Eurythmy in the Workplace

by Barbara Richardson

Lory Maier-Smits was the first eurythmist to apply eurythmy to the work place by offering eurythmy sessions in her family’s button factory in Germany. Annemarie Ehrlich, a Dutch eurythmist, developed this work over several decades, working widely with such businesses as hospitals, a drug store chain, Coca-Cola executives, members of the Austrian Parliament and, in 1999, the Saturn Corporation in Tennessee. A company sponsoring eurythmy sessions wrote that it helps them develop “upright employees who know where they are going.”

Annemarie has trained many eurythmists in Europe and in North America, herself giving courses on “Eurythmy in the Workplace” and “Teaching Eurythmy to Adults.” She has led groups of eurythmists to the anthroposophical community Sekem in Egypt (pictured), for one month each year. Her latest and final trip to Sekem began three days before the Arab spring uprising.

Eurythmists in North America have worked with many Waldorf school boards and anthroposophical groups, as well as foundations, banks, factories, restaurants, and other businesses, with support from the Anthroposophical Society, Shared Gifting Group of the Mid-States, and organizational development consultants.

Common components of this work with adult groups include the use of copper balls, creating forms around poems that may have a meaning for the participants, and time for reflection and sharing after each session. The copper balls reduce people’s initial unease or self-consciousness in movement and increase the social awareness among the group. The experience of receiving and giving, flexing and extending, are inherent in the movements. Poems create a shared content among the participants and the working out of forms expressing of the poems helps to raise the group’s level of consciousness. Reflections written down at the end of the session give participants a chance to see themselves from a new perspective and become more conscious of the effects of eurythmy.

A small booklet, Eurythmy in the Workplace – One Company’s Story, is available from Barbara Richardson at brichardson@centerforanthroposophy.org or barbara@lemniscatearts.org