Waldorf Matters … Questions, Inspiration and Eurythmy

Ms Annamaria Balog teaches Eurythmy at Elmfield as well as being our Subject Guardian for Movement . In our weekly blog series about key aspects of Steiner Waldorf education, Annamaria outlines her thoughts on the importance of Eurythmy to Waldorf education

Spending time to reflect on – Waldorf Matters – opened a well of inspiration within me. It took me back to the origins, as I know them: questions and more questions to live with and to let them live through me. 

What does it take to truly understand what children need as they grow up – today and any day? What knowledge is unfolding within them and what meets them in their education in a school through us, their teachers? What is eternal and what is transitory in education? How are we, a body of teachers, united in our different tasks, allowing the children who come to us to unfold and become - individuals?

As I let these questions arise, I experience myself being warmed through by inspiration; my breathing deepens, and a certain pulse fills my whole being with vitality. I feel alive.

In our eurythmy lessons in middle school the question ‘why are we doing eurythmy?’ ripples through the classes each year. Some pupils question it, some simply enjoy it, and some are there to learn. Just like in any other subject. Most children instinctively, and deep within their core are able to connect with the qualities that eurythmy can offer. Some don’t – yet – and that’s fine.

Engaging with eurythmy in the lessons brings us an experience of something eternal. The spatial forms and choreographies that involve strict geometry, the gestures of the speech and music are all elements that connect us to the eternal. An ‘S’ will always sound like ‘S’ and always sounded like ‘S’. The qualities that are inherent in the sounds of music and speech arise from a profound wisdom. ‘S’ is different to ‘B’, to ‘G’, to ‘K, to ‘L’ etc. Geometrical forms and shapes can’t be questioned – a triangle is a triangle, and a square is a square etc. There are also laws of movement and development just as are laws in Maths and the Sciences. In our concentration exercises if we decide to take 5 steps in towards the centre of the circle and 4 steps out followed by 3 towards the centre again 2 out 1 in 1 out 2 in 3 out 4 in and finally 5 out to be back where we started, there is not much to question or argue – one can either engage one’s concentration or not – but if not, this gives a great possibility for developing it.

Eurythmy is one of the core subjects in the school. What the pupils experience in the lessons is carried with them into their future beyond their school years. Engaging with eurythmy, a movement that is imbued with a feeling quality enhances our capacities for clear thinking, strength in feeling and determination of will.

If you are interested in finding out more about eurythmy, please email me at annamaria.balog@elmfield.com  I am in the process of organizing short workshops for parents, carers and friends of Elmfield. This will be for anyone who wishes to gain experiential insight into the subject of eurythmy in schools. Do not hesitate to get in touch.

I would like to conclude my brief sharing with the opening part of ‘The Rock’ by T.S . Eliot where these matters are illustrated with great strength and glory:

The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

Thank you.