'Music in Movement Concert with Eurythmy'

Posted Jan 26, 2012 By John Curry

EMC News - Rudolf Steiner is best known for creating Waldorf Schools. But the Austrian philosopher was also instrumental in the creation of Eurythmy, an art of expressive movement.

Indeed, when the first Waldorf School was founded in 1919, Eurythmy was included in the curriculum. It became a complement to gymnastics in a Waldorf School's movement program and is now taught at most Waldorf schools including the Ottawa Waldorf School in Stittsville.

To raise funds for the Eurythmy program at the Ottawa Waldorf School, the school is turning to Eurythmy itself as it presents a "Music in Movement Concert with Eurythmy" on Saturday, Feb. 4 starting at 7 p.m. at the Glen Cairn United Church on Abbeyhill Drive in Kanata.

All of the funds raised by this concert will be used to pay for Eurythmy classes for students at the Ottawa Waldorf School.

The concert itself will feature Eurythmy. There will be the magic of tone Eurythmy performed thanks to Eurythmist Sylvie Richard, guest Eurythmists and the Ottawa Waldorf School's grade 6, 7 and 8 students.

Another feature of the concert will be the music of Chopin and Rachmaninov as played by pianist Chiharu Zeng.

The concert will be followed by a reception with refreshments at which concert-goers will have an opportunity to meet the performance artists. Families are most welcome to attend this concert, with tickets at $20 per person available now at the Ottawa Waldorf School on Goulbourn Street in Stittsville (phone 613-836-1547). Tickets will also be available at the door at $25 per person.

Children's tickets are $10 each in advance or at the door.

Eurythmy which means "harmonious rhythm" is a form of artistic movement. Through their movements, participants strive to make the sounds of speech and musical tones visible and filled with feeling.

When children work as a group in a class, creating interwoven patterns together, they develop an awareness of each other in space and as a social unit.

Eurythmy pedagogical exercises begin with the straight line and curve and proceed through successively more complicated geometric figures and choreographed forms. This develops a child's coordination and concentration.

Eurythmy's aim is to bring the artists' expressive movement and both the performers' and audience's feeling experience into harmony with a piece's content. Eurythmy is sometimes called "visible music" or "visible speech," expressions that originate with Rudolf Steiner who himself described Eurythmy as an "art of the soul."

Besides being used in education, Eurythmy is also a performance art and is used as a movement therapy. There are well known Eurythmy ensembles in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Sweden and New York State.

Eurythmy is used therapeutically to compensate for somatic or psychological imbalances. It has been found that therapeutic Eurythmy may be helpful for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

john.curry@metroland.com