I was watching Barbara and Mikko's show in the Goetheanum on Saturday evening and felt somewhat left out of the proceedings but it wasn't until the small hours of Monday that I came to realise what the problem was; it seems to me that for a contemporary eurythmy performance to become effective we must find different ways of including the audience into what we are trying to say. Spiritual content can no longer be passed down from the high altar but the audience needs to be brought towards the sphere where a communication can take place. There is a great responsibility put on the shoulders of the performers they must open up to the audience, treating as them as spiritual identities, and, at least, for the duration of the performance develop an interest in their path.
We can use colour on stage to help in this process, helping the audience away from a purely physical visual experience so that they can enter into those places where the eurythmy has its roots so that a communion can take place.
It is an interesting question as to whether the traditional stage form is the best place to perform contemporary eurythmy, since my experinces in Berlin I have great doubts, but in any case (new)eurythmy will only ever be effective in the 21st century when the performers have the ambition to be responsible for each others spiritual development and to include the audience in that development.
The inn at the end of the valley
A place for fellow travellers
Throughout time people have gathered at places where the well travelled roads turn into less well trodden paths; at the sea’s shore, at the edge of the forest, at the foot of the mountains. Here stories can be shared, songs can be sung, those just setting out can meet with those who have already taken some steps on the less well defined paths. Some are looking for someone to accompany them for a while or point them in a certain direction; others just want a place to rest before continuing their own, more lonely, explorations. Some stay for a long time while for others it is just a place to pass through, it doesn’t matter the place has its own rhythm; the journey has called on all who pass that way.
The nature of our exploration has changed; the quest has become less concrete. The journey into the unknown has turned us away from the mountains, the forest and the sea and has turned us inwards towards ourselves; but the need for these meeting places remains. Today’s travellers also know that at some point there will be no paths left to follow and that the journey onward will be on their own unique path that none has taken before them and that perhaps they will sometimes need to find a place to rest, discover new inspirations, and share the company of their fellow travellers.Perhaps you have stumbled across such a place by accident, perhaps you knew it was there but couldn’t find it, perhaps it doesn’t exist yet. But the necessity of these places remains and it is for some the only hope .
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Sunday, 29 September 2013
Sunday, 25 August 2013
I was in Berlin at the end of June lighting some Eurythmy for the annual general meeting of the German Anthroposphic society which was held in the small hall of the Philharmonie there. The nature of the space was that the the audience sat all around the performing space, for the most of the performers this was an unusual experience but for few of us it was also a realisation of how much a new consciousness of the other was necessary to be able to perform in such a space. There are many analogies to be found between a church and a theatre the priest/performer acting as the intermediary between the spiritual and the physical but the old forms seem to be inadequate. Both the performers and the audience has come together so share, true the performers have decided to accompany one another for a while on their journey, the audience are passing through, strangers on the same journey.
Friday, 23 August 2013
I suppose most of you are wondering what is this all about?
(!(since this is a blog do not expect to find here thoughts that have a finality about them but rather that are undergoing constant revision)!)
The idea is to find a place that would become the permanent or temporary home for a group of people whose main connection is just the fact that they share unanswered questions as to the nature of the spiritual path that they are on. For the more permanent members that i think mean that they are also willing ( and able?) to take on a certain responsibility for the spiritual development of the other members, as a conscious act. This idea is not so new for me, it was very much a part of my 'anthroposophic years' in Holland, and has become an ideal in various disguises that could be applied to many parts of my life.
Most importantly for me is to lose the 'it' as if all of this was some impersonal far fetched fantasy and use the'I' which is anyhow that part of us that joins us to the spiritual realities.
(If you are looking for some bedtime reading I suggest that you try for a start Dieter BrĂ¼ll's Gemeinschaft und Gemeinsamkeit.)
........
(!(since this is a blog do not expect to find here thoughts that have a finality about them but rather that are undergoing constant revision)!)
The idea is to find a place that would become the permanent or temporary home for a group of people whose main connection is just the fact that they share unanswered questions as to the nature of the spiritual path that they are on. For the more permanent members that i think mean that they are also willing ( and able?) to take on a certain responsibility for the spiritual development of the other members, as a conscious act. This idea is not so new for me, it was very much a part of my 'anthroposophic years' in Holland, and has become an ideal in various disguises that could be applied to many parts of my life.
Most importantly for me is to lose the 'it' as if all of this was some impersonal far fetched fantasy and use the'I' which is anyhow that part of us that joins us to the spiritual realities.
(If you are looking for some bedtime reading I suggest that you try for a start Dieter BrĂ¼ll's Gemeinschaft und Gemeinsamkeit.)
........
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
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