About Us

Eurythmy India – The training

Our part time five year training programme is composed of five 10-day blocks a year, led by experienced teachers of Eurythmy, Speech and Drama and the Steiner Waldorf curriculum. Conducted in English and suitable for students from across the world, this training is ratified by the Goetheanum Performing Arts section and Witten-Annen University.

The Training Program is dynamic, giving tuition in eurythmy as a performative and  educational tool. We currently teach in Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai. We seek to develop eurythmy practice and teaching not only in the Steiner/Waldorf and other educational and education and artistic communities in India, but to try to establish a living relationship between the new art form of eurythmy and the varied traditions of Indian dance. The course has  three central aims: to offer an affordable curriculum for a part-time eurythmy training, to offer a supplementary curriculum of speech and drama in addition to eurythmy, and to adapt the training programme to the practical needs of Waldorf teaching, making it a unique programme worldwide. 

Further topics covered are: an introduction to eurythmy therapy, music theory, clay modelling, drawing, study of anatomy and the study of Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Spiritual Science’. Online practice sessions and 1-1 meetings are also conducted in order to ensure progress and the maintaining of community.  

The training is composed of twenty-five ten-day modules over five years, with practice sessions in between being closely monitored. Students currently come not only from India but also Nepal, Malaysia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Iran and Singapore. The training is developing a  collaborative teaching practice, with visiting teachers contributing to the modules with one or more of the core teachers. 

Students are expected to take detailed notes and record of the course content, and during the training will present two independent research projects, one on an art practitioner (typically a western composer or artist as this is normally outside the experience of most applicants) and one on a theme connected to eurythmy that has a profound interest for them. Topics have included Eurythmy in relation to Yoga, Eastern and Western zodiacs and their relation to Eurythmy, Regional languages and poetic traditions in relation to Eurythmy,

Eurythmy - a new movement art for the twenty-first century

Eurythmy is a movement discipline developed by Rudolf and Marie Steiner in Europe in the early twentieth century. It has its applications in education, performance and therapy, and is today an ideal tool for self development as well as an artistic or education  discipline. Eurythmy is an essential component of Waldorf Steiner education, now the largest independent school movement in the world, and qualification as a Eurythmist can lead to a professional career as performer, teacher or therapist. Today there are eurythmy schools all over the world, a list of which can be found here- Eurythmy schools worldwide

Eurythmy as an art form is founded on the idea that musical tone and the sounds of human speech have an intrinsic formative energy, which can be manifested and expressed artistically through the various forms and gestures learnt in the training. Eurythmy as a performance art demands the deepest possible integration with what can be called the higher self. It is an arduous training with challenges on many levels. As a relatively young art form, it can and must continue to evolve. In some ways it is the descendent of the ancient temple dances of Greece, and carries a comparable level of spiritual power – in other ways it is a fun and highly social art that can be used  to address the needs of our own time. 

For further reference, here is a link to a series of lectures by Rudolf Steiner on Eurythmy:

An Introduction to Eurythmy

Eurythmy as a Performing Art

Eurythmy as performance is the root and trunk of all Eurythmy work today. Throughout its history, Stage Groups and Eurythmy Performing Ensembles, first based in Switzerland and then increasingly in Germany, Europe, the UK and all over the world including the USA, South Africa, Russia, South America, Japan and Australia. As of today, Eurythmy is performed internationally, across all continents to a greater or lesser degree. There is tremendous potential for the growth and development of the performance of Eurythmy.
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Music Eurythmy

In the case of music eurythmy it is the notes, the intervals, the rhythm, beat and melody which is expressed in bodily movement. The experience given through one musical interval is entirely different from another. Eurythmy marks these differences by the variety of gesture and movement which follow the actual line and cadence of a melody expressing the inner nature of music through a response aligned to and in harmony with the archetypal nature of the human being.
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Eurythmy as Visible Speech

The written word is one form of visible speech, a magical code that, when we have learned to decipher it, unlocks in us thoughts, images, feelings and connects us to our fellow human beings. But it is mute, and the experience of language when we read by-passes the world of how words sound. Eurythmy needs to work with the audible word – the sounding of vowels and consonants, the rhythms and emphases of the spoken word. It can also incorporate the subtler, more abstract aspects of language, like grammar, and express its imaginative and emotional content.
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Eurythmy in Education

In various ways we human beings are threefold. Mind, heart and body (spirit, soul and body) is one; thinking, feeling and will (doing) is another; and thirdly, we can also see in our physical appearance, the threefoldness of head, rhythmic (circulatory) system and limbs. When those three parts work harmoniously, we become healthy and balanced. At the foundation of Waldorf education lie these three aspects of the human being. Another important basis is that Waldorf Education aims to give children what they need (the right thing) at the right time according to the life rhythm of developmental stages, which unfold in seven-year periods.
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Our Core Teachers

Dan Skinner

Founding Member & Teacher

After completing the Creative Speech training at the London School of Speech Formation, Dan Skinner worked as performer and director with The Rose Theatre Company in the UK from 1991-2005, touring throughout Europe with Shakespeare and childrens' theatre productions. With Portal productions, presenting Rudolf Steiner's four 'Mystery dramas', he played the role of Johannes. Under Enrique Pardo Daniel performed with Pantheatre. Daniel has been a speaker for several eurythmy companies, Orpheus eurythmy, Ashdown eurythmy and London eurythmy. He is also an experienced Steiner Waldorf teacher both as a class teacher and a drama teacher, most recently at Michael Hall School in Sussex, where he recently said goodbye to his third class. He is currently teaching on the Eurythmy India training, of which he is co-founder, and developing a woodland theatre.

Diana Constantin

Founding Member & Teacher

Diana Constantin Skinner is a eurythmy teacher, performer and therapist. She holds an MA in Eurythmy in Education and has been performing and giving workshops for children and adults both in Europe and in Asia, as core member of London Eurythmy, an international performing company. After more than 20 years of class teaching and eurythmy teaching in Waldorf schools, mentoring, advising and guiding teachers and staff in her role of Chair of Teachers, Diana is currently co-founder and tutor at Eurythmy India, a tutor at the London Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Training Course as well as teaching eurythmy at the Sevenoaks Walthamstow Hall School and St. Paul’s Steiner School in London.

Chrystal Hayn

Founding Member & Teacher

Chrystal Hayn studied Waldorf Education in Stuttgart in the 80’s and after class teaching for 7 years trained in Eurythmy at the Ringwood Botton Eurythmy School. She has performed in national and international performing projects with the Botton Stage Group, Eskdale Eurythmy, Peredur Stage Group and London Eurythmy over 22 years, working mainly with Hajo Dekker. She taught at the London College Of Eurythmy and is currently part of the Foundation Stone Meditation performing work with London Eurythmy. She lives and works at The Mount Camphill Community, where she also teaches young people with special needs and is co-founder of Eurythmy India.

Jonathan Reid

Visiting Teacher

I have been a Camphill coworker for all my adult life, living and working with learning disabled adults since 1980. I am a founder member of the Esk Valley Camphill Community that emerged from Botton Village in 2015. In this context I am involved in community management, administration and cultural life.

I trained as a eurythmist in the Camphill Eurythmy School from 1982-86 and have, at different times in my career, taught children in a Steiner school, learning disabled and maladjusted teenagers, and learning disabled adults.

From 1994, until its closure in 2014, I was a tutor in the Camphill Eurythmy School. Throughout my career I have been active as a eurythmy performer and director, largely with the Botton Eurythmy Ensemble. Since 2014 I have taught blocks in West Midlands Eurythmy School and Eurythmy India and I continue to offer master classes in my two fields of interest and expertise: Eurythmy in the English Language and Colour in Eurythmy.

Stephan Nussbaum

Visiting teacher and mentor

Born in Bonn, eurythmist, runs the cultural coffee house “Café Leye” in Witten. In addition to his artistic work on stage and as a choreographer, he was a co-founder of numerous cultural initiatives, such as the Forum Café in Hamburg and various international stage ensembles in Brazil and Germany. For 20 years he led the eurythmy training in Witten and was a tutor in the master's course in eurythmy at the University of Plymouth.
Nussbaum is a mentor at the Eurythmy School of India, he gives master classes in Moscow, is a co-founder and board member of a cooperative that runs a regional health food store in the center of Witten. He is an employee at the „First World Development“ think tank as well as co-founder and member of the cultural initiative „Ensemble Public Secrets“ www.public-secrets.org www.first-world-developement.org www.cafeleye.de

Deepa Mahesh

Teacher

Deepa Mahesh graduated from Eurythmy India in 2022 and serves as an Assistant teacher since 2023. Deepa believes that she is an artist at heart, with her basic training in Indian classical dance – Bharatnatyam and India classical music (Carnatic). She has also been a part of a spiritual organisation, where she was trained in singing devotional songs. She is a mandala artist and finds similarity between Eurythmy and mandala each time she engages in both these art forms.
A human resources professional by training, she has served in several corporates in the Leadership role. In search of her purpose she quit a full-time corporate role and founded her leadership consulting firm to enable transformation in individuals and teams through Leadership Coaching and Facilitation. Her work is inspired by the wisdom of the East and West.
The Eurythmy course has been a personal transformation journey from imbalance to finding her balance. She is committed to spread this healing impulse far and wide ad serves as a role holder in the society. She lives in Bangalore, India.

Preeti Birla Nair

Teacher

Preeti graduated from Eurythmy India in 2022 and joined as an Assistant Teacher in 2023. Preeti had a keen interest in both dance and theatre since early years. She was trained in the classical dance form of Bharatnatyam, in Hyderabad with Smt. Ananda Shankar as her guru. She started her career as a hotel management professional and after studying further, joined the corporate world in the field of Human Resources. While working, she was also moonlighting with a theatre company as an actor. In 2016, she decided to explore the world of applied arts, given her growing curiosity in using arts-based methodologies for personal growth - this is what drew her to Eurythmy as well. She believes integrating arts with daily life can help individuals access their deeper creative potential for enriched and harmonious living. She strives towards creating such spaces through her organization empurple. Eurythmy is now an added medium that she integrates with her offerings of Life Coaching, Group facilitation and interactive performances. She is committed to the growth of Eurythmy in India and is a role holder in the Eurythmy India Society. She lives in Mumbai, India.

Governing Body

The Eurythmy Society for Performance and Education is the formal body of administration for Eurythmy India. The society aims to spread the art of Eurythmy in and around India. We deliver this through the five year part time training, short workshops and performances for adults and children. We also encourage schools and other institutions to include Eurythmy in their curriculum. Students drawn to this vision have taken up key administrative roles in the society and continue to be guided and mentored by the Core Teachers.

The Bana sisters – Our Godparents

Aban and Dilnawaz Bana, our Eurythmy godparents
Aban and Dilnawaz Bana, with us in Mumbai
Both Aban and Dilnawaz have been instrumental in prepararing the ground in India for Eurythmy and Speech formation. We hope very much that they will continue to be able to support Eurythmy India both practically and inwardly for many many years to come

Aban Bana

Aban Bana is a trained Waldorf teacher and Eurythmist. She is the founder of “Anthroposophical Initiatives in India”, along with her sister and she travels with her to promote Anthroposophy in India and South Asia. She writes articles and gives talks on subjects related to Anthroposophy and Waldorf Education. She met Anthroposophy almost 40 years ago and has travelled widely to many parts of the world. She worked as a teacher in the Basel Steiner School in Switzerland during the early part of her career and later went on to help in bringing Waldorf Education to India, in the nineties.

Dilnawaz Bana

Dilnawaz Bana is the first Eurythmist and Curative Eurythmist in India, Dilnawaz Bana, along with her sister, Aban, remain dedicated teachers of Eurythmy, Waldorf education and Anthroposophy. Dilnawaz has since introduced Eurythmy to schools, teachers and doctors in various places in India and has been on the teaching faculty of the International Post-Graduate Medical Training programs conducted annually at various places in India, from the year 2004. She has since retired as a Curative Eurythmist from the Lukas Klinik, Arlesheim.

Eurythmy India – the next steps

Some of the graduates are now working as Eurythmists in Waldorf schools, some are  continuing their studies in Eurythmy Therapy, and some are now part of the faculty of Eurythmy India. We very much hope that a new permanent centre for Eurythmy India can be developed in the near future. To this end discussions are taking place for a dedicated training space at Hidden Oasis, Pune. We would like to continue the process of training, research and development over and above the basic training, so that students can continue to develop their skills even after graduation. 

In the wake of the graduation tour in 2024 we will be establishing a permanent stage group. 

A new classroom has now been built specifically for eurythmy at the Prerana Waldorf school, but some Waldorf schools in India do not yet have eurythmy as part of their curriculum. In Rudolf Steiner’s view, eurythmy was an essential element of Waldorf education and we hope very much to see the inclusion and celebration of eurythmy in every Waldorf school in India as well as in any school where our graduates can teach. Truly an art for the twenty-first century, eurythmy is a unique discipline in which every participant can achieve a deeper level of self-knowledge.

Please contact eurythmyindia@yahoo.com

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