ALANUS FESTIVAL ECHOES..

I was asked to write something about the festival which took place in Alanus some time ago, something which could tell how the festival gave a contribution to the future of eurythmy.. here i am sharing the text with you:



"My name is Elisa Martinuzzi, I am 29 years old, I finished my eurythmy studies in july 2009 in Den Haag and, since one year, I am working in the field of performing arts.
I came to the festival because, in Holland, I do not get so many possibilities to see what is going on in the eurythmy world around Europe and because I do think that communication and exchange are so much fundamental to keep an art developing.
The general impression I got from the festival is that eurythmy is finally finding its way to individualize and embody itself. Through a process of individualisation, each performer can find and present his/her own personal true relationship to eurythmy.
I too often suffered a kind of dogmatic suffocation among eurythmists, which I think obstacles an honest, open, felt artistic expression and prevents eurythmy to blossom as a performing art.
I appreciated in the festival the open atmosphere and attitude towards all kinds of approaches to eurythmy. In the programme, there was space to be for different performers, who generally had no pretension to know how it should be for everybody, but a will to share their perspectives and researches with the public. Maybe, for a next edition, I would suggest to schedule a common reflection after each performance: a time where performer and public can come into a dialogue and exchange their experiences. I think it would be a fertile ground for a further development of eurythmy.

Personally I really enjoyed contaminations from the performative “outer” world which, I believe, can absolutely been integrated and digested so that eurythmy can build a dialogue with the artistic context we are living in and , at the same time, remaining in contact with its original core.
So, for example:
I appreciated to see that in different performances, the speaker was not just a voice sounding from the outside of the performative picture, but sometimes could instead been included in it through movement.... what if also a eurythmist could talk sometime? : )
I appreciated that some performances had no conventional beginning and end: for example, one performance began from the public space... as you would do in a street performance or in a “commedia dell'arte” piece. It broke the distance between public and performer, it opened the classical 4th wall experience.
I appreciated the use of objects on stage and a growing dramaturgical involvement towards them.
I appreciated a development and attention towards the costumes.
I appreciated a research in the field of time and expression which, in my perspective, acknowledges the impact and consequences of Cunningham's research in dance: must it be that eurythmists always move simultaneously with the music? Why wouldn't we enlarge our research on it?

More in general, I was sincerely happy to see many eurythmists' bodies move as incarnated instruments: with this, I mean that the lower body was integrated into the movement and that the lower “aanzatz”, the barycentre, was fulfilled with presence. Yeah!! I really wish that we can develop our body consciousness more and more, without loosing our inner content!!

I loved the diversity of the festival, I felt inspired by so many different approaches and encouraged to find my own flavour.
I wish there will be in future more opportunities to meet and taste at all graduations of eurythmy: from traditional, to modern, to postmodern!
Let's cultivate diversity and keep in touch!!!"