Composer, singer, director/choreographer Meredith Monk has been a lead figure on the American avant-garde scene since the early 1970’s and is going strong today. In a recent Wall Street Journal interview she discussed her early influences which included taking Dalcroze Eurhythmics.
Read the article here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/meredith-monks-wizard-of-oz-moment-1482938519
and read the biographical notes posted on her own website:
http://www.meredithmonk.org/about/bio.html
Wikipedia defines “eurhythmy as:
“Eurythmy is an expressive movement art originated by Rudolf Steiner in conjunction with Marie von Sivers in the early 20th century. Primarily a performance art, it is also used in education, especially in Waldorf schools, and – as part of anthroposophic medicine – for claimed therapeutic purposes.” Read more on that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurythmy
In 1906 Theodor Reuss issued Steiner a charter for Mystica Aetrena, a Chapter and Grand Council of Adoptive Masonry. The following year, Reuss appointed Steiner Germany’s acting Grand Master General of the Rite of Misraim. [this info comes from Dr. Richard Kaczynski’s book Forgotten Templars.]
Meanwhile Emile Jaques-Dalcroze was a professor of harmony and solfège at the Conservatory in Geneva in 1892 who devised a means of studying music through movement “eurhythmics,” from the Greek roots “eu” and “rythmos” meaning “good flow.” Read more here: http://www.dalcrozeusa.org/
There is some dispute as to whether the disciplines of “eurhythmy” and “eurhythmics” that both addressed artistic expression via physical movement influenced one another despite being in Austria and Switzherland respectively at essentially the same time. http://www.eurythmy.org.uk/ raises the question of who may have influenced who but offers no answers. Seems like this’d be a fascinating research project!
