Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

Movement in America:And So—What’s Moving Us?byBarbara Schneider-SerioFor the last twenty or so years I have had the privilege of workingin the field of movement and getting to know people through that medium.What has become clear during this time is that the way a person moves isdirectly connected to the way she or he speaks and vice versa. My work ineurythmy, of course, focuses on this aspect. What is the inner experience ofa sound, say an “AAAh” or “EEE,” or “B,” “L,” “SH,” “M”? What does thissound call forth in me, and what gesture innately belongs to it? This makesfor an interesting study when dealing with different languages, differentdialects and different peoples.Quite a few years ago, when I had just begun working in eurythmy,I spent a semester in England. Oh, how these English like to crunch theirvowels! Perfectly round little “O”s, that is, God or coffee or talk, neatlyperched “EE”s or “I”s and one syllable “AE”s as man, ram, Sam. It’s a realpleasure to see these little creatures so self-contained, knowing their places,and rather enjoying the company of a few hearty consonants to get thingsinto perfect order.Listening to the English, and wondering how different it would beto move to an English or an American speaker, I remembered an indicationfor gestures for American vowels. It was to do all the vowel gestures withan indication of “AAAh.” Now what belongs to “AAAH”- ness?First, we need to open our mouths quite wide to say a proper“AAAh.” (Dentists love that sound for some incomprehensible reason.) Andwhen do I say “AAAh”? Remember the time when something just about279