Waldorfy Podcast: An Introduction to Eurythmy

This was a very special interview for me to conduct. I made up my mind quite a while ago that I wanted to feature an episode on eurythmy. It was an extra special treat to get to have my mother-in-law Carol Renwick as my guest. Carol met Anthroposophy and eurythmy in her twenties when she was a graduate student in philosophy at the University of Toronto. Eurythmy spoke to her soul and held out a promise of supporting her to become a whole, integrated person, not just a walking head and dancer with little connection between the two.  She decided to commit to the 4 year training and then also studied eurythmy pedagogy.  She taught in various Waldorf schools, both to children and parents, while also raising two children. She has also taught residents and coworkers in communities for people with developmental challenges. Her path also took her into energy healing which she sees and experiences as very related, both helping her to develop herself, and deepen her understanding of our spiritual, mental, emotional and physical being. She has subsequently taught eurythmy in Mexico as well as the USA and enjoyed the challenge of working in Spanish. This has helped her to understand the special character and genius of both Spanish and English. 

In this episode Carol and I discuss how she discovered eurythmy, and then what eurythmy is. To define it simply, eurythmy is a style of movement. Similar to dance, but not quite the same. One of the most distinct qualities about it, as Carol points out is how it can be used with spoken words like poetry. She gives examples of exactly how the phonetics of words can be illustrated through eurythmy. We also discussed the intended uses of eurythmy and why it's taught in Waldorf schools.

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