Alexandra Spadea
Published in the Newsletter for the Performing Arts Section Goetheanum
Easter 2020
I am happy to share with you some reflections and glimpses of my Eurythmy work at the Rudolf Steiner School, NYC.
“Steiner” the first Waldorf school in the United States, was founded in 1928 and in it’s 90 years the school has shown a steady and unwavering dedication to eurythmy, which is palpable!
The Steiner school owns two buildings located on the Upper East Side, one of the grandest neighborhoods of Manhattan, right next to Central Park, and one minute walk on Fifth Avenue from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; 10 minutes further north is the Guggenheim Museum. We are grateful for our beautiful buildings with Central Park as our school yard and friendly neighbors all around.
On their way to school, New York City children receive a full tableau of impressions, as they either travel by train and bus, by car or by foot, bicycle or skateboard. Sounds, smells, images, lots of people, stairs, elevators… transit life, and many different situations to observe, are a big part of the daily experience for New Yorkers. It is easy to imagine and see, how this daily practice of navigating through the city, shapes the growing human being. Our part as educators and parents in this shaping hopefully brings balance and harmony, content and meaningful encounters with each other.
It would be incomplete to speak about the work in the Steiner School community without acknowledging the backdrop of NYC and the very diverse backgrounds our students come from.
Upon arrival at school, our students enter a space held in calm and beauty, truthfulness and joy. The familiar mood and care that breathes in Waldorf Schools around the globe lives strongly in our school, and often parents and visitors describe our buildings as an oasis, a respite from the busy NYC live.
I have been teaching Eurythmy at Steiner to grades 7-12 for the last eleven years and have found the students overall very receptive to forms and choreographies, and a curiosity and desire to bring a part of who they are to our work, which makes my teaching and our eurythmy time together that much richer.
“As if they fill their inner spaces with good imaginations and ideas, and realizations and then this can manifest in all kinds of good results.”
I strive to offer my students a place where they feel safe, can relax and connect with each other through the art of Eurythmy and be elevated in the experience of space. It is also a place where we can connect with the invisible realities perceived by anyone who develops their senses in a certain way. It begins in the early childhood years and carries throughout the many wonderful lessons, from form drawing to gardening, all that is done and learned by hand and heart, the songs and speech, the plays and the writing and observations, the science experiments, and making sense of life, this is all contributing to a healthy eurythmy curriculum and school life. I was fortunate enough to have grown up this way myself at the Freie Waldorfschule Bexbach in the Seventies and Eighties and consider it one of the greatest gifts to have “grown up Waldorf” – at the age of 9, I promised myself to become a Eurythmist when grown up.
“I find myself often tapping into what moved me when I was young, and why I fell in love with Eurythmy – I still am – and why I dedicated my life to this art. “
When I am with my students,I feel asked to share from a place of deep understanding, vision, creativity, respect, clarity and heart. What becomes meaningful in my classroom is when together we enter the flow, when I can direct and move classic forms such as “Auftakte” with the students and together we revel in their geometry, lawfulness and freedom – when we “make them our own” and become creative with it. The “Auftakte” are forms of timeless truth and power – as all Eurythmy forms are – and when students learn them and become familiar with how they are in space, how to move all these formations, then they begin indeed to learn another language one that has the potential to be strengthening and harmonizing for all people, in and outside of the eurythmy room, including said adolescents.
In the last few years, our children and youth? along with their parents and teachers have gone through some intense experiences as a country and city, and I am sensing more and more a need for a place where equality, calm, and spirit is cultivated. My student’s thirst for a deeper understanding of the “invisible realm”, is real, and in conversation and movement we explore those realms. I have been teaching well over 20 years and noted in the last 3-4 years an increase of inquisitive questions and longing for a deeper explanation of what Eurythmy is drawing from and why it is a part of their school life. The sometimes unspoken questions my students carry begin to formulate and sometimes be answered in Eurythmy. One example is: how are we dealing with the almost daily news of yet another catastrophe?
I find myself sharing insights with my students in an age appropriate way, and they in turn contribute sincerely their own meaningful insights. I learn a lot from them.
Our room is not very large, so the maximum count of students to comfortably move with is 12 or 14. That said, I like to work with large forms so that ideally all can be moving together.
All Eurythmy forms, in particular the “Auftakte” as well as the pedagogical forms, circles, stars and beyond can offer the growing child a framework that supports healthy body and space coordination, and social soul awareness. As an example, The Halleluiah on the crown from has become a much beloved and a cultivated practice at “Steiner.” Especially the 8th grade students, are often asking for it- it helps them arrive with one another and send good intentions onto realms of life where people are struggling. It gives them a space no other activity does.
All classes love weaving circle forms and when they for example truly unlock the power of a harmonious eight, the room rejoices!
The gratification everyone in the room receives when the forms begin to appear in space and the students experience it, because they make it happen, together with the power of gestures and sound or silence, it always is soul nourishment. While performing eurythmy is a big piece of our work, and the students love to perform, I find that the most important moments happens when we are in a healthy movement space together.
It is for those moments that happen frequently enough that I continue to share my passion and love for eurythmy with teenagers. Eurythmy forms and strengthens their etheric bodies, just like navigating the NYC streets and subway system does in other ways. I think because my students live in this big city they live with forms, orientation and geometry in a very particular way. It would be beyond the scope of this letter to explore these thoughts further right now, but is certainly worth looking into.
Eurythmy has served me in my life tremendously well, and I am honored to be sharing my findings with my students, and their parents, who also practice with me. The spirit of support at Steiner also became evident at our Eurythmy flashmob for Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim, in April 2019. The whole city was buzzing about Hilma (see the photo of my students on the subway track) and I went several times with classes to see the exhibit. On some visits we “spontaneously” positioned ourselves along the spiral rotunda and did Eurythmy, being joined equally spontaneously by other Guggenheim visitors…. This was the answer to my inner question: Will a flashmob for Hilma work? My students were on fire about the idea, as were my colleagues, parents and friends, and of course so was Hilma, and together we made it happen – it was remarkable!
Perhaps from a distance NYC may seem like a crazy place….and while that is also true, I experience this city and school filled with creative potential and willingness to make amazing and unusual experiences happen. As a community of colleagues and families we manage to create a space where learning and social life can indeed flourish and the arts hold a cherished and valued place.
I am happy to report that Eurythmy is well and thriving at the Rudolf Steiner School! Should you find yourself on a trip to New York City, I welcome you to visit our school, just reach out! aspadea@steiner.edu