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From the Archives...
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From 1920-1965 the Queenswood music department flourished under the direction of Ernest Read, professor of music at the Royal Academy of Music, who was also president of the Dalcroze Association, writes Dr Wendy Bird. Dalcroze Eurythmics, a progressive, holistic method of musical appreciation through the whole body, was introduced into the school from 1921. Demonstrations were given every year on Speech Day, with the girls dancing barefoot on the lawn in loose gowns. Indeed, the most striking aspect of the liberating character of Eurythmics was the bare feet and arms. |
'Eurythmics are being taught in many educational institutions throughout the country...The object of the method is, in the first instance, to create, by the help of rhythm, a rapid and regular current of communication between brain and body...'
- The Dancing Times c.1920
Some OQs remember doing it:
'We were taught Dalcroze Eurythmics all the time I was at school from a teacher who came from London. I enjoyed it very much.'
- an OQ, c. 1925
'I do have this vague memory of being asked to take off shoes and socks and dance around barefoot in the gym. It felt rather unseemly for some reason...there had at one time been a sound educational/health rationale which had disappeared into the mists of time and no-one was able to explain clearly enough what on earth the point of the exercise was.'
- an OQ, c. 1950
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