Classes
Speech Workouts
Multi-day intensive blocks of classes bring newer students together with those in our Full-Time Program. Each of these blocks opens a window into one focal element of speech, grounded in Rudolf Steiner’s exercises in articulation, breathing, fluency, and style, as well as the movement practices of eurythmy and Greek gymnastics.
We will use those exercises, in combination with poetic texts, to expand and explore our speech capacities. The movement art of eurythmy and the discipline of Greek gymnastics support speech work by building a healthy connection to the sounds and rhythms of language and by furthering the balanced relationship of the human being to the cosmos.
See below for upcoming classes!
Upcoming Intensives
Speech Workout II: Zodiac Circle & Mystery Drama
Thursday, April 16th to Sunday, April 19th
Through anthroposophical performing arts, explore the forces that shape our cosmos. Classes in Speech, Eurythmy, and a Study of Rudolf Steiner’s “Trial of the Soul” will be the focus of this course.
Classes begin Thursday and 3:30pm, run from 9am to 5pm Friday and Saturday and conclude Sunday at 1pm.
Classes:
Eurythmy with Virginia Hermann
We ground the workshop with an introduction to the qualities and gestures of the zodiac in eurythmy, through which the polarities of thinking and will are brought into synthesis with feeling.
Speech & Drama with Beatrice Voigt
Rudolf Steiner speaks in his course to actors about eurythmy as a source of inspiration for stage artists. He encourages us to develop the so-called “specter or phantom of eurythmy.” Via this “specter,” we will explore the twelve “Zodiac People” from the second Mystery Drama.
The Trial of the Soul Study with Barbara Renold
In The Trial of the Soul are scenes in which medieval prior incarnations of modern characters are portrayed — for the first time in the history of drama. These scenes begin with a group of twelve unnamed peasants. Over the years since the play was first performed, in 1911, various directors have given different zodiacal sign designations to the these twelve. We will explore one such designation in this workshop.
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Faculty Biographies
A graduate of the Austin (TX) Waldorf School and Wesleyan University, Virginia developed an early passion for eurythmy in Markus and Andrea Weder’s High School Eurythmy Troupe and Eurythmy Summer Academies. Virginia rejoined the Weders in 2008 as a student in the new im-pulse.eurythmy training in Aesch (Switzerland), Austin, and São Paulo. Virginia completed a one-year Stage Training at Eurythmy Spring Valley in 2012, and earned an MA in Performance Eurythmy from Alanus Hoschule. She became a member of the ESV Ensemble in 2013, and joined the faculty of the School of Eurythmy in 2018. Virginia appeared as Lucifer in the 2014 Threefold Mystery Drama Group production of Rudolf Steiner’s four mystery dramas.
Beatrice has performed and taught artistic speech and drama across North America and Europe, appearing with Amaranth Eurythmy Theater, Spring Valley Mystery Drama Group, Harlotry Players, Spontaneous Me, Hostia, Eurythmy Witten Annen and others. Beatrice graduated from the School of Speech and Drama at the Goetheanum, Switzerland. The Michael Checkov acting program offered through Sunbridge College brought her to the United States. Beatrice has been a Waldorf teacher for many years. She resides near Detroit, Michigan.
Barbara trained in Speech and Drama at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland (1978-81) and the Harkness Studio in Sydney, Australia (1982-83). As speech and drama teacher at Sunbridge College (1983-2007), she directed student productions of the Oberufer Christmas Plays and several Shakespeare plays, as well as giving speech lessons. Barbara has directed two complete cycles of Rudolf Steiner’s four mystery dramas (1987-1998 and 2006-2014), culminating in the historic Threefold Mystery Drama Festival of August 2014, where all four plays were presented by one cast, in one conference, for the first time in the English-speaking world. Barbara holds a BA in math from Douglas College and two MAs in elementary education, one of which is in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). She also holds Creative Speech diplomas from the Goetheanum and the Harkness Studio. A co-founder of the Steiner School of Speech Arts, Barbara also teaches creative speech at Eurythmy Spring Valley's School of Eurythmy and directs community theater productions in the Threefold community, where she has lived since 1986