eurythmics

eurythmics, harmonious bodily movement as a form of artistic expression—specifically, the Dalcroze system of musical education in which bodily movements are used to represent musical rhythms.

Eurythmics was developed about 1905 by Swiss musician Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, a professor of harmony at the Geneva Conservatory, who was convinced that the conventional system of training professional musicians was radically wrong. Jaques-Dalcroze attempted to improve his students’ musical abilities primarily by increasing their awareness of rhythm. His method was based on rhythmic bodily movements, ear training, and vocal or instrumental improvisation. In his system of eurythmic exercises, designed to develop concentration and rapid physical reaction, time is shown by movements of the arms and time duration—i.e., note values—by movements of the feet and body. A quarter note, for example, is represented by a single step. For advanced students, the system of prescribed movements may be varied somewhat. In a typical exercise, the teacher plays one or two bars, which the student then executes while the next bars are played. Thus, the student listens to a new rhythm while executing one already heard, an exercise requiring and at the same time developing concentration.

Jaques-Dalcroze first applied his method to elementary-school children. Then, in 1910, he established an institute at Hellerau-Rähnitz (near Dresden), Germany. Headquarters and a central school were later established at Geneva, and the Hellerau school was moved to Laxenburg, near Vienna. Other institutes of eurythmics were later founded, including in London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, and New York City, and the Dalcroze method was adopted in schools throughout Europe and the Western Hemisphere.

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For Jaques-Dalcroze, the rhythmic movements used in eurythmics were a means of musical education, not an end in themselves or a form of dance. Nonetheless, his system is considered an important influence on 20th-century theatrical dance, especially central European and American modern dance. To early modern dancers, eurythmics suggested an alternative, nonballetic choreographic technique. Some dancers, such as Ruth St. Denis and Michio Ito, accepted and employed eurythmic principles in their work. Others, such as Mary Wigman and Doris Humphrey, rejected musically influenced choreography and instead developed new forms of pure dance. In ballet, Serge Diaghilev was among the first to become interested in the Dalcroze system, and Vaslav Nijinsky’s revolutionary The Rite of Spring, choreographed in 1913 for Diaghilev’s company, revealed strong eurythmic influence. Through such pupils of Jaques-Dalcroze as Marie Rambert, Hanya Holm, and the mime Étienne Decroux, eurythmics has also affected contemporary ballet and the dance of the theatre.