Eurythmy West Midlands sent us this fabulous Newsletter of their activities last year and we couldn’t not share it. They have really travelled the world and made new connections. It’s created in PDF format, so you can read the whole Newsletter by scrolling down. We hope you enjoy reading it!
You can see more about their Young Stage Group on their website: https://www.eurythmywestmidlands.co.uk/
It’s been a little while since the “Intercultural Eurythmy Festival” in London which took place at Rudolf Steiner House in early July this year. Now it already seems more like a beautiful but distant dream. Away from the humdrum of daily life, the festival was a wonderful culmination of our Eurythmy India tour which featured scenes from Shakepeare’s King Lear, brought into a seamless flow between Eurythmy and Drama. Seventeen performers with three musicians and two teachers travelled across Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom!! Our production had dialogues which were mainly in English but also in Hindi, Nepali and Chinese! We moved to the music played on the piano as well as the sitar and tabla. What an experience it was!
The Intercultural Eurythmy Festival took everything we were offering to a different level. We not only performed for the wonderful audience there, but enabled them to participate in moving with us to sitar in one of our workshops. There were so many takers for the workshops on ‘Eurythmy and Classical Indian Dance’, ‘Eurythmy, Yoga and Chanting’ and ‘Eurythmy in Mandarin’. The enthusiasm by participants to explore was so heartwarming! In our own way, irrespective of our backgrounds (Spanish, African, Indian, British etc.) we were all looking for an amalgamation of our own culture with the world that opened up for us through Eurythmy. We held similar questions and were extremely open to the sharings from each other. We also got to experience Eurythmy workshops by teachers from other schools and that was a lot of fun too.
“The Golden ball” performance by the Peredur Eurythmy group with its beautiful music, colourful costumes and smooth performances was awe inspiring. The stage lights made it all truly magical not just for the children but for us adults too. On the one hand their performance made us forget our own lives and took us on a beautiful journey with Natalia and her brother; and on the other it was a reminder of how we can easily get caught in a web of our own in modern times (this world could be the virtual world many seem to be living in today or perhaps the alluring high of drugs). Full credit to the West Midlands stage group. They performed excerpts from many Shakespeare texts and their interpretation in Eurythmy was more modern and hence very exciting for new eurythmists like myself. Eurythmy was brought alive in such a way that the audience remained glued to their chairs!
Throughout the whole of Steiner House, and for the many audience members, there was a buzz of enthusiasm of children and adults alike. Heartfelt gratitude to Adrian Locher and Chrystal Hayn who made this coming together possible for us. Their hard work definitely was visible in how we were looked after for the entire time we were in London. Thank you to our hosts, sponsors, audiences and all the performers, musicians and teachers for this wonderful experience. May we have many more such platforms where we can celebrate Eurythmy together and learn from each other!
Meeta Grovor is a Eurythmist trained from Eurythmy India and resides in Hyderabad, India. She works with Sloka Waldorf school, Sahasra- centre for learning, and Devodhyog Foundation for adults with special needs.
I began my professional journey as a software engineer years ago, when I met Eurythmy it allowed me to experience an integration of my head, heart and limbs. I hope to spread wellbeing, joy and harmony in the world!
While the world seemed to be focussed on the football Euros, Silverstone, Wimbledon, and the Tour de France, Steiner House in London was abuzz with a different kind of excitement as an Intercultural Eurythmy Festival took place. For two days, artists and participants from all corners of the world came together to celebrate and explore a rich tapestry of cultures. The festival hosted the students from Eurythmy India and Peredur Eurythmy, as well as the stage group from Eurythmy West Midlands. Together, a dynamic environment was created, filled with diverse performances and engaging activities. As part of the festival, workshops offered the chance to taste different cultures – exploring the Mandarin language, the sound of Indian music through sitar and tabla, the tree of life in music eurythmy, and comparing traditional dance, chanting and yoga to eurythmy.
One of the festival’s most discussed performances was India’s ‘Love, and Be Silent – Scenes from Shakespeare’s King Lear’ which marked a first step of building a eurythmy training in India. The students came from Nepal, Malaysia, China, and of course India, each speaking a different native tongue. The teachers tried to blend speech, drama, and eurythmy with a visible joy in performing a moving choreography.
Shakespeare’s works wove throughout the festival’s programmes, providing a common thread as English was the shared language. Fitting to the shared topic, Puck made his appearance in Peredur Eurythmy’s evening programme ‘The Way Leads On’. The performance of the fairytale ‘The Golden Ball’ marked their end of term, which was full of exciting performances in the UK, in Germany at the Forum Eurythmie Festival, and finally in Steiner House, London, after the graduating student had performed in this year’s festival for new graduates in Dornach.
Between touring, Eurythmy West Midlands developed their summer production, ‘Shakespeare’s Fool’, in which the fool and some clowns from chosen works of Shakespeare took centre stage, inviting reflections on these roles with their own wisdom. This collage we were able to share at the festival in London. The helplessness of infatuated lovers was seen next to King Lear’s struggle for self-knowledge in the storm; the challenging vision of disillusioned Hamlet stood next to the monologue by the simpleton Lance, with his ridiculous enactment of a family parting, trying to teach his dog to show human emotions – portrayed by a eurythmist. Lear’s fool sang his famous ditty about making a fortune of one’s ‘little wit’; Launcelot Gobbo and Autolycus sang their songs of life, suggesting that all life is ‘just’ a play. Claude Debussy’s ‘quirky’ Cello and Piano Sonata made a challenging first impression on some of us, but after working a full year on all three movements, we aimed to show the joy of life in this music. We were grateful for the joyful response to this programme.
As the Intercultural Eurythmy Festival unfolded, Steiner House seemed to come alive. Many people were seen attending the performances, and as many joyful faces afterwards, touched by what they witnessed. The rain might have forced everyone indoors, but it only added to the intimacy and comradery. The atmosphere was electric; participants mingled, shared stories, the workshops were filled with eager participants, and the performances were met with enthusiastic applause.
Special thanks go out to Adrian Locher and Chrystal Hayn for organising this festival, that the group from India could join us, and for supporting our work in the UK in many ways. Well done to all the performers, whose dedication brought eurythmy to life! We also extend our heartfelt gratitude to our financial supporters, including every donor and ticket holder – your contributions truly make a difference. Special thanks to the Hermes Trust and the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain for their generous support. Lastly, a huge thank you to my fellow stage-group colleagues for a special time and journey together. Your commitment makes this experience unforgettable.
Thomas Stott, eurythmist with West Midlands stage group; trained in Witten; since 2022 involved in advanced stage training and work, performed in several countries, including Russia, Georgia, Germany, Brazil, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and UK.
My journey in eurythmy and stage lighting began during my school years. As a lighting designer, I’ve honed my skills through the Eurythmie Festival in Witten, known as ‘Forum Eurythmie’, and recently started freelancing with several ensembles. My aim in setting eurythmy onto stage is to create a space of colour, to achieve glimpses of the supersensory in the sensory – an imagination that seems to be approachable, truly otherworldly. This is my ongoing research, playing with different light sources, including natural light through tinted glass windows.
Being on tour and working as a freelancer always involves picking up the work and ideas of my predecessors and finding a way. Combining my eurythmy training with technical skills has been a huge asset. The Intercultural Festival was a fantastic opportunity to bring together my passion for eurythmy and lighting, to engage with technicians and fellow designers and to connect with artists from around the world.
As I will go on to find my own artistic path, the work with Eurythmy West Midlands will come to an end in the autumn, after our upcoming tour to Asia. This will mean that I am open for questions on research, projects, performances or to start debating how our future could look like. I am excited to continue exploring and expanding the possibilities of eurythmy.
It was very good to welcome a large number of people at the end of last term to the Granary at Peredur Centre to see our end of term presentation. It is indeed heart-warming to feel an interest in our steadily growing Peredur Eurythmy Training.
Our students are now busy with their end of year preparations.
On the 24th June there will be an end of year showing of the work of the students at 7.30.
Anna Pavan, our 4th year student, is graduating this summer. She will be supported by her third year colleagues and the teachers in presenting an adaptation of the English folktale ‘The Buried Moon’. The tale will be interwoven with music by Bach, Kodaly and Tchaikowski and poems by Emily Bronte, Judith Wright and Kathleen Raine. The story brings core issues of the human condition and the path of development into elemental imagery, which are picked up and enriched by the interwoven texts and music.
The Graduation performance will be on the 8th of July at 7.30 (please check for potential additional performance times). Advance tickets can be booked by emailing info@peredureurythmy.com. It will also be performed at:
Newton Dee Camphill Community, Aberdeen on the 10th June at 7.30 pm
Edinburgh Steiner School on the 11th June at 7.30 pm
Rudolf Steiner House in London on the 17th June at 7.30 pm and other venues are being confirmed.
This year’s Eurythmy Summer Week, which is open to beginners, intermediates and trained eurythmists will be from the 11th -15th of June. Questions and booking via emailing info@peredureurythmy.com
Peredur Eurythmy is now open for applications for our new intake this September. Please have a look at our website and don’t hesitate to contact us for an informal chat about what it is like to train as a eurythmist and if this may be a path for you.
Last Autumn (2021) Eurythmy West Midlands began the new term with a dedicated fourth-year group, preparing for their graduation, as well as leading a small first-year group on their new path of human and artistic discovery. The stage-group of 7 young performers started in October, finding each other and engaging in a process to discover what form artistic eurythmy can best meet the challenges of our day. In particular, what programme will suit outreach in these islands?
For the Michaelmas celebrations of Glasshouse College and for the Christmas Fair of the Ruskin Centre the poignant and humorous harvest story of ‘Monkey and Papa God’ from Haiti was performed to a delighted audience of all ages—mostly new to eurythmy. At the beginning of November a short programme was commissioned, especially for a birthday party as a fundraiser for eurythmy (what a good idea!).
For the Remembrance eveningin November, the students and the stage-group performers with their teachers attempted again to create the special link eurythmy can make to others who have passed over the threshold. The programme featured poetry by Vernon Watkins with music ranging from Bach to Messiaen and Peteris Vasks. We were also glad to welcome Sigune and Gregers Brinch to add to the rich programme. Our term was rounded off shortly before Christmas with the Students’ performances.
At present in the frosty January sunshine we are happy to be together again to focus anew on what wants to become.
The stage-group, together with the fourth-year students, started to rehearse the action-packed Romanian story “Harab Alp“, very well-known in the country of its origin. This shortened version of a long tale is intended to be performed to all the students of the Ruskin Mill Colleges and Schools, as well as to as many Steiner Schools and public venues as we can reach.
The stage-group is also fully involved with the process of distilling scenes from ‘Macbeth’ into a performance-piece “Before Dawn” to depict the forces behind human evil, of hunger for power. The programme will be woven through with music for piano and cello by Debussy, Shostakovich, Alois Zimmermann and Lera Auerbach.
The fourth-year students took on to explore the extensive poem ‘The broken Water-Jar’ by Octavio Paz, the well-known Mexican poet, as the main part of their graduation programme “Broken Light” This, of course, will be enriched with other complementary pieces of poetry and music. We also will tour various Ruskin Mill colleges as part of the King Arthur drama produced by students of the Ruskin Trust, adding eurythmy to several scenes.
Venues and dates for our programmes are at the planning stage. We are always happy to perform at a venue near you! Please do contact us.
Like other colleagues working in the artistic professions and in other fields, it goes without saying that we feel greatly challenged to keep our venture afloat and able to go into the future. The current situation is prompting us to find new ways in mutual recognition. Consequently, we are now in a process to join with Peredur Eurythmy in Sussex, to become one institution with two campuses under one umbrella of the Ruskin Mill Trust.
The students, performers and tutors of EWM are greatly looking forward towards reaching out to colleagues and friends to celebrate together our free humanity.
Maren Stott (for Eurythmy West Midlands)
Maren Stott: Dip. Eurythmy (Nuremberg, Germany) MA “Eurythmy Performance” (Alanus University, Alfter, Germany) has performed and toured internationally with various Ensembles and as a soloist. Teaches in the Eurythmy training since 1986. Is now one of the visiting, carrying members of the new stage Ensemble at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland.
In working and moving meaningfully together through creative expression:
– Parents can re-discover themselves and reconnect with their 4-fold nature, as well as their children’s temperaments.
– Teachers can re-discover themselves and the nature of the children they teach more deeply, as well as their own 4-fold nature.
– We can re-connect to the elements in a way that brings meaning, deepens our relationship to and our understanding of them and their roles in our lives.
– We can grow consciousness.
– We can improve our relationship to self and others.
– We can work from chaos, through the heart, to resolution.
– We can strengthen our immune systems and increase resilience.
– We can tap into our body’s divine wisdom.
Eurythmy brings us into creative expression which can help lead us to our Higher Self. When we connect to our Higher Self, we then begin our journey towards and enter our Higher Purpose in the world. Much needed today! Through this retreat, we can begin that journey. Everyone is welcome, I look forward to seeing you there.
Warm regards, Michèle
P.S. See Poster for info and contact details
The world is changing and the pace of change seems to be increasing every year. Advances in technology are creating permanent, but ever-changing, developments in how we live and work and we are living with the constant threat and awareness of ecological breakdown, international political tensions and the rise of the new far right. On top of that everyone has their own, individual challenges to do with areas such work, family and personal life and finances. The last four years in Britain has brought further uncertainty in the form of Brexit and the consequences this may bring once it happens and this year the spread of COVID-19 and the national lockdowns around the world has created much anxiety – although for many it has also been an opportunity to slow down and re-evaluate their lifestyle. It is no wonder the western world is said to be in the middle of a stress epidemic.
While it is essential to look at what positive changes we can make in our lives to reduce stress, it is also necessary to look at what practices and strategies we can learn and use to manage it better. While some of the most common stressors such as work-related pressure, relationship breakdowns or difficulties, loss, and financial difficulties are universal, how we deal with them is entirely individual, as is which ones constitute the most difficult area for us. Thus, one definition of stress is: “Stress occurs when pressure exceeds your perceived ability to cope.” (Palmer and Cooper). The actual manifestation of stress is the negative effects this pressure has on your physical body, behaviour, and mental and emotional state. In the long run, stress can have serious consequences for your physical and mental health, and with the world being as unpredictable as it is today, it is essential for us all to find ways of managing how we cope with the pressures of life and increase our personal sense of well-being.
Many people around the world have turned to practices such as mindfulness and various movement forms that enhance our mind-body connection and awareness of ourselves. With its focus on harmony, consciousness and flowing movements, Eurythmy is ideally positioned to work in this area. Stress makes our bodies tense up, our movements constricted and unfree, our breathing shallow and arrhythmical and our minds fragmented and scattered. Eurythmy can provide a calming and soothing effect in that it helps us to relax and free our movements and re-establish a sense of flow and connection. It can also help our breathing become deeper and more rhythmical and create a sense of spaciousness and calmness in ourselves. When focusing on our movements, our minds calm down and stop racing and we can become aware of how the stressful situation affected our body as well as how it restricted our ability to feel well and rest within ourselves. This effect increases over time and with practice and you eventually become able to notice the stress reactions when they happen and counteract them sooner. This is why it is so important to establish a practice before major stressful situations occur, as it is hard for most people to establish practices like that when they are in the middle of the stress reaction.
While Eurythmy started as a performance art, it has many other aspects to it, one being the positive influence on well-being through the development of an increasingly flowing and inwardly connected way of moving. It brings harmony and balance to your physicality in that it can improve your posture and help you achieve a sense of centeredness and alignment in your body and physical space, and when practised consciously can be very grounding. It can nurture and strengthen your life-forces, bringing them into a more rhythmical flow, which mostly has an enlivening and at the same time calming effect. On the soul-level it can harmonise and calm your emotions and bring increased consciousness to the different levels of your being.
You don’t need to have completed a training in Eurythmy to experience these benefits. Practising a sequence of exercises under the guidance of a eurythmist or participating in regular classes and workshop can provide the beginning of a regular practice that with focus and dedication will deepen and grow over time.
Saraphir Legind (Qaa-Rishi) studied Eurythmy in England at Eurythmy West Midlands and then Camphill Eurythmy School. She graduated in 2013 and since 2014 has been based in Edinburgh, where she works as a Eurythmist at Garvald Edinburgh and The Columcille Centre, providing regular Eurythmy Sessions to people in need of extra support. She also works regularly with staff groups, is a tutor on the annual Introduction to Social Therapy Course and teaches regularly on other training seminars for staff in both organisations. She has a deep interest in Eurythmy for wellbeing and Eurythmy in Social/Working Life and has worked with this both in her regular workplaces and in other organisations. She runs public workshops on different themes and has taught in various other organisations around Edinburgh. Saraphir has a degree in Social Science and has recently completed a Diploma in Coaching and Mentoring (SCQF level 8). She set up this website and the websites for the Eurythmy Association and the Eurythmy Therapy Association and still manages this website and the Facebook page. You can see more about her work on her website www.movingpresence.co.uk and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
As the Soul – Spirit and Physical – Life aspects of the human being are drawn together through education, we come to the boundary between the spiritual and the physical which is the area of breathing. Taking a breath is the first thing we do in life and the last thing we do as we die. The first and last breaths have a certain focus, drama, tension and deep and momentous mystery to them: That relief as the baby gives its first cry and breathing and life now fully begin! That moment of tension and release as the last breath is taken and the soul leaves our body as we die.
Breathing connects us with our blood and circulation and via this we connect to our metabolism. This is one perspective of the process of breathing taking place within the human being. Another perspective is the connection to our nerve sense organisation. The harmony and rhythm needed for healthy breathing is not necessarily simply there. Through education and good life style the child or young person needs help to establish balanced and harmonious breathing rhythms.
Rudolf Steiner tells us that the true function of Education is to establish authentic harmonious and right breathing! He tells us that we can achieve this by bringing the Soul – Spirit and the Life – Physical into a real and living relationship with each other and of course he then builds up a complete curriculum based on this tenet of breathing.We are not talking here only of the physical activity of breathing, but as stated above; the focus on the drawing into life of the Spirit – Soul and the bringing towards these two elements, the Life – Physical as described by Steiner in the first lecture of The Foundations of Human Experience.
‘By harmonising the breathing with the nerve-sense process we draw all that is soul and spirit into the physical life of the child. To express it roughly we may say: The child cannot yet breathe in the right inner way, and education will have to consist in teaching the child to breathe rightly.’
Rudolf Steiner: The Study of Man / The Foundations of Human Experience. Lecture 1, paragraph 13.
Today in our present crisis we can surely draw much from this stand point, not just for the education of the child, but for all of our teaching, ways of living and conducting ourselves generally. I personally am endeavouring to take this question into my preparation for the young people with special needs whom I teach, into the preparation of public classes that I hold, for tutoring and teaching students in India who are doing the eurythmy training, into the work of facilitating meetings, into supervision sessions or bringing eurythmy to the working environment. Handling the balance between deadlines and outcomes and allowing for real process is all part and parcel of gaining capacity and skill at addressing the human being in specific and conscious ways.
Chrystal Hayn studied Waldorf Education in Stuttgart in the 80’s and after class teaching for 7 years trained in Eurythmy at the Ringwood Botton Eurythmy School with Chas Bamford, Monica Dorrington and Evamaria Rascher. She went on to be part of many national and international performing projects with the Botton Stage Group, Eskdale Eurythmy, Peredur Stage Group and London Eurythmy over 22 years, working mainly with Hajo Deker. She taught courses at the London College Of Eurythmy and workshops at Steiner House for several years and is part of the Foundation Stone Meditation performing work with London Eurythmy. She lives and works at The Mount Camphill Community, where she also teaches young people with special needs at the Mount Independent Specialist Residential College and is co-founder of Eurythmy India.
Should we be educating the child in the womb? This is the question that the AI community and others are asking and beginning to research. How could this education in the womb be effective and what technology could be used to take the question of pre-birth education further? In his first lecture of the series ‘The Foundations of Human Experience’, Rudolf Steiner describes the pre-birth education that is necessary which is in line with a spiritual perception of the Human Being: He addresses this question and issues a challenge to parents and in particular the mother. How do we live our lives before and after conception? He suggests that how we live our lives, what our thoughts are, what we eat, how we sleep, our sense impressions, all have an educative and powerful influence on the growing human being within the womb. In other places he takes this concept of pre-birth education in a further direction when he describes the ‘Pedagogical Law’. Here he is very specific about which parts of our being as the parent or educator educate the child or young person.
So if we look at life and education from a spiritual perspective, we can take into consideration that the Spirit – Soul aspect of the human being unites with the Life – Physical aspect of the human being at birth. But this is not a simple and vague notion, each part of the Spirit and Soul aspects have specific characteristics as does more obviously each part of the Life and Physical aspects. The joining and integrating of all these parts is where educating from a spiritual perspective begins. Steiner purports that ” The task of education conceived in the spiritual sense is to bring the Soul-Spirit into harmony with the Life-Body. They must come into harmony with one another. They must be attuned to one another; for when the child is born into the physical world, they do not as yet fit one another. The task of the educator and of the teacher too, is the mutual attuning of these two members.”
Can I bring the tuning and harmonising of these two but manifold aspects of the human being into my teaching? My endeavour is that every aspect of all Eurythmy sessions, workshops and lessons that I offer, addresses this basic question: The harmonising and bringing together of the aspects mentioned above in an age appropriate and socially integrated way. This is also surely why any Steiner School, College or Steiner related education requires Eurythmy pedagogy as part of any spiritually inspired curricula.
Chrystal Hayn studied Waldorf Education in Stuttgart in the 80’s and after class teaching for 7 years trained in Eurythmy at the Ringwood Botton Eurythmy School with Chas Bamford, Monica Dorrington and Evamaria Rascher. She went on to be part of many national and international performing projects with the Botton Stage Group, Eskdale Eurythmy, Peredur Stage Group and London Eurythmy over 22 years, working mainly with Hajo Deker. She taught courses at the London College Of Eurythmy and workshops at Steiner House for several years and is part of the Foundation Stone Meditation performing work with London Eurythmy. She lives and works at The Mount Camphill Community, where she also teaches young people with special needs at the Mount Independent Specialist Residential College and is co-founder of Eurythmy India.
Thoughts that have inspired me that arise through reading the Foundations of Human Experience: Lectures on Education by Rudolf Steiner. Thoughts like these are timeless and allow strength and persistence for teaching the special needs young people with whom I work at the Mount Camphill Community.
In the spiritual world before birth we are helped by spirit beings in manifold ways to prepare for our birth. We arrive here on earth and meet the age of the Consciousness Soul which is also an age of deep egoism. Do we have pre-birthly intentions? How can we remember them? How can education help us to know what we are really about and what we truly intend for our lives?
We are born and clothed with physical and life forces. As educators we continue the work of spiritual beings: ‘ We will be conscious that physical existence is a continuation of the spiritual. In educating we carry on the work of higher beings. The right mood will be engendered when we fill ourselves with the consciousness that I continue the work of higher beings that was done before the birth of the one I am educating.’
Chrystal Hayn studied Waldorf Education in Stuttgart in the 80’s and after class teaching for 7 years trained in Eurythmy at the Ringwood Botton Eurythmy School with Chas Bamford, Monica Dorrington and Evamaria Rascher. She went on to be part of many national and international performing projects with the Botton Stage Group, Eskdale Eurythmy, Peredur Stage Group and London Eurythmy over 22 years, working mainly with Hajo Deker. She taught courses at the London College Of Eurythmy and workshops at Steiner House for several years and is part of the Foundation Stone Meditation performing work with London Eurythmy. She lives and works at The Mount Camphill Community, where she also teaches young people with special needs at the Mount Independent Specialist Residential College and is co-founder of Eurythmy India.