Eurythmy therapy promotes balance and well-being within our constitutions by using a combination of movement, rhythm and sound.  Specific movements are carried out to build and mould gestures to different sounds – each sound has its own unique character and ‘feel’ to it.  This is then matched by the corresponding movement to that sound – body control, co-ordination, spatial awareness, posture, memory, state of mind can all be influenced when practising the eurythmy gestures.

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Further to this use of rhythm, spatial forms, words, poetry, balls, batons can all be used to take the eurythmy therapy to more complex levels, reaching ever more subtle levels within the complex structure of the human being.  The word ‘eurythmy’ originates from the Greek (Eu) meaning balanced or healthy and (Rhythmus) meaning rhythm or movement.

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We start with choosing our Eurythmy shoes and putting them on.

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Then we stand up in a circle and do the wonderful gestures of the vowels A E I O U.

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We use the movements of the planets from where the vowel gestures originate, putting together the planet movement with its vowel.

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Now it is time to wake up the legs and feet. We walk around in a circle placing awareness on how we walk and trying to balance it out. The vowel gestures are now done with the feet and legs.

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After this, we return to the circle and start the rod exercises using our very beautiful copper rods. There are several exercises one can do with these. The first one is with both hands holding the rod and stretching it out in all different directions…up, down, right and left. By letting it pass from one hand to the other, we let the rod circle our body, and if we can, up and down too.

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Now we turn our attention to the hands and wrists, holding the rod with our fingertips in one hand, rotating the wrist and twirling the rod around. If possible, doing it with both hands.

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The last exercise is the most fun. The rod is taken with both hands and put over our heads, coming to rest on our shoulders and then let go of. The aim is to catch it behind our backs before it hits the floor. What a clatter! This process allows us to become more aware of our backs and what is behind us. These exercises are repeated several times to get the body used to them

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Depending on how much energy we have left, we either remain standing or make a circle with chairs and sit down.

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We remember the poems we’ve been working on by speaking them out loud, accompanied by the wonderful gestures of the vowels and consonants given in Eurythmy. We try to convey through our movements, the feeling and meaning that lies within the poems.

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After the work has been done, we sit together in a circle and listen to a story or part of a longer story told over several weeks. We refresh our memories first, so we can go a little further.

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The stories are fitting for the time of year, retold year after year so they become like “old friends”.

We finish by standing in a circle with a very enthusiastic exercise. You can ask one of the students to show you. I’m sure they will gladly do so.

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Tatjana Kvebs