Eurythmy West Midlands Performances

We were delighted to bring eurythmy performers, Eurythmy West Midlands Young Stage Group, to Cardiff Steiner School as part of their UK tour, for three very special performances. Eurythmy West Midlands perform and tour programmes for schools, children and adults, bringing eurythmy to life through dramatic story-telling and movement.

Our younger children enjoyed ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Rumpelstiltskin’, followed by a performance-piece of live movement, poetry and humorous sketches for older pupils.

Adults enjoyed a mesmerising evening programme ‘Listen to the Wind’ – an evolving tapestry of sound, colour and movement. Seven young, international eurythmy performers, two musicians (cello and piano) and one narrator led us through a range of human experiences and moods, with a good dose of humour. Weaving through the programme was a range of live music including Janacek’s ‘Fairytale’ for Cello and Piano, revelatory works by Kathleen Raine, Zoltán Ko-dály, Debussy, William Blake and more.

What is Eurythmy?…Seeing what you Hear

Eurythmy is an expressive movement art originated by Rudolf Steiner and Marie Von Sivers. ‘Eurythmy’ in ancient Greek means ’beautiful, harmonious, rhythmic movement’.

Eurythmy takes its start from the actual sounds of language and music – the vowels and consonants, the pitch, rhythm and beat. It turns these sounds into visible movements and gestures, sometimes referred to as ‘visible sound’. For example the sound of ‘Ah’ is formed by raising your arms over your head in a v-shape, designed to show the open quality of that sound so that we may simultaneously experience it physically. The qualities unique to a ‘P’ or an ‘Oh’, for instance; the musical tone of an E flat or the interval of a seventh – these the eurythmist visibly ‘sculpts’ and ‘sings’ in space.

Moods and colours are also conveyed through movement and gesture. Other definitive qualities are the strong engagement of performers with the space around and between them, and the performers’ orientation towards the audience.

Through movement and gesture, performance eurythmy reveals the heart and structure of poems, prose and musical compositions performed live. By translating the sounds and structures of poetry and music into movement, eurythmy reveals to your eyes what your ears deeply perceive, in a sensory fusion of sound and vision.

Educational eurythmy is a subject taught in many Steiner Schools and evening classes world-wide.