepest inner self, is presented as a single human experience, and this again sets a limit to understanding, in that the spectator would again have to respond tolerantly to what a single individual human being experiences as the deepest experience of the soul, which he cannot do at all, to express something about which one can only say – the philistine can say –: He wants to paint or draw something spiritual; I see water, a number of ship sails, which I might just as well think are laundry hanging out to dry, and so on. These are things that are produced in expressionism, that may project the human interior outward, but cannot be understood because they are not experienced, but are merely there, in that this individual human interior is depicted as being directly connected to the external world, in direct connection with the external world.

Nevertheless, a way to truly artistic means of expression will have to be found again, in which one, so to speak, meets impressionism with expressionism, and vice versa. But one can believe that something like eurythmy could accommodate the search that lies in this direction and that this is precisely why eurythmy is so much in demand today - which, after all, is also the case with everything else that emerges from anthroposophical culture and world view.

The fact that the whole human being becomes, as it were, a larynx, that the whole human being is a means of expression for a visible language, means that what the human being can experience inwardly, which is also is experienced in the recited poems or the music played, what is experienced after, what is experienced in the innermost being, in the human soul, comes to expression in the human being himself as an outer manifestation. But this means that it is not just a momentary impression – an expression that can be captured in an impressionistic way. For if something in nature is fixed by some momentary impression, we have something that we can and do express spiritually, that we delve into the soul of nature. We can develop this by looking at the expression that is presented in eurythmic performances by the human being himself. Here, spirit and soul are presented directly in the outer movements before our eyes. At the same time, there is impression. It should not be said that eurythmy is an all-encompassing art in this respect, but it can certainly be said that it points the way to how artistic means of expression can be found for what can be felt as a yearning in broad circles of artistic endeavor today.

That, in a few words, is the modern aspect of eurythmy in the best sense of the word, what our time demands of eurythmy as an art.

But then this eurythmy has a further, pedagogical-didactic side, in that it is a kind of soulful gymnastics for the child. In the age of our materialism, purely physiological gymnastics, that which is essentially based on the materialistic view of the human body, has been produced by these views, and takes precedence. Today, people are still one-sided in this respect, although some minds, which now want to do away with many of the prejudices of the present day - such as Spengler, for example - already recognize how one-sided this kind of gymnastics is. Of course, nothing should be said against the educational value of this kind of gymnastics, but it must be supplemented by something that not only trains the body, but above all, from the soul, pours initiative into the human being, which is so lacking in our time. This can be done by the child not just doing the gymnastic movements required by the physical organization, but by making soulful movements, so that soul lives in every movement. This affects the will. It becomes inwardly soulful and strengthens the human being in the will initiative, in the creation of the will initiative. And this is what our civilization needs if it wants to move forward.

Today I want to disregard the hygienic-therapeutic side that is still in our eurythmy. Everything that eurythmy can develop is still in its infancy today. And those of our esteemed viewers who have been here before will see how we are now trying to really follow through on the broader form, for example, in terms of gesture formation and form building, how we are trying more and more to , all the gestures of the moment, and to really bring forth a moving language and music, and how we are particularly concerned not to reproduce what the prose content of the poem is, but what the poetic artist has made of that content.

Despite our efforts to move forward, I have to say it here before every eurythmy performance attended by guests: despite our efforts to move forward, we are nevertheless quite clear about the fact that this eurythmic art is only just beginning, that this eurythmic art is a very first attempt – perhaps even an attempt with inadequate means even today. But we are also clear about the fact that if we continue to develop what has already been tried, or if others continue to develop it, then eurythmy art can become something that can stand as a legitimate art alongside other, older sister arts.

Saying from the soul calendar (16) by Rudolf Steiner
Saying from the soul calendar (17) by Rudolf Steiner
“Children's Song” by Max Schuurman (children's group)
Saying from the soul calendar (19) by Rudolf Steiner
“Wind and Violin“ by Christian Morgenstern, with music by Leopold van der Pals
“Blissful” by Christian Morgenstern
“Autumnal Feeling“ by Friedrich Hebbel
“The Legacy” by Robert Hamerling
Saying from the soul calendar (20.) by Rudolf Steiner
“The Demure“ by J. W. v. Goethe
“The Convert” by J. W. v. Goethe
“Andante grazioso” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Saying from the soul calendar (21st) by Rudolf Steiner
Three-part canon (children's group)
“I. Urtrieb“ by Fercher von Steinwand
“Prooemion” by J. W. v. Goethe
“II. Urtrieb” by Fercher von Steinwand ‘Tanzliedchen’ by Jan Stuten (children's group)
Humoresken by Christian Morgenstern with music by Jan Stuten: “Ein Seufzer”; “Muhme Kunkel”; “Der Papagei”; “Lore”; “Lorus”; “Wortkunst”
“Der Rattenfänger” by J. W. v. Goethe with music by Max Schuurman

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen!

Allow me today, as usual, to say a few words before these attempts at a eurythmic presentation. It is not done to explain the idea. Artistic attempts that would first need explanations would not be such. Art speaks entirely for itself, and it should also be understandable for the immediate impression. But now, with this eurythmic art, the attempt is being made to create something out of different artistic sources than those we are used to, and through a different formal language. And about these sources and about this formal language, allow me to say a few words, also because the whole attempt at the eurythmic art is still in its infancy and only with its further perfection will it be able to give what is actually intended.

On the stage, they will perform the movements that a person performs with their limbs – movements of the whole person, movements of groups of people. All of this is not achieved by some kind of pantomime or facial expressions, but is based on carefully observing what actually happens in a person when they reveal the depths of their soul through speech. We can say that, like everything that this Dornach structure wants to present to the world, the art of eurythmy is also derived from Goetheanism, from Goethe's view of art and his artistic attitude.

Goethe undertook – if I may preface this with something seemingly theoretical, which is, however, not meant theoretically – to recognize the essence of a living being from its form. Well, more than we realize today, human knowledge will come back to this Goethean attempt at a real penetration of the essence of the living, when many prejudices will be stripped from the world view, which is still very much asserted within this world view today. What counts is simply what Goethe published in 1790 in his so vividly and profoundly significant essay, 'Attempt to Explain the Metamorphosis of Plants'. I would like to emphasize only that Goethe is concerned to explain the individual leaf in its often simple, often more complicated form for the whole plant and, in turn, to explain the whole plant in its inner ideal essence only as a more complicated leaf: The plant as a kind of community of individual, visible plants, which appear as leaves and undergo transformations and metamorphoses. The petals, calyx vessels, stamens and so on are also metamorphoses of the leaf. This living contemplation of the transformation of a single organism, this beholding of the whole living being as a more complicated structure, which is already foreshadowed in the individual organs, is what will one day solve the riddle of the living, when it is further developed.

What Goethe applied to the form of plants, and later extended to the form of animals, is here to be used – but elevated to the artistic – for the eurythmic art. From knowledge, Goethe also builds a bridge to skill, to artistic skill. And Goethe has a beautiful saying that should be taken up by every artistic disposition: “When nature begins to reveal her secrets, one longs for her most worthy interpreter, art.” This brings us to true knowledge, which does not live in abstractions but in direct observation, and to artistic creation.

Now we will attempt to extend what Goethe first observed for the purpose of design to human activity. We will carefully study the artistic movements of the larynx and its neighboring organs when speech is produced. It is not the fine vibrations that are transmitted from the human organ to the air and then travel to the hearing organ of the listener that are important, but rather the underlying movement tendencies, on which these vibrations are then, so to speak, threaded. I would like to say that when we look at a long plant stem, such as the false acacia, which forms a long stem to which individual leaflets are attached, we could follow basic tendencies that already make themselves felt in the larynx and its neighboring organs, basic tendencies for the vibrations of speech. These basic tendencies are recognized, if I may use Goethe's word, through sensory-supersensory observation. And just as Goethe imagines the entire plant to be nothing more than a single leaf in a more complicated form, we let the whole person carry out in movement what is otherwise carried out in the region of the larynx and its neighboring organs. So we actually transform phonetic speech, in which the inner movement tendencies are not subject to attention because they are only devoted to the sound, we transform phonetic speech into a visible language: the whole human being – or groups of people too – stand in front of you on the stage and perform the movements that are otherwise performed invisibly when phonetic speech is produced. That which underlies speech as a sub-sensation, I would say, is brought out and imprinted as movement on the human form or on groups of people.

This creates an opportunity to point out something that is currently being felt very vividly by creative artists – at least, one would like to point this out from one corner – namely, that a large proportion of artists today are yearning for new means of expression, new forms of expression. Impressionists, expressionists or whatever these artists call themselves, is how the various paths taken in their art are called. On the one hand, we see how the immediate impression is to be captured, how the impression is to be reproduced. Because people today have actually lost the power to delve into the inner essence of things, as the great artists of earlier epochs were able to do, have lost the ability to create entirely from within, so to speak, what remains is captured in the impression. Or, what is captured through wrong words and so on, which then seems difficult for more philosophical natures to understand, is captured in expressionism. But these are all paths that actually lead to answering the old question of art in a new way: how do you capture impressions artistically without thoughts playing a role in the process? Abstract thoughts are always the ones that kill actual art. Art must proceed without abstract thoughts. Now, here we have the opportunity. In ordinary speech, we do not have the same opportunity, because today the need to communicate has already descended too far into the conventional, into usefulness. And the artist, for example, must try to achieve through what lies beneath language - also a eurythmic element, by the way - that which can satisfy him.

Here in eurythmy, we have the opportunity - apart from the one element that is present in spoken language - to completely switch off the thought and to derive the movement directly from the whole human being, from the will, so that we have something very direct, because the means of expression is made by the human being himself, comes about in the human being himself. Incidentally, it expresses itself because the human being is the instrument of this eurythmic art and what is inherent speaks directly to the senses, as all art must speak to the senses, and everything that is soul-based passes directly into movement, so that here, under all circumstances, a union of the expressionistic with the impressionistic is created. The impression is given by everything speaking to the senses, to the eye, the expression is given by the fact that it is the inner life of the human being that is expressed in these movements. This avoids all pantomime and mere mime, and one arrives at a regularity in the movements that can be compared to the inner connection of the melodious and harmonious element in the music itself. In this way, what you will hear on the one hand as recitation and on the other as music is transposed into this visible language.

Those of you who are present and who have been here before will see that we have made efforts to make some progress recently, particularly in the construction of forms. However, these are things that are still very much in the making. We are our own harshest critics and we know very well how much is still missing in each case. On the whole, it will still be a matter of implementing the dramatic element into the eurythmic. I have been working on this for a long time, but so far no way has been found, while in the lyrical, and in the humorous, it has recently been very successful as a well-executed presentation. To express this in a new way, not only what was in the words, but the real form, that is, what the poet has made of the content, to express that also in the rhythm of the movements, that is our ideal: not to express the direct feeling, as it is also the case with music, not to express that which is a chance connection between gesture and inner soul experience, but something so lawful as it is present in the spoken language itself.

This is some of what I have to say to you about the formation of the art of eurythmy. You will see that in this art of eurythmy, the true artistic quality that has been so sorely lost in our time comes into its own. Our time often looks at the content of a poem, not at the how of the structure, the beat, the rhythm, which is what really matters. I would like to remind you again and again how Schiller, when writing his most significant poems, did not first have the literal content in his soul, but rather a kind of indeterminate melody - no matter which words it should belong to - an inwardly moving music in the soul, and only then did the words arise.

Those who cannot see through to this eurythmic element will not be able to understand the artistic element in poetry either. Recitation must also follow this aspiration, and cannot see its ideal here either, as the literal content is particularly emphasized, muffled and the like, which is currently regarded as the ideal of recitation , but rather that which lies in the how, in the formal elements, in the movement of thoughts and feelings, quite apart from the literal content, which is more of a guide to the artistic aspect and not the artistic aspect itself. This must also be expressed in the recitation. Otherwise it would not be possible to accompany this eurythmic art in reality in the recitation. The art of recitation as it is generally regarded today is something that can no longer be done alongside eurythmy. But precisely through this, the prospect will open up that our inartistic time will return to artistic feeling when one sees that something that can only be understood in the actual artistic sense, like this eurythmy, will also radiate something of the actual artistic element for the sister arts.

Then this eurythmy, this visible speech, has a hygienic element. I do not want to talk about that today because of the shortness of time. Another essential element, however, is the pedagogical-didactic one, which is why we have already introduced eurythmy as a compulsory subject in our Waldorf School in Stuttgart, where it already shows what it is supposed to for those who want to see it.

My dear attendees, of course there is a certain appreciation for gymnastics, which has emerged in more recent times in the development of humanity. But people who see a little deeper - like Spengler - have already expressed their reservations about gymnastics. And for those who are still aware of the prejudices that exist in today's world and who can see something ahead, know that gymnastics, because it is guided by the physiology of the human being, by the physical body, can to some extent also train this physical body, but that what the person of the present time does not have, but what he urgently needs – initiative in the will, initiative in the soul – can only be cultivated by introducing soul-filled gymnastics – eurythmy – alongside the previous gymnastics, which is more physical. Through this soul-filled gymnastics, which is incorporated into didactics and pedagogy, every movement that the child performs as eurythmy is such that it is worked towards engaging the whole person, not just the physical part. This is something that will be taken into account little by little, precisely because initiative of the will, soul initiative of the will, must be striven for alongside physical education, which can only come through gymnastics.

So today, in addition to the artistic side of eurythmy, you will also see something presented by children. This should be seen only as a sample of how eurythmy can work in a pedagogical-didactic way on the child. In all of this, however, I may ask for your forbearance again today, for the reason that it is meant very seriously that we ourselves are the strictest critics of these our beginnings, perhaps of the attempt of our beginnings in our eurythmic art and eurythmic didactics. They will need further training, perhaps even from others, because it takes a long time to develop, like other arts; but then this eurythmic art – anyone who seriously engages with it must have this prospect – will be able to stand in a dignified way alongside its older sister arts, which have had longer to influence people.

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Dear attendees!

I have not chosen these few introductory words to precede our eurythmy because I want to explain what will be seen from the stage later on, but because this eurythmic art attempts to achieve something from particular artistic sources and in a particular artistic formal language.

Eurythmy should be a kind of visible language, a language performed by movements in a single person, by a person in space or by groups of people. But these movements that are performed should not just represent pantomime or mime, especially in relation to what is to be expressed. We will see how the recitation runs parallel to this eurythmy when the content of a word or a poem is to be expressed in the visible language of eurythmy. Musical content can also be expressed in eurythmic forms in the way that it can be expressed through tones.

However, it is not just about expressing content; it is also about ensuring that this eurythmy has been developed from a careful study of the basis of our audible language, our phonetic language. In this phonetic language, it is not just the movements that are carried out by the larynx and other speech organs that are transmitted to the air, so that they then impinge on the organ of hearing as a result of this transmission and thus convey the sound and tone, but rather, movement tendencies come into question. These inner movement tendencies of the larynx and its neighboring organs, when transformed, can be studied as if through sensory-supersensory vision. They can then be transferred from certain individual organs of speech to the whole person: then the whole person performs the same movements that are also performed by the speech organs, but in the speech organs these movements are immediately transformed into air vibrations and thus convey the sound. They are not transformed into vibrations, but proceed in the way that otherwise only the movement tendencies of the speech organs proceed. By placing the whole person or even groups of people on the stage as a living, moving larynx, you see what you would otherwise hear.

This makes it possible to go back to deeper artistic sources in the human being than is possible with mere spoken language, especially since, with a more developed spoken language – and all civilized spoken languages today are already developed – the conventional and the conceptual come into play. We have to infuse our words with that which thoughts have as a thought content or conventional content, which is necessary for people to understand each other. Both are elements that destroy the artistic. In particular, the fact that the content of thought - all thought as such is unartistic - is pushed into the sounds, thereby giving spoken language a particularly unartistic element.

And the poet has to struggle to create art in poetry despite the fact that phonetic language actually goes against the artistic. This is also the reason why in the most difficult art of all, in poetry, everyone believes they are a poet if they can just make verses, while what is essential is to see how, in true the literal is not the main thing at all, but rather that which is formal about poetry, the beat, the rhythm, the musical, entirely pictorial, that which underlies it, not the literal.

But what underlies poetry as a kind of eurythmy is then poured into visibly moving forms when one moves on to eurythmy. In this way one arrives at a kind of language that, in the immediate impression, already strings together images in front of the unspoiled aesthetic sense of the human being who is not prejudiced. Today, however, what appears in eurythmy as a law is not what is important, saying that the individual of the form expresses that, the individual of the movement expresses this, but where it depends on the succession of movements, as the organism also allows the succession of tones to have an effect on it in the musical. It is still often thought today that the human being does not feel what is to be presented in this moving music or speech of eurythmy. But then eurythmy is only at the beginning of its development and will find its way into the general realm of art.

What needs to be considered, however, is that the content of thought is indeed receding and that the content of will, that which is also artistic in poetry, the inward content of the soul, is expressed through that which is moving speech. So that, to a certain extent, in audible speech, when the content of thought is pushed back a little, the means of expression of the artistic formal language in eurythmy, and all the more so the eurythmic, artistic element, that which cannot be produced by mere phonetic speech, comes to the fore. That is one element [of eurythmics], that a visible language is attempted, and this visible language is then treated artistically.

You will see – especially if there are revered spectators and listeners among you who have been here before – how, especially in the last few months, we have worked to suppress the mere pantomime or mime in all of our work – something that can, of course, work with it if you don't want to), and how it is attempted to express precisely that which the poet first expresses in rhythm, in the inner harmonious and melodious connection of the words, to express that in the forms, that is, to take the actual artistic element and not the prose content of a poem.

Today it is difficult to distinguish between the actual artistry and the prose content of a poem, because in recitation, too, one strives to bring forth the content of the poem purely emotionally. But that is not the point. Rather, one can only accompany the eurythmic art in a recitative if one sees perfection in the recitation as emphasizing the underlying melody, harmony, rhythm, meter or imagery of the poetry, not the prose content.

It must be mentioned again and again that Schiller did not first have the prose content in mind's eye when writing his most significant poems, but rather some indeterminate melody, something musical. Only then, when this musical element had worked inwardly in him, did he invest this melodious element with a content that is basically indifferent to what was melodiously produced. Many examples could be given, especially from the great poets, of how to shape the content out of the form.

Therefore, we must also consider finding a form of recitation for this eurythmy that already contains the eurythmic element. Then you will ensure that precisely through this eurythmy, what otherwise – namely in such poems that have already been conceived in eurythmy, such as my sayings, for example, which are already thoroughly predisposed in the imagination in these eurythmic forms from the outset – that precisely there the eurythmic can come out when what is to be achieved is achieved: that in this way, eurythmy, as a matter-of-course means of expression, gives expression better, one might say, than prose words can give expression. That is the artistic side.

Eurythmy also has an important therapeutic and hygienic side, but to discuss this further would take us too far afield. I would like to speak instead about the significant didactic and pedagogical side of eurythmy, which has already been used in the Freie Waldorfschule in Stuttgart, where it has been introduced as a compulsory subject alongside gymnastics. In the future, people will think differently about these things than they do today.

You will find some examples of children's work, but it is all still in its infancy. The world will one day judge thus: physical education is certainly a very fine thing, but it will not be overestimated, physical education, the purely physiological physical education that studies the forms of movement from the physical body. People will know that we can achieve strong muscles, but what can we do to achieve the strength of the soul's initiative? That is what is important and what can be achieved through eurythmy as inspired gymnastics, when not only physiological movements are performed, but soul lives in every movement, as is the case in eurythmy, that is, inspired gymnastics.

Furthermore, it is not only a special kind of art form, but also has a special pedagogical-didactic side that is important for strengthening the will and developing inner initiative in children. Anyone who observes the present time with an alert soul rather than a dormant one will recognize the extent to which we are led to develop the energy of the soul. For this is something that we truly lack and that is fundamentally connected with our social issues in the most acute way.

It is self-evident that what can be offered in one direction or another is still in its very early stages. We are our own harshest critics and I therefore ask you to be lenient with what we have conceived artistically. Eurythmy is still in its infancy, but it will perfect itself, perhaps through us, but more likely through others. And then it will be able to stand as a young art alongside the older arts, which have already become part of people's habits, tastes and prejudices. It will be able to stand as a young art, as a fully fledged young art, alongside its older sister arts.

Saying from the soul calendar (22nd) by Rudolf Steiner
Saying from the soul calendar (23rd) by Rudolf Steiner
“Children's Song“ by Max Schuurman
“Blissful” by Christian Morgenstern
“Cheerfulness” by F. Hiller
“Zwei Segel“ by C. F. Meyer (two children)
“Die Spröde” by J. W. v. Goethe
“Die Bekehrte“ by J. W. v. Goethe
“Andante grazioso” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Saying from the soul calendar (24th) by Rudolf Steiner
“Primal Words, Orphic“ by J. W. v. Goethe with music by Leopold van der Pals
“IV. Primal Instinct” by Fercher von Steinwand
Children's performances: “Pious Hopes” by Graben-Hoffmann; “A Little Story” and “From the Sketchbook” by Christian Morgenstern; “Dance Song” by Jan Stuten
Humorous prelude with music by Jan Stuten
Humoresques by Christian Morgenstern: “Physiognomisches”; “Die Nähe”; “Palmström”; “Das böhmische Dorf”
Satirical prelude by Leopold van der Pals
“Bildhauerisches” by Christian Morgenstern

Dear attendees!

As always before these eurythmy performances, I would like to say a few words in advance. I do this not to explain the performance, which would be inartistic, but to say something about the source - the particular forms of expression that come into play in our eurythmic art. It is, after all, a new attempt. This eurythmy is an attempt to create art through a particular formal language, which is not invented but drawn from human nature, from the human being itself. Eurythmy, as conceived here, is a visible language, performed through movements that the human being produces through his organization, through his limbs, or that individual human beings produce through movements in space or groups of people through movements in space or through mutual relationships.

At first glance, all this could be seen as a collection of gestures, and eurythmy as a whole could be confused with something related to pantomime or facial expressions and the like. But eurythmy is the opposite of all that. If I may use this Goethean expression: in order to bring eurythmy about, it is through sensory-supersensory observation – Goethe often used this expression out of his artistic ethos, out of his artistic out of his artistic outlook, it is through sensuous-supersensuous observation that we try to recognize what inner movement tendencies the human larynx and the other speech organs have within them when the audible speech sound comes about.

What is meant here are not the movements that come about when the human speech organ first moves the air and then these vibrations propagate in space, penetrating the ear and thereby mediating the hearing of sounds, the hearing of the sound. What is meant are not these movements, but rather movements that are observed through sensory-supersensible seeing, or better said, inner movement tendencies. Because the larynx and the other speech organs are directly related to the external air, the movement tendencies are transferred to the external air and speech comes about. But that which lies in speech is, in a sense, the expression of the whole human being. And it is from this insight that eurythmy, as an artistic observation, proceeds. The same movement tendencies are brought forth from the whole human being that otherwise come only from the larynx and the speech organ. The whole human being is set in motion as otherwise only the larynx and its neighboring organs are. But only naturally, when the whole human being is taken into account and set in motion, the movements are not transmitted in the same way silently to the outer air, but they are first transmitted to the human movement organs themselves, to the muscle system. And so it comes about that not an audible but a silent, visible language is created, in which the whole human being can reveal himself in relation to his soul and spiritual life. Therefore, what is expressed in music and what one otherwise hears when a person speaks can be translated into the visible language of eurythmy. One could say that the whole human being becomes a speech organ, becomes a larynx.

What we see on the stage is what we otherwise hear when people speak. We see it when people or groups of people move. But all of this is in accordance with an inner law of the human organism. So we cannot ask: what is the momentary connection between a particular movement and what is recited in a poem that is being read in parallel? Rather, as in music, where one sees the actual artistic element in the continuous stream of the sound structure, one must see the artistic element in eurythmy in the way one movement arises out of another. It is not the content, the prosaic content of the poetry, that should be expressed in this movement, but precisely the artistic element.

Those of you who have seen some of this eurythmy before will have noticed that we have been trying to make progress in this eurythmic art, especially in recent months. You will have seen how we have been trying to get rid of all pantomime and mime – teething troubles in eurythmy, we are still in the early stages of this but these are the kind of problems that arise in eurythmy if it happens at all. All of this can be increasingly stripped away to reveal only what is expressed in the poetry in terms of inner rhythm, inner beat, the formation of thoughts and the like, rather than the prose content. In our so unartistic time, some artistic aspects can now be added again. For it has become fashionable today, for example, in reciting, to simply reproduce the prose content of a poem in a somehow “soulful” or similar way, as it is so beautifully called - in eurythmy recitation today an impossibility. That is what could not accompany the eurythmy. In recitation, the main emphasis must be placed on the actual artistic quality of the poetry. Today, it is the case that 99% of all poems that are written would be better left unwritten, because basically they are just prose set to verse. It is the inner form that the real poet gives to the content of the prose, either musically or plastically, that is what should actually come to the fore in eurythmy, and what must come to the fore above all in the visible language of eurythmy.

Schiller – I always have to remind people of this – had, like other great poets, in mind, in his soul, before he sought the prose content for a poem, an indeterminate melodious form; only then did he seek the prose content. If you go back to certain primeval times of human feeling, you will find everywhere, I would say, a primeval eurythmy. It is not recited as it is recited today, but is often recited in a kind of moving accompaniment. I can still see this primitive eurythmy when the reciter is moving around, although this has increasingly been abandoned in recent decades.

If what we think of as eurythmy really does fit in with the artistic aspirations of the time in the future, then it will help to create a certain upturn in the actual artistic feeling that arises from it. For the more language is cultivated, the more it becomes, on the one hand, the expression of the conventional that prevails in human intercourse, which of course completely excludes the artistic, or it becomes the expression of thoughts, of logically formed thoughts, which in turn excludes the artistic. All intellectualism is, of course, inartistic. In speech based on sounds, however, it is self-evident, and the more cultivated it is, the more the intellectual, the thinking element, and the will and feeling element merge. Thus speech based on sounds is, I would say, only half suited to truly expressing something artistic. Eurythmy leaves out what the thought element is. Everything that is translated into movement comes from the feeling, from the will element, and is translated into will form, into movement. That is why the whole person is expressed in this eurythmic form of movement. What is revealed is, as it were, pushed back into the human being, but in doing so it is also made more artistic in essence. Of course, I do not want to claim that eurythmy is now something that can be seen as a model in the face of the many artistic endeavors that already exist today. We see how the old artistic endeavor is worthy of destruction, and how a new artistic element is truly demanded by the times. But in a certain sense, this eurythmy will be able to have a particularly fruitful effect on this longing, which is present to such a high degree in artistic natures in the present day, especially in the direction that this eurythmy, so to speak, elevates the human being above that which, I would say, is culturally devastating in today's world. We live in a time in which the most important matters of the world are followed by the vast majority of people with a kind of sleeping soul; and in many respects, when we hear about mysticism, theosophy and the like today, we are actually hearing about something that increases the state of sleep that so many revere and that has caused so much catastrophe in recent times. We must consider how eurythmy actually works in this respect.

Let us take the opposite pole of eurythmy, human dreaming. What does it actually consist of? The time of day of the human being, I would say the state of the human organism during the day, is tuned down; the human being lives, while dreaming, only in thoughts. When he performs movements in thought, they are not movements in which his organism participates, but rather movements that are thought. Man can be motionless; he can be in a state separate from external reality, in the dream element. This dream element, which weakens the human will so much, which makes people so sleepy in terms of culture, is precisely what is completely overcome by eurythmy. We no longer have to struggle with anything when it comes to emerging eurythmists, who always want to fall back into all kinds of mystical dreams - even when it comes to the opposite - than with this falling back into any kind of dreamlike states. In eurythmy, it is about the opposite pole. Precisely [gap in the text] the thought life as an element is suppressed, [one] suppresses what predominates in dreams and what lies still in dreams, the moving human being, the human being completely permeated and fired by will, is made an object of art itself.

Precisely for this reason, this eurythmy essentially becomes, in addition to the actual artistic element of eurythmy, which I would like to mention in the second place, an important pedagogical-didactic element in our time. I would like to say: it becomes an element that really belongs in schools - as we have also introduced this eurythmy as a compulsory subject in the Stuttgart Waldorf School.

Times that will think more calmly and objectively about these things than we do will know that while gymnastics is very healthy in terms of the external physical body, the soul is neglected in gymnastics, as it is conceived as arising from the physiological nature of the body. What eurythmy can give to the child – and you will find the test of children's ideas presented in eurythmy today – is that every movement that is carried out is not carried out without soul, is not merely dictated by physiology, but is carried out with soul, that the whole body is in soul-filled movement. But this is something that has an effect on the will, that has an effect above all on that which is a main requirement for education in our present and the near future, without which we cannot make progress in education: the will element, the inner soul initiative, is fostered when this eurythmy is used as a teaching method.

To speak of a third element, the hygienic-therapeutic element, in this eurythmy would be going too far today.

What we can offer will of course have to be taken with a grain of salt in many respects, because we are still at the very beginning with this eurythmic art. It has to be said that we ourselves are our harshest critics. We know how much we still have to learn, but we have tried hard to develop the art, especially in the design of the spatial forms, which are integrated into the poetry. We are trying more and more to enter into the eurythmic element where the attempt to shape poetically, itself already proceeds in the eurythmic, as for example in my 'Wochensprüchen' (weekly verses), where thoughts are indeed at the basis, but not the thought element, as it usually is based on the thought element, but rather where the main thing is the flowing sequence of thoughts through the interweaving of thoughts, the occurrence of a thought at a certain point - where it is not irrelevant whether a thought is in the third or fourth line. This following of the poetic form, of the poetic element in eurythmy — that is where we are trying to go further and further.

But eurythmy is still in its infancy. It will need to be perfected. Whether this can be done by ourselves or — as is more likely — by others, But anyone who has grasped the essence of eurythmy in his or her innermost being will be convinced that one day, when what we can only present today as a first attempt has reached a higher degree of perfection , eurythmy, as a younger sister art, will be able to present itself alongside the older and therefore still more perfect sister arts as a complete art, as the older sister arts were.

Saying from the soul calendar (22nd) by Rudolf Steiner
Saying from the soul calendar (23rd) by Rudolf Steiner
“The Element of Life“ by Friedrich Hebbel
Saying from the soul calendar (24th) by Rudolf Steiner
“Little Dance” by J. $. Bach (children's group with eurythmists)
Saying from the soul calendar (25.) by Rudolf Steiner
“Sommerbild“ by Friedrich Hebbel
Saying from the soul calendar (26.) by Rudolf Steiner
“Scherzo” by Hendrika Hollenbach
Cosmic prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
“V. Urtrieb“ by Fercher von Steinwand
“VI. Urtrieb” by Fercher von Steinwand
“Soldatenliedchen“ (children's group)
From the ‘Vormittags-Skizzenbuch’ by Christian Morgenstern
“Ein Rätsel” by Rudolf Steiner
“Schwalben” by Christian Morgenstern
“Two Roots“ by Christian Morgenstern
Satirical prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
“Northward” and “West-East” by Christian Morgenstern
Prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
The “Magpie” series by Christian Morgenstern

Dear attendees,

As on previous occasions before these eurythmy exercises, I would like to take the liberty of saying a few words in advance today. This is not done with the intention of somehow explaining artistic performances, that would be inartistic - art must speak for itself - but it is done because what is presented here as the eurythmic art is based on certain sources for artistic creation that have not been used in the same way before, and also on a certain formal language that has not been used in art in this way either. The basis of this eurythmy is a kind of visible language, but not a sign language or anything mimetic - anything gestural or mimetic must be avoided here.

Rather, you will see [this language] expressed through the individual human being moving in his limbs – or through the movement of the human being in space or also through the movement of the mutual positions of groups. So you will see movements that are visible linguistic expression in the same way that expression is ordinary language in an audible way. So eurythmy is based on emotional life expressed in a visible language.

What the artist then seeks to shape is, of course, something that is first built on this special language. This special language has not come about in some arbitrary way, through the fixation of this or that movement for the individual sound, for the individual word or for some sentence or some rhythm, or from some other context. Rather, the basis for the eurythmic art has come about through careful study, but on the basis of what Goethe calls sensuous-suprasensuous vision.

Our speech organs – the larynx and the other speech organs – are in constant motion. Everyone knows that they are in motion when we speak, because the sound is simply conveyed through the air by the air being vibrated by the movement of the speech organs. But it is not this movement that is important here, but rather the tendency to move, which in turn underlies this vibratory movement. And this tendency of movement, which can be studied for every sound, for every inflection, and also for that which underlies the expression of speech in the soul, has all been studied and is transmitted from a single organ or a group of organs, such as the larynx and its neighboring organs, to the movements of the whole person.

This is done entirely out of Goethe's world view. Goethe sees the whole plant only as a complicated expression of a single organ, the leaf. This is an expression of Goethe's important theory of metamorphosis, which has not been sufficiently appreciated scientifically by a long way. Just as Goethe's morphology of form thus sees the whole plant as a complicated, developed leaf, so we try, as it were, to place the whole human being on the stage like a modified, moving larynx. And then, in the artistic realm, what has been begun is further transformed. The artistic aspect only really begins when what has been gained through the study of the secrets of human speech is shaped.

Of course, from today's point of view, it is very easy to say: Yes, what movements are performed, that cannot be understood. My dear audience, a new-born child does not understand language either. Language must first be listened to. And for eurythmy this is not as easy as it is for speech. When a person simply abandons themselves to the form of movement on which the art of eurythmy is based, they have an instinctive, intuitive knowledge of it. Every human being has the potential to understand human language; but it must be clear, for example, that poetry first emerges from ordinary spoken language by formally transforming and developing this spoken language in terms of rhythm, rhyme, alliteration and so on. So what can be learned eurythmically as a basic formal language must first be artistically developed. Those of the honored audience who have been here often will notice how we have progressed in recent months in terms of the artistic development of eurythmy. You may have seen how much at that time still recalled facial expressions, ordinary gestures, but how we worked our way out of that, so that little by little there is actually nothing left in what is done in eurythmy but what the poet makes out of the linguistic content. And the further we get at shaping what the poet first makes out of the linguistic content, the more the eurythmic art will develop. The artistic element in eurythmy is to the movement of speech, to visible speech, as poetic language is to language.

The task now is to present a self-contained work of art through the inner laws of eurythmy, just as one creates a musical work of art through the succession of tones or the poetic art through the artistic design of the vocabulary of language. They will become a completely independent art because that is still necessary today, until eurythmy has achieved a certain emancipation, being a completely independent art. However, this may take a very long time, perhaps decades. Today you will still see musical elements presented in parallel, where some soul element is revealed through the sound, through the musical art – and at the same time the same soul element through the eurythmic art – or mainly poetic elements. And here it must be taken into account that when the eurythmic is accompanied by recitation, the recitation itself is forced to return to the earlier, more artistic forms of recitation, which have been more or less lost in our thoroughly unartistic times.

Today, something special can be seen in such recitation, which essentially goes back to the prose of the poem's content and actually takes back what the poet has made from the material of the poem. That is why the poet creates something out of language in rhyme, rhythm, beat and so on. When reciting, this does not have to be taken back by reciting according to the content of prose, according to the pure logic that underlies it. This is considered a sincere, soulful recitation. However, it has become an unartistic recitation. We are therefore trying to shape the art of recitation in a eurythmic way again, namely to give what is already eurythmic in poetic language in recitation as well, to bring out the rhythmic, the pictorial, imaginative, the rhyme and so on. It is precisely in such things that eurythmy, in the wake of which such views must arise, can in turn have a fruitful effect on other artistic endeavors. And that will be of very special importance in our time.

It is already the case, as I have said, that eurythmy is in the early stages of its development. We ourselves are most aware of the mistakes we still make today; but it will perfect itself. Today it must be said that this eurythmic art has, firstly, the artistic on the one hand; on the other hand, however, it has an essentially pedagogical-didactic and hygienic element in it. And in the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, we have introduced eurythmy as a compulsory subject.

One day, when people think about these things more objectively than they do today, they will see that when children are taught eurythmics, they actually add something to ordinary gymnastics that can be called soulful gymnastics, because every movement also comes from the soul. In this way, what is merely physiological gymnastics - that is, something derived only from the physical laws of the human body - is enriched by movements that come from the soul. This has a very strong influence on the whole development of the growing human being. While ordinary gymnastics actually only trains the body, eurythmy - you will also see some examples of children's eurythmy today - has an effect on the child and its development that awakens and appropriately fosters willpower, the soul's initiative. And this is of the greatest possible importance for our time, for the present and the near future, since our age has brought about catastrophic events precisely because people lack awakened souls.

So then, eurythmy has various sides to it: an artistic side, a pedagogical-didactic side. But all this is actually only just beginning today. Hopefully it will be further developed, probably by others, no longer by us. For the one who can really see through the world form language of eurythmy knows what still needs to be done. Then it will be seen that it can stand alongside its older sister arts as a fully justified art. In this sense of a beginning, perhaps also of an attempt at a beginning, I ask you to take up such ideas from the eurythmic art as we want to present to you again today.

Saying from the Calendar of the Soul (24) by Rudolf Steiner
Saying from the Calendar of the Soul (25) by Rudolf Steiner
“Prooemion“ by J. W. v. Goethe
“l. Urtrieb” by Fercher von Steinwand
“Parabasc” by J. W. v. Goethe
“II. Urtrieb“ by Fercher von Steinwand
“Epirrhema” by J. W. v. Goethe
“III. Urtrieb“ by Fercher von Steinwand
“Antepirrhema” by J. W. v. Goethe
“]V. Urtrieb” by Fercher von Steinwand
“The Treasure-Digger” by J. W. v. Goethe
Evoe with music by Max Schuurman
A cheerful prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
Humoresques by Christian Morgenstern: ‘The Lamb Cloud’; ‘The Stations’; ‘The Salm’ with music by Jan Stuten

Dear attendees! We are taking the liberty of showing you another sample of the eurythmic art today. This art is based on certain artistic sources that are to be newly opened and aims to become a kind of new artistic formal language. For this reason, you will allow me, as I usually do before these performances, to send a few words in advance today - not to explain the performance, but rather, artistic things must work through themselves in the immediate impression, but to suggest the formal language and sources from which what is presented to you here as the eurythmic art comes.

The basis of the art of eurythmy is a kind of visible language. The whole human being performs movements in his gestures, or: he performs movements in space or groups of people perform movements in space. All this could be understood as an ordinary, even representational, ordinary art of dance, but it is neither of these, but is based on a careful study of the ordinary language of the human being. This is what is perceived by the human ear. But at its basis lies a certain tendency of the larynx and other speech organs to move. These tendencies of movement are to be understood as what is communicated as a vibrating weaving of the air: It is not something more highly developed than thought, but something more deeply rooted, something that takes place in a seemingly simpler way than the vibrations of the air, but which is expressed through the vibrations of the air when the tone that underlies this movement tendency expresses itself.

We can study what the larynx and speech organs do when a sound is produced, how they behave in a whole word, in a sentence transition, how they behave when certain sound sequences play out, and so on. All this can be studied – allow me to use this Goethean expression – through sensory-supersensory observation. Then, what is otherwise only assessed – that is why I said: movement tendencies – what is otherwise only assessed in the larynx and the other speech organs, is transformed into small vibrations as it develops, and then transferred. And then what language describes, what the human being performs in his movements or in movements in space, or what groups of people perform, that means what can be experienced, can be experienced on the one hand through language, and on the other hand through the visible language of eurythmy. One can express through this eurythmy what musical creation is – you will also see rehearsals today – one can also express what poetic creation is.

But when the recitation, that is, the artistic reproduction of the poetic, accompanies the eurythmy, then, for example, the recitation must take up the eurythmic element. Today, our age is somewhat inartistic, and one does not have the feeling that the real artistry of a poem only begins when the prose-like, the mere content, the literal content of a poem has been overcome. It is never about what the poet says, but how he says it, how he shapes it in meter and rhythm or how he artistically shapes it and is able to give shape to the image through the word. In the case of a poet like Goethe, for example, we can see how his poetic language has a plastic character, how he imaginatively conceived the transformation of the pictorial. In the case of Schiller, we know that before he wrote any poem, he had a kind of melody living in his soul. At first, it was all the same to him what should arise from this melody as a poem – “The Diver” or “The Fight with the Dragon”: He had it living in his soul as a melody, and the other simply lined up in the poem. That is how you can shape with the melodic, with the plastic poem.

All of this comes to light in a proper recitation. In our unartistic age, what is usually brought out is what is appropriate to the prose content, what is literal. What the poet has artistically done with the content is what is actually formally artistic in the recitation. And then what is offered in the poetry also coincides with what is offered in the visible language of eurythmy and in the recitation. You know how to shape this or that sound, this or that word formation and the like, so that something artistic comes about from the whole, and in particular, that the artistic element of the eurythmic performance is properly formed in parallel with the poetry, the artistic formation of a poem. That is a purely artistic activity. And we must distinguish between the elementary nature of the eurythmic language of form and what is artistically revealed in the process. But it is not the case that eurythmy is pantomime, mimicry or mere gesticulation or dance. Rather, everything is such that actually everything lies in the artistic sequence of movement forms, so that the melodious and musical lies in the sequence, in the interaction of the sounds. Likewise, an inner lawfulness in space and in the time of the eurythmy production underlies this.

Those of you who have been here before will have noticed how, over the past few months, we have been working to develop this element of artistic form-giving more and more in eurythmy, and how we are getting closer to capturing in artfully designed forms what the poet has made of the literal content. In this way one can adapt exactly to the humor or tragedy or ballad-like language or whatever characterizes a poem.

So this eurythmy initially offers something artistic. The human being is the instrument for their eurythmic performances. In the most eminent sense, this eurythmy achieves precisely what Goethe had in mind when he said: When man is placed at the summit of nature, he sees himself again as a whole nature, which in turn has to produce a summit. To achieve this, he elevates himself by permeating himself with all perfection and virtue, invoking number, order, harmony and meaning, and finally rising to the production of the work of art. We should bear in mind that the visible and invisible worlds converge in his being, that all the forces at work in the visible and invisible are reflected in him in some way, are formed in him in miniature. And when the human being makes himself an instrument of artistic expression through his organism, what is particularly expressed is what then strives in the human being's soul towards movement. Eurythmy is an art that, when it arises directly and immediately, truly works out of the movements of the human being.

That is the artistic side of eurythmy. On the other hand, there is something about eurythmy that – quite apart from many other things – can be addressed as a therapeutic-hygienic element, but which I do not want to talk about now. But another element of eurythmy is the pedagogical-didactic element that it contains. At our Freie Waldorfschule in Stuttgart, which was founded by Emil Molt and is run by myself, we have introduced eurythmy as a compulsory subject alongside gymnastics.

One will only appreciate eurythmy as a compulsory subject once one has overcome certain prejudices – which, from my point of view, I do not want to fight so much – regarding gymnastics. Gymnastics is purely physical. One may have one's own opinion about the movements that the physiologist derives from the physical make-up of the human being. I do not want to dispute them here, but it is nevertheless the case that ordinary gymnastics only has a physiological meaning for the harmonization of the physical body of man. Although I do not want to go as far as a naturalist who listened to my introductory words in this regard and who said: He would not even appreciate gymnastics as much as I do. He would not consider it to be something physiologically effective, but simply a barbarism. But the present, dear honored attendees, will object to that, especially if one has to evoke some hostility because of the other branches of one's activity, one would not want to go straight to such sentiments.

But this is what must be particularly emphasized, regardless of whether gymnastics merely trains the human body physiologically or whether it is also a barbarism: the powers of the soul, the initiative of the will, are in any case – and I emphasize this particularly – is trained in children through eurythmy, when the child, through this compulsory subject, becomes so immersed in these eurythmic movements, when they are performed in the right way, as a young child would otherwise naturally become immersed in spoken language. Eurythmy awakens activity in the human soul, so that the drowsiness in which the souls find themselves can be overcome. Otherwise it would get more and more out of hand in the most terrible way. If you imagine, let us say, the next generation, you have to admit that you can only get beyond these things by at least adding this soul-filled gymnastics to the usual external soulless gymnastics, in eurythmy.

Everything in eurythmy is still in its infancy, but you can be quite sure that we are our own harshest critics. We know what we lack and we are constantly striving to make more and more progress in this respect. I have often mentioned that we have made good progress, for example, in shaping the large forms. We will show you these large forms today in a Fercher poem, “Choir of Primordial Instincts”, which is being performed today and which really moves in a strange cosmic directing force, in that it - Fercher von Steinwand - poetically shapes you. When you see this 'Urtrieb' choir, you will perhaps notice how we have tried and are still trying to make good progress again and again. Over time, the art of eurythmy will be perfected more and more, either by ourselves or probably by others, so that it can establish itself as a fully-fledged newer art alongside the older fully-fledged arts.

All the eurythmy performances from October 2 to 17, 1920, took place as part of the First College Course at the Goetheanum. As stated in the program, this course consisted of numerous lectures, primarily on the “scientific conscience of the present” through “demonstrations of positive spiritual scientific knowledge” in many fields. The aim was to show how the “reconciliation of science, art and religion” could be possible. The performances took place in the provisional hall of the carpentry workshop - with the exception of the opening ceremony on September 26, 1920, which was the first event at the Goetheanum itself.

Program for the performance in Dornach, October 2 and 3, 1920.

The “Fairytale of the Spring Miracle” was performed only on October 2, 1920.

“The Fairy Tale of the Spring Miracle” by R. Steiner from The Testing of the Soul, with music by Leopold van der Pals
“The Treasure Digger“ by J. W. v. Goethe
EVOE (Eurythmy without Words) with music by Max Schuurman
“To the Cicada” by J. W. v. Goethe
A saying from the Calendar of the Soul (26th) by Rudolf Steiner
“Children's Song“ by Max Schuurman
A saying from the Calendar of the Soul (27th) by Rudolf Steiner
“Little Dance” by J. S. Bach
“Hymn to Nature” by J. W. v. Goethe
Satirical Prelude with music by Leopold van der Pals
“Explanation of an Antique Gem“ by J. W. v. Goethe
From the ‘West-östlichen Divan’ by J. W. v. Goethe
“Korfs Uhr” by Christian Morgenstern
“Palmströms Uhr” by Christian Morgenstern
“Den Originalen“ by J. W. v. Goethe
“Séance” by J. W. v. Goethe

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen.

Allow me to say a few words in advance of our attempts at a eurythmic presentation. This is not done for the sake of explaining the presentation. That would be an inartistic beginning, because everything artistic must work through itself and must make its impression in immediacy. But since the aim here is to inaugurate an artistic movement that comes from special artistic sources that have not actually been tapped into until today and, on the other hand, draws on a special artistic formal language, some of these two, of the sources, of the special formal language, may be sent ahead of the experiment.

What you will see on the stage, ladies and gentlemen, will be an artistic performance using a non-verbal language that speaks through movement. The human body, through its limbs, is in relation to the individual or groups of people, in movements that express a non-verbal language. It is not a facial expression or a gesticulation that becomes the individual expression of the soul; nor is the individual emotional state expressed through an arbitrary gesture or facial expression. Rather, what you will see in the movements of the individual human being or groups of people is something that has been drawn from the human organization itself, and specifically through a process that I would call — borrowing a Goethean expression — a sensory-supersensory seeing.

When we communicate with one another or express our soul life, we use the speech sound language. This speech sound language has as its tools the larynx and the other speech organs. What initially demands our attention is the sound that is produced by the larynx and its neighboring organs. But one can also discern through sensory-supersensory observation the movement tendencies that are present in the larynx and its neighboring organs when a sound is formed. And one has to distinguish between what is conceived as a tendency to move and the actual movements, the vibrational movements that the air carries out and which, by being carried out, mediate between the speaker and the listener. It is not these movements that are initially thought, but the tendencies towards these movements, which are not even noticed in ordinary speech. These tendencies of movement, which, as I said, can be studied through sensory-supersensory observation, can be transferred to the human being as a whole; I would say: they can be transferred according to the principle of Goethe's metamorphosis teaching. This Goethean theory of metamorphosis is something that is still far from being recognized in its deep essence, but which, once it is recognized in its depth, will shine deeply into the laws of life, of the origin of life, of becoming alive, and so on. To put it in the simplest terms, Goethe says: the whole plant is basically nothing more than a complicated leaf. And every single leaf is a whole plant, only simply and primitively executed. According to the idea, the individual leaf is a whole plant, and according to the external physical, sensory reality, a concrete manifestation of the individual leaf is the whole plant.

If we study what Goethe applied to the formation of living things – he also extended it to the formation of animals – if we really study it through sensory and supersensory observation in the human being itself and then transfer it into artistic sensation, if we translate what we have heard in the dormant form of Goethe into then one can transfer that which a single organ – corresponding to the leaf of Goethe's Metamorphosis – that which a single organ or a group of organs – the larynx and its neighboring organs – expresses, one can transfer it to movements of the limbs of the whole human being or to movements of groups of people. And in this way one can create a soundless language that is just as inwardly lawful as the sounding language.

It is this language that eurythmy makes use of. This language presents the whole human being or groups of people as a kind of ensouled larynx or other speech organs. And just as one can feel the meaning of what is spoken through language without thinking about it in detail, one can also become aware of what speaks from this soundless language in an immediate aesthetic sense. And just as sounding language can be processed and artistically shaped, so too can this moving language be artistically shaped. And in this way one acquires a very special ability in artistic expression. For one may say: the more civilized our speech becomes, the less artistic it actually becomes. And a time that will feel more artistic than ours will see how a civilized language is actually less and less suitable as a means of expression for poetic representation. For on the one hand, language is developing in such a way that it becomes an expression of thought. But where the thought emerges, there, in essence, the direct artistic feeling ceases. All that lives in our expressions, in our revelations as a direct thought, is actually inartistic. The artistic must work in direct impression, must take hold only of the senses at the very foundation.

In ordinary speech, thought and everything that comes from the whole human being as a volitional impulse flow together. It is as if thought and volitional impulses are in harmony, and this is what is revealed in speech.

By now moving down into the whole human body, by letting it move that which is otherwise expressed in sounding language, we can achieve that the actual revelation, the linguistic, is moved down after the will element. In a sense, thought is excluded. The human being's soul-spiritual comes to direct perception through movement. By stripping away what is attached to language as a means of expressing thoughts and makes it unstructured (?), or what is attached to it, since educated language is becoming more and more conventional, one goes back to a primal element of the artistic precisely in the form of eurythmic expression.

Of course, what is first eurythmized is not yet artistic. But it is possible, through the qualities that I have just emphasized, to express the artistic in a very special way through eurythmy - including the poetic and the musical. And so, in parallel with what you will see on stage through soundless speech, you will hear the recitation or you will hear music. Basically, what is expressed in recitation is just another form, another manifestation of the same thing that is expressed in our eurythmy; so that we have the recitation accompanying the eurythmy, and on the other hand we have music. In the same way that music is a lawful progression of tones and it is in the lawful connections between tones that the true artistry lies, so it is in the succession of movements in eurythmy.

One can see that in a sense eurhythmy goes back to the original elements of artistry when one realizes that eurhythmy cannot be recited in the unformed way of today's recitation. Here, too, one must go back to the eurhythmic in poetry. For basically only that which lives beyond the content of prose, that which lives beyond the literal, is truly artistic. Again and again we must point out that basically the art of poetry is only an art to the extent that what is presented is related to music on the one hand or pictorial sculpture on the other. Schiller, before he developed any kind of poetry – at least in the case of his most important poetry, one can say – had an indeterminate melody living in his soul. And he could just as easily have added the prose content, the content in general, of either poem to this melody.

Here we have the musical element that comes to expression in poetry and that we can bring out through eurythmy. On the other hand, with a poet like Goethe we always have the pictorial element, which is also pictorially represented in language. This is what is actually artistic. The recitation that goes hand in hand with eurythmy must go back to this artistic element, to that which has little to do with the content but everything to do with the artistic presentation. Therefore, we must overcome what is currently considered to be the most meaningful aspect of recitation: One wants, so to speak, to find means of expression for the content. One is not aware that in doing so one actually goes beyond the artistic, that one actually turns the poem into a piece of prose. Whereas it is precisely in the movement of the sound, in the movement of the thought, that which constitutes the actual artistic element of poetry. And so we can hope that through eurythmy our largely unartistic age can be led back to something artistic.

That is one thing. That is the artistic aspect of our eurythmic endeavors. The other is a hygienic-therapeutic side. I will not speak of this here. And the third is a didactic-pedagogical element. You will see our children's eurythmy again, and you will see how easily children find their way into eurythmic performances. One can say that this eurythmy is a soul-filled form of gymnastics for the child. Certainly, future times will think more objectively about this than we do today. I certainly do not want to go as far as a well-known modern physiologist recently went, who said to me here in this hall after a eurythmy performance that gymnastics is actually not an educational tool but a barbarism. As I said, I do not want to go that far, but I do want to at least point out that ordinary gymnastics, however much it has been emphasized in a materialistic age, is only about the physical development of the body according to physiological laws.

Of course, gymnastics has its good sides and is very useful; but for the child, when it has to put soul into every movement, when no movement is performed other than that the child connects meaning and soul with it, something very special comes into education, into teaching, through soulful gymnastics, through children's eurythmy. It brings in what I believe our time, our sleepy time, particularly needs: soul initiative, will initiative. We will see that when eurythmy is taken up on a broader scale in education - as we have done at the Stuttgart Waldorf School, where eurythmy is a compulsory subject - it can help to instill in people precisely what they need so urgently if a more active age than ours is to arise for the next generation: initiative of the soul.

I only wanted to say a few words about what our eurythmy actually aspires to be. We have been striving for some time to make this eurythmy more and more perfect. Nevertheless, I would like to emphasize that for the time being we are only dealing with a beginning, perhaps even with an attempt at a beginning. We ourselves are the strictest critics of what we can find in this direction today. But those who have been there often and have seen how we strive, especially in the formation of the eurythmic, to achieve that we give the style and artistic execution of the poem, that we learn more and more to overcome pantomime and all mimicry and to see the essential in moving music. Those who have been here often will also notice how we endeavor to distinguish the humorous and the comical from the serious, how we endeavor to enter into the inner rhythm of thought, which you will see in the first piece here, into the artistic shaping of the thought. In the poetic arts today, people cannot even distinguish the rhythm of the thought from the content of the thought. Anyone who notices all this will say to themselves, if they come here often, how we try to progress with our eurythmy.

Nevertheless, I ask for your forbearance, because we know we are at the beginning. But we also carry within us the conviction that if we continue with this eurythmic art in the same spirit in which we have begun, it will become ever more perfect. And it will - probably no longer through us, but through others - one day become something that can stand as a fully-fledged art form alongside the other, older, legitimate art forms.

[Dear attendees!]

Allow me to say a few words to introduce this attempt at a eurythmy performance. I am not doing this to explain the artistic aspect of the performance, which would be an inartistic undertaking in itself. Art must make an immediate impression and be understood in the immediate sensation; otherwise it would not be true art. But what is being attempted here as eurythmic art comes from very special artistic sources and is presented in a special artistic formal language. I would like to say a few words about this source and this special artistic formal language.

We are dealing with a kind of soundless language in eurythmy, a language that comes about through movements that an individual performs with their limbs or in some other way, or that groups of people perform through their movements or changes in their mutual relationships in space and the like. What comes about in this way should not be pantomime or mimicry, but it is important that it is based on the same organic law as the human tonal language as such. What is presented here is not acquired by bringing together some feeling or thought or the like – emotions, for example – with a gesture or something similar through a momentary connection, but it is also this art in the sense of Goetheanism, that is, Goethe's artistic view. And Goethean artistic sentiment is expressed through a kind of visual, sensory-supersensory seeing. This is a mode of expression in Goethe's Theory of Colors that he uses.

Through a kind of sensual-supernatural seeing, one can actually see what kind of movement tendencies are present in the larynx and the other speech organs when the sound language is heard. In the ordinary listening, one is busy turning one's attention to the sound. One does not notice this because one does not have the underlying organ that is based on something moving in the whole organism. One understands what is meant here if one starts, for example, from Goethe's theory of metamorphosis, this theory of metamorphosis, which will only be properly appreciated in the future for knowledge and for life as a whole. Goethe sees in the whole plant only a more complicated leaf and in the individual leaf only a primitive whole plant. Goethe applies this in his morphology in order to understand the living in its becoming, in its weaving. If one transfers this to artistic feeling, artistic creation and if one comes to understand through sensual-supernatural contemplation: what movements the larynx and the other speech organs actually want to carry out? [gap in the text] they only pause so that it is not these movements that are expressed, but rather the transformation of these movements into the fine vibrations of the air, which are then conveyed by hearing. So in ordinary hearing, only a tendency of the speech organs to move comes about - which is immediately transformed into air vibrations.

We will now try to explore this tendency of movement of the speech organs through sensory-suprasensory observation, and then transfer it to the whole human being. In this way, you will basically have a living, moving larynx or living, moving speech organs in front of you in the people or groups of people here on the stage: you will see what is being spoken.

At the same time, there is recitation or musical performance. For basically it is necessary that what is presented in the eurythmic art is also presented in another way, which brings language to revelation in musical form or in speaking, in recitation and declamation. This can be illustrated here, that the recitation practised today, the art of declamation practised today is definitely on the wrong track. It does not really take into account what arises in true poetry from the prose content. Today, we live more or less in an unartistic time, and so we do not always know in the deepest sense how poetry arises through eurythmy, which is brought into the prose content of what is presented in poetry. We must always remind ourselves, for example, of how Schiller first had an indeterminate melody in his soul. He was then able to create one poem or another according to this indeterminate melody. The literal content was not important at all, at least not in essence. This can also be seen in what Schiller then presented as his aesthetics.

What the recitation must now strive for here is to also feel the musicality in the poetic form and likewise the pictorial, the plastic. For language only becomes truly poetic through the differentiation of images, through the poetic and through the details of the musical. What is important here is not the content of what is being expressed, but how it is shaped. Thus, the recitation must accompany the eurythmically presented in such a way. And the eurythmically presented itself will be all the more perfect the less it approaches the content of prose, pantomime, and so on.

Those of our honored audience who have visited Dornach often and have watched our attempts over time will see that we have continued to make progress by overcoming more and more of what was initially there as an imperfection in pantomime and in mime. The same applies to music. We can reveal in the succession of movements, in the inner harmony and disharmony, I would even say in the theme of the movements, what the poet also wants to express by shaping language artistically. And so we can express serious things in a corresponding eurythmic style, and we can also express humorous things. I am working on gradually extending eurythmy to include drama. So far, we can only present the drama of the appearance of the ghosts in “Faust” or of some other sensually or supersensually conceived figures in “Faust”. We can only present the drama that rises into the supersensible. What is being attempted in this area is not yet complete; but a very serious attempt is being made to find a eurythmic form for the purely dramatic. These things take time. They need to be studied in depth through sensory and supersensory observation.

However, this will testify to the fact that, as I have said, a thoroughly solid presentation is being sought for what we call eurythmy here. And the more we gradually bring out all pantomime, all mimicry, all mere gesturing, all mere dancing, the more we approach the ideal that we actually want. That is something about the art of eurythmy.

But this eurythmy has another side. It has a significant therapeutic-hygienic side. I will not talk about that here. But please allow me to say a few words about the pedagogical-didactic side, which you will also see, since children are also performing. We have made eurythmy an obligatory subject at the Waldorf School in Stuttgart. Now, I certainly do not want to go as far as a famous physiologist who was here recently and who also watched such a eurythmic performance, heard my introductory words about eurythmy. And as he told me afterwards, from his physiological point of view, gymnastics is not an educational tool at all, but a barbarism. So I don't want to go that far. I can only say that if we think more objectively about this, gymnastics will be judged differently in the future than it is today. Gymnastics has great value in relation to what the human body is and can be understood physiologically.

But there is something else that goes beyond this. This is what we must also strive for in education: the will initiative, the impulsivity of the whole soul. For this is precisely what today's humanity lacks, and what the next generation in particular needs to receive. After a year of teaching at the Waldorf School, it can already be said that eurythmy has become a powerful factor in teaching, that it has formed a subject, as can already be seen from the way the children engage with into eurythmy, how the children are present, how they take part in what it means to perform soul-filled movement, where soul is truly in every movement, where the body moves in such a way that the child follows the movements with the soul. We can already see from what has been achieved in a year of lessons what else can be achieved and can be achieved through soul-inspired gymnastics. So, in addition to being an art form, eurythmy is soul-inspired gymnastics.

We will therefore endeavor to always give not only the purely artistic but also performances that are given by children. Somehow, through the child's organism, the eurythmic is presented in a very strange, childlike-genius conception.

On the whole, we still ask for forbearance. We are our own harshest critics, we know where the mistakes still lie. But everything is in its infancy. And such a beginning has to be made in all things at some point in the development of humanity. And so I ask you to see the performance as an experiment, or perhaps even just as the intention to experiment. But at the same time we are convinced that what is intended in eurythmy will one day be perfected – perhaps by us, or probably by others. And then this eurythmy, which uses the whole human being as a tool – that is, which basically uses the microcosm itself as a tool and needs it as a means of expression – will become an art in its own right, one that can stand alongside its older sister arts as a fully legitimate one.

The question was raised as to the causes of speech disorders (stammering) and how to treat them.

But then, little by little, we shall also recognize what a significant remedy we have in eurythmy for such and similar defects in the human organism. This eurythmy can, I would say, be pursued in two directions. One is the one I always draw attention to in the introductions I give to the performances. There I show how, through sensory-supersensory observation of today's human being, the speech organism becomes conscious with its movement tendencies, which are then transferred to the whole human organism.

But the reverse path is also important. You see, in what Dr. Treichler has presented to you so well today from a different point of view: in the development of speech, a primeval eurythmy of human beings undoubtedly and certainly plays a very significant role. Things do not have the sound within them, as it were, in the sense that the bim-bam theory asserts, but there is a relationship between all things, between the whole macrocosm and the human organization, this microcosm, and basically everything that happens externally in the world can also be reproduced in a certain way in movement by the human organization in a gestural way. And so, basically, we constantly tend to recreate all phenomena through our own organism. We do this not only with the physical organism, but also with the etheric organism. The etheric organism is in a state of perpetual eurythmy.

The original human being was much more mobile than the human being of today. You know, this development from mobility to stillness is still reflected in the fact that in certain circles it is considered a sign of education to behave as phlegmatically as possible when speaking, with as few gestures as possible to accompany one's speech. Certain speakers are said to always keep their hands in their trouser pockets so as not to make any gestures with their arms, because standing still like a block is considered an expression of particularly good speech delivery. But what is caricatured here only corresponds to humanity's progress from mobility to rest.

And we have to recognize a transition from a gestural language, from a kind of eurythmy to speech sounds, at the very basis of human development in primeval times. That which has come to rest in the organism has specialized in the speech organs, and of course the speech organs have actually developed first: Just as the eye is formed by light, so is the speech organ formed by an initially soundless language. And if we know all these connections, then, little by little, we will be able to use eurythmy very well to counteract anything that could interfere with speech.

And in this direction, if there is even a little leisure time, it will be a very attractive task to develop our current, more artistic and pedagogically trained eurythmy more and more to develop a kind of eurythmy therapy that will then extend in particular to such therapeutic demands as the one we have been talking about here. I don't know if what I have said is already exhaustive, but I just wanted to say a few words about it.

Of course, the more questions that accumulate in the same progression, the more the detail of the answers will have to be reduced.

Question: There is a question here about how the movement of eurythmy is related to the ether body, whether it has the same form as the body in spiritual scientific research. Is the etheric body localized in the larynx? Did the Hungarians, who were recently observed by Dr. Steiner playing cards in a Hungarian border town, themselves fall under the tables, or only their etheric bodies? Was this a process that could only be observed in the etheric body?

Rudolf Steiner: Please understand me correctly: eurythmy is such that it can be performed in the physical body and through the physical body, which today only the etheric body of the human being performs. The fact that a person as a eurythmist performs the movements studied in the ether body with his physical body does not mean that the person who is standing there doing eurythmy, when he has just, I mean any abominable thought, does not perform this abominable thought with his ether body. He can therefore perform the most beautiful movements with his outer physical body, and then the etheric body, following his emotions, may dance in a rather caricature-like manner.

But the people I characterized as playing cards on the Hungarian border were, of course, only characterized by me in terms of their physical behavior. I only said that one could study the passions within them that led them to carry out such things above and below the table and then to scratch and tear each other apart, that one could study this passion in a spiritual-mental way.

I would like to add the following: it is generally the case, when you look at a person at rest, that the etheric body, which is somewhat larger than the physical body, is calm. But this is only achieved because, schematically speaking, the physical body has a dilating effect on the etheric body of the human being in all directions. The etheric body, if it were not held in its form by the physical body, if it were not banished from the physical body, would be a very mobile being. The etheric body has the inherent possibility of moving in all directions, and in addition, in the waking state, it is under the constant influence of the mobile astral, which now follows all soul activity.

So the etheric body itself is something completely mobile. And as a painter, for example, you have the difficulty when you want to paint something ethereal that you have to paint, I would say, as if you could paint lightning. You have to translate the movement into rest. So in the moment when you step out of the physical world, in that moment, distance is also given to the concept. And all these things, which actually only relate to stationary space, all of that ceases, and a completely different kind of imagining begins. A form of imagining begins that can actually only be characterized by saying that it relates to the ordinary imagining of spatial things as a suction effect relates to a pressure effect. You are drawn into the matter instead of touching it, and so on, and so on. Such is the relationship between the etheric body and the physical body.