The Rudolf Steiner Archive

18. Healing Eurhythmia

[ 1 ] Within the field of our therapy, the so-called "healing eurhythmy" also plays a special role.

[ 2 ] It emerged from anthroposophy through Dr. Rudolf Steiner, initially as a new art.

[ 3 ] It has often been described in its essence as a eurhythmic art by Dr. Steiner and has already found wide distribution as an art.

[ 4 ] It places itself on the stage in the moving human being, but is not an art of dance. This is already evident from the fact that the arms and hands of the human being are primarily in motion. Groups of people in motion elevate the whole to an artistic stage setting in itself.

[ 5 ] All movements are based on the inner essence of the human organization. Language flows from this in the first years of human life. Just as the sound in language emerges from the constitution of the human being, so movements can be extracted from the human being and from the human groups when this constitution is truly recognized, which are a real visible language or a visible song. There is as little that is arbitrary in the movements as in the language itself. Just as a 0 cannot be intoned in a word where a 1 belongs, so in the eurhythmic only a clear moving gesture can appear for an I or a C#. Eurhythmy is thus a real revelation of human nature, which does not develop unconsciously from it like language or singing, but which can be consciously developed through real human cognition.

[ 6] In the performance one has the moving human being or groups of human beings on the stage. The poetry, which is now translated into visible language, is recited at the same time. You hear the content of the poetry and see it with your eyes at the same time. Or a musical performance is offered, which reappears in the moving gestures as visible singing.

[ 7 ] There is a moving sculpture in eurhythmy that considerably expands the field of the artistic.

[ 8 ] What has been found there in an artistic way can now be developed in two other directions. One of these sides is pedagogical. In the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, which was founded by Emil Molt and is under the direction of Rudolf Steiner, pedagogical eurhythmics is practiced alongside gymnastics in all classes. It should be noted that in ordinary gymnastics only the dynamics and statics of the physical body are developed. In eurhythmics, the whole person, body, soul and spirit, flows out in movement. The growing person feels this and experiences these eurhythmic exercises with the same naturalness as an expression of human nature as he experiences learning to speak at a younger age.

[ 9 ] The other side is therapeutic. If the movement gestures of artistic and pedagogical eurhythmy are modified so that they flow from the sick being of the human being in the same way as the others flow from the healthy being, healing eurhythmy is created. Movements carried out in this way have an effect on the diseased organs. You can see how what is performed externally is continued in a healing way into the organs when the moving gesture is precisely adapted to an organ disease. Because this way of working on the human being through movement affects body, soul and spirit, it has a more intensive effect on the inside of the sick person than any other movement therapy.

[ 10 ] However, healing eurhythmy can never become a layman's matter and must not be regarded or treated as such.

[ 11 ] The curative eurhythmist, who must be well trained in the knowledge of the human organization, can only act in conjunction with the physician. All dabbling around can only lead to evil.

[ 12 ] Healing rhythms can only be carried out on the basis of a proper diagnosis. The practical successes of healing eurhythmy are such that it can certainly be considered a beneficial element of our therapeutic approach described here.