Eurythmy, Rudolf Steiner's art of "visible speech" and "visible music," has received ever growing recognition as a vital contribution to the cultural life of our time. In the spheres of the performing arts, education and therapy, it offers new perspectives and possibilities for the enlivenment of human experience. Conceived in 1912, in answer to the demands for a new art of movement, it was adapted to serve the developmental needs of children in the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart, Germany. Another application of eurythmy came about in 1921. Working together with eurythmists and medical doctors, Rudolf Steiner developed "curative" or "therapeutic eurythmy." It was introduced to the Waldorf school movement in the year following its inception. At the same time, a large circle of physicians began to prescribe it as an element of medical therapy. Since that time, curative eurythmy has found acceptance in a wide range of therapeutic settings including schools and homes for the handicapped, clinics and hospitals throughout the world. The universality of eurythmy stems from its origins in a spiritual and scientific body of knowledge known as "Anthroposophy," the study of wisdom inherent in the human being.

Steiner's studies in Anthroposophy led him to define the human being as a threefold organism, comprising the nervous, rhythmical and metabolic-limb systems. These systems form the physiological basis of thinking, feeling and willing. Thinking requires the organic processes active in the brain and nerves. Feelings and emotions have their basis in the functions of the heart and lungs. "Will", or the ability to carry out activity, has its organic foundation in the metabolic functions. While these functions sustain biological life, they also are essential to consciousness. Steiner observed how the vitality and growth of the infant gradually produces the organic foundations for its cognitive life. Growth leads in time to consciousness and consciousness to individuality and freedom. Learning to speak is of monumental importance to this process. Through it the young child enters the world gaining awareness of itself and the environment.