A Look at the Path of Professional Development in Eurythmy

by Beth Dunn-Fox

Eurythmy Spring Valley

Stepping onto the path of becoming a eurythmist begins an unimaginable journey. As in earlier times, when an apprentice worked for years to build the myriad skills under the tutelage of a master, so does the eurythmy student train rigorously to embody the skills that will allow them to bring eurythmy to others. This process must happen at every level, penetrating down to the limbs, beyond the fingertips, through the whole of the self.

The journey of development in eurythmy draws one progressively deeper into the substance that lives in human speech and song, the basis for eurythmy as an art. Each day one slips into the skin of sound – slowly discovering that each tone, vowel, or consonant is a universe, with a form that comes into being out of the movements of the creative forces from which all forms in the world arise.

One soon learns in the eurythmy training that the key for entering these sound worlds is found in the element of time; the time given to practice. Practice here means – making space (time) to be in the presence of what we want to know, continuously, so that it begins to speak to us. For the eurythmy student this encompasses the rich moments of learning with teachers, rehearsals with fellow students, and, critically important, the time regularly spent alone in the practice room. Through these different forms of practice, a conversation is initiated with the ground elements of eurythmy that will progressively open the ability to embody them.

In this first phase of professional development, the student begins to work with the different qualities of time as structured by the training. Through the rhythmic engagement in classes, peer rehearsals, and private practice, the student’s partnership with time builds different capacities.

A wonderful, living clue that Rudolf Steiner gives about the transformative forces of time can be found in the Foundation Stone Meditation. In the first three panels of the Meditation, we hear the call to engage in three practices:

Practice Spirit Recalling – Practice Spirit Sensing –Practice Spirit Beholding

Uncovering the wealth of guidance provided by the Foundation Stone Meditation is a life work, yet even living with the sounding of these three calls alone can be of immeasurable value in professional and spiritual development.

In any process of research, meditative practice, or eurythmic activity, we traverse the interpenetrating forces that these three distinct actions hold. In the eurythmy practice room, the student or eurythmist is constantly moving between sensing, reflecting, and beholding, as they work to embody the deeper substance of the content at hand. Recalling and working with the elements that form the music or poetry or prose, paves the path from the known to unknown, to recognizing the core signature of the piece. For the eurythmist, this includes coming to know not only the audible, but the inaudible sounding, the source of the piece.

Developing the capacity to hear and move this inaudible sounding requires that we learn to practice spirit sensing, particularly in those moments when it seems we will not be able to uncover it. It asks us to face the threshold of not knowing over and over again by practicing the form, sounds, and elements with new senses. This time process yields new experiences only by setting aside the premature judgments of, “I know that” or, “I can’t know that.” If we continually sustain rhythmic practice, working with the elements we know with new eyes, we have the chance to behold the deeper layers of music, language, and life. The moment that this happens is beyond words.

In the three practices of the Foundation Stone Meditation, we have the fundamentally powerful, yet simple actions that we can take each day to access greater meaning and depth in our endeavors. They stand as resources that will sustain continual, life-long progress by deepening our ability to move beyond the countenance of the world and into its actual substance. When these calls sound in the Foundation Stone Meditation, it is clear that we must journey into each of their spheres in our daily work, to engage in the profound process that Rudolf Steiner pictures in this meditation.

This partnership with time goes through a metamorphosis in each phase of the professional development of the eurythmist. As one prepares for taking up a professional focus, the root elements of eurythmy are further developed into potent tools for teaching, providing therapy, or performing, through advanced professional trainings. Each discipline in eurythmy gives access to different forms of experience and development. The specialized skills gained in these trainings will provide the basis for the eurythmist’s future work, whether it is to serve the healthy development of the child, support the healing process in illness, further inner development in adults, or cultivate artistic capacities.

A true threshold is crossed when the eurythmist begins their professional life. Anyone who has experienced a first year of teaching knows this threshold. The time has arrived to actively share the health-giving movements of these sound worlds, the process of which will initiate a lifetime of research into the art of working with others. In this phase, the focus of practice prepares the capacity to impart the substance of eurythmy to others through thorough preparation, a sense of living presence in the teaching or performing moment, and clear selfreflection, so essential to professional development.

Rudolf Steiner made a remarkable discovery when he recognized the profound healing effect of embodying the inherent forms within sound. Each eurythmist contributes to taking this insight further as they develop their daily eurythmic practices and are thereby increasingly able to bring eurythmy into all of the spheres where it can contribute to human development.

Time given to this work with the basic elements remains a life-long source for one’s development as a eurythmist.

Beth Dunn-Fox, Administrative and Development Coordinator, Eurythmy Spring Valley

Raised in California, Beth’s life-long interest in the developmental potential of movement grew through education and performing in modern, ballet, and folk/character dance forms. Upon discovering eurythmy she trained at Eurythmy Spring Valley, graduating in 1986, and joined the ESV Ensemble in its inaugural season the same year. She traveled and performed with the Ensemble until 2000, when her family grew larger. With a background in developing financial systems for small nonprofits, she has also been active in the work of carrying ESV administratively since 1988, balanced by working locally on project and festival pieces with the Ensemble and other eurythmy colleagues.