A Conversation with Dorothea Mier, Advent 2011 by Maria Ver Eecke Maria is Editor of the Newsletter for the Eurythmy Association of North America. When Dorothea Mier speaks of eurythmy, she offers living, gem-like images; each ideal has been thoroughly practiced and lived by her. Dorothea studied piano at the Birmingham School of Music and the Royal College of Music, then received eurythmy training and taught for 17 years at the Lea van der Pals School in Dornach, Switzerland. From 1959 to 1980 she performed and toured with the Goetheanum Eurythmy Ensemble under Marie Savitch. In 1980 she was invited to lead the School of Eurythmy in Spring Valley, New York. With the Eurythmy Spring Valley Ensemble, she has toured all over the Dorothea Mier United States, Canada, and Europe. In 2005, Dorothea’s choreography of three movements from Antonin Dvořák’s New World Symphony was part of a symphonic eurythmy tour to sixteen cities in North America (see photos). Retired in 2006, she still brings her gifts to Eurythmy Spring Valley part-time, and teaches in diverse settings and countries. Maria Ver Eecke: Dorothea, you have devoted your life to eurythmy and anthroposophy. Could you speak of eurythmy as an inner path of development? Dorothea Mier: Through eurythmy, one comes to know oneself, and not just in movement. You practice with the whole of yourself, spirit, soul, and body. You, yourself, are the instrument, so everything you do, think, feel has an effect on this instrument. Eurythmy is inseparable from anthroposophy, so obviously the more you 18 •
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“live” anthroposophy, starting with the many exercises that Rudolf Steiner has given, the more expressive this instrument will become. In eurythmy, the physical body moves to the laws of the etheric which are guided by the soul-spirit. A good instrument does not get in the way, but will allow the speech or music to come across. The elements of speech and music are the bearers, the medium of the poets and composers. We need to penetrate these, to “become” them so as to “bring to life” in movement what the poet and composer wished to convey. Frank Lloyd Wright said, “If you wish to know the nature of a thing, you will find it in the thing.” When a concerned eurythmist asked Rudolf Steiner whether something would be too subjective, he answered that it cannot be subjective enough. The subjective aspect becomes objective through the fact of uniting oneself with the element [of speech or of music]. MVE: Could you speak of eurythmy in relation to the etheric? DM: Eurythmy does not follow physical laws of measure, weight, and number, but the laws of levity. It is a “time” art, the movement between, as the present is between the past and future. The more this can be brought to expression, the richer it will be. Eurythmists do not tire because eurythmy raises the physical body to the laws of the etheric; and this is enlivening. An example of this is if you are out of breath after doing a quick piece – you have been moving too physically. In group forms it is important not only what each individual does, but what happens between the eurythmists, while in a solo, with the space around one. MVE: That sounds like a conversation, as also between eurythmist and the speaker or musician. Can you speak to looking back on one hundred years of eurythmy? DM: I have realized that this isn’t just a looking back, but reading what Rudolf Steiner gave at the very beginning with today’s eyes and hearts. Recognizing all that was contained in the first indications can be an inspira-