All-Inclusive Eurythmy

Truus Geraets^*
Eurythmy Therapist, Driebergen, Netherlands

Received Date: 05 July, 2019; Accepted Date: 08 July, 2019; Published Date: 16 July, 2019
^*Corresponding author: Truus Geraets, Eurythmy Therapist, Driebergen, Netherlands. Tel: +310618229996;
Email: truus.geraets@gmail.com

Citation: Geraets T (2019) All-Inclusive Eurythmy. Cu Tr Ca Al Me: CTCAM-116.

      EURYTHMY, inaugurated in 1903 by Rudolf Steiner (founder of Anthroposophy), brought new enlivening aspects onto the existing scene of Dance and Movement, in short: A NEW ART FORM.

      From the initial beginnings, mainly in Europe, there are now training centers on most of the continents. The basic training is four years. With additional coaching or training students can

• Join a stage group.
• Become a Eurythmy Teacher in any of the Waldorf schools worldwide.
• Work in Centers for People with Special Abilities.
• Are hired to bring Eurythmy to the Work Force in factories and businesses.
• With much more training of at least three years, choose to be Eurythmy Therapists.

      Truus Geraets has engaged herself in all these different fields on several continents after she finished in 1960 her Eurythmy and Eurythmy Therapy training at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland.

      After working some 20 years in the extended field of Eurythmy she put together her experiences in The Healing Power of Eurythmy, also now in Mandarin. She wanted to make this available to parents, teachers and those not necessarily already in the profession.

      The titles of the chapters pay homage to this wide variety of possibilities to find or create a profession in the realms of Eurythmy and Eurythmy Therapy, such as “on Being a Healer, The Social Element of Eurythymy, On Courage, Principles of Therapeutic Eurythmy, Work with Handicapped Children and Adults, Emotional Disturbances/ Counseling, Eurythmy with Prisoners, Eurythmy with the Elderly. Because of her engagement in all these fields she is able to give lively examples of how Eurythmy, in all its Inclusiveness, brought positive results.

      This broader aspect is already apparent in the original name given to this art form, namely Eurythmy which simply means Good (Eu-) R (h) ythm.

      The rhythmical organization is located in the middle, holding a balance between the activity of the will through the limbs and the quiet space of the head, as the space for reflection, the general nerve-sense pole.

      Especially in the work with children, mostly those between seven and twelve, I saw that they needed help to find the balance again out of the middle realm. In general, rhythm is the foundation for both artistic and therapeutic Eurythmy. Other therapies can help here too, like water color painting wet on wet, starting to feel rhythms in singing and playing music. In my sessions with children I often use music through my singing voice. Some of this can be seen from the Video, accompanying my book “Music that Moves Me”. The aim is to bring them to enjoy the full expression of their rhythmical capabilities.

      The essence in any meeting with another human being –be it an adult or a child- lies in the recognition of the intrinsic value of the other person. Children sometimes complain that “they were never seen”. Interesting is the greeting in Zulu when two people meet, namely Sawubona, meaning “We See You”. Not just I see you, no in such a greeting the interconnectedness of a whole group of people, we all are included in we see you.

      One can see a danger here of getting too personal, of possibly too much subjectivity. One must therefore become acquainted with the other pole of Eurythmy, namely its direct connection to the world of the Stars, the Planets, and the Zodiac. In once saw in a commercial bank a calendar, depicting the connections of the Zodiac to all the parts of the body. This, obviously, is old wisdom. Not included there but equally essential are the links of the Planets to the internal organs as well as to the emotional life, in short to the middle realm of heart and lungs.

      The awareness of the extension of one’s insight up to the starry worlds is needed to hold the balance to what could, possibly, become too subjective in direct encounters.

      My book includes 26 full page drawings (by Truus Geraets) to express once more the greater reality of the sounds of the alphabet. Even though they seem so different from each other, the one element they have in common, is the lively interacting of the two poles: contraction and expansion.

     It must be clear by now that our idea of language is so much more than just the spoken or the written word. Walt Whitman writes in his poem ‘A Song of the Rolling Earth and of Words According’ about audible words and inaudible words. “The masters know the earth’s words and use them more than audible words.”

      I was present at the second international Conference on Eurythmy Therapy at the Goetheanum in Switzerland when a doctor/ musician/ Eurythmist showed us the powerful effect of the spoken word by tapping –electronically- on a vein in the man’s hip, showing us the reaction of the blood. The effect could be seen both as projected figures on the wall as well as of sounding music in space when the person on the massage table spoke only one sound at a time like a P or an L, or also  when speaking a vowel, like an Ah or an U.

     In this article I want to stress the All Inclusiveness of Eurythmy, be it executed as performances in big theatres, to be taught to children in schools, or as Eurythmy Therapy, a healing mode in individual sessions.

      A ‘patient’ first needs to get the opportunity to express him or herself in words (the usual way of communication). After that it is important that ‘the client’ takes something tangible home to work with: specific exercises dealing with their specific medical needs or a healing thought to meditate on. It is very different from taking a substance in form of tablets, injections, etc. Here people become actively in charge of their own healing.

      Treatments can, therefore, not be a one-off visit, but –depending on the familiarity of the person with Eurythmy – may take many weeks and maybe months. I always suggest to people that they –whenever possible- join a group of people, doing Eurythmy together, as it should be clear by now that to work with any Eurythmy has the potential to increase the Chi and let people come away with greater well-being.

 As I expressed it from the very beginning of my Eurythmy ‘career’: “Eurythmy is Communication with the Self, with One another, with the Universe”. Ideally, the two poles of vertical and horizontal should be present in both Artistic Eurythmy and Eurythmy as Therapy.