Eurythmy Education: Professor Ulrike Langescheid in an Interview

What is eurythmy, how can pupils best be reached through it today? And what can a degree in eurythmy education achieve? Ulrike Langescheid answers these and other questions in conversation with the Software AG Foundation.

“Eurythmy education promotes physical dexterity and coordination. Beyond that, through eurythmy I also learn to put my impulses, whether emotional or intellectual, into practice,” says Ulrike Langescheid. Since 2007, she has been teaching as Professor of Eurythmy with a focus on eurythmy education at Alanus University.

For a long time, eurythmy as a school subject was unfortunately all too often not especially popular. That is why it is essential to correct the mistakes of the past, says Langescheid: “This was certainly also due to the lack of pedagogical training among colleagues who taught without appropriate qualifications.” Whereas in the past the focus in eurythmy lessons was often on the artistic realization of eurythmy, the degree program in eurythmy education shows students that it is the pupils who should be at the center.

With eurythmy as the “art of shaping relationships,” one constantly practices and shapes a wide variety of relationships to feelings, body, mind, space, and time, Langescheid explains. Above all, however, what matters is the approach to eurythmy. In the degree program, the professor teaches modern methods and helps students apply them: “Eurythmy education means transforming what I have developed over four years of study.”  

Young people today use different media and use them far more intensively than they did just a few years ago. According to Langescheid, this has also intensified the aspect of “disconnection from the body”: “If I can change so much with one click, whether on the screen or with a sent message, then not much movement is needed anymore.” In order to meet the needs of today’s generation, several-week internships in the fields of education, social eurythmy, or therapy are therefore already included in the bachelor’s degree in eurythmy with a basic qualification in eurythmy education and therapy.

It is very important to Ulrike Langescheid to create optimal study conditions and to provide students with a sound and modern education. What do students need for their professional practice? What matters to them? “We have to take a thorough look at that every few years, because society is changing so quickly now.”

The full interview can be read on the website of the Software AG Foundation.

Photo: Paul Masukowitz