Герда Александер: Далькроз евритамикасы мен Эутонияның авторы

Dalcroze eurhythmicist, Dalcroze Eurhythmics teacher and Eutony creator

Gerda Alexander (February 15, 1908 – February 21, 1994) was a German/Danish Dalcroze eurhythmicist and teacher, and later creator of Eutony. She was involved with the vanguards of the arts, education, and movement culture in Germany in the first decades of the 20th century, and established herself in Denmark in 1929 onwards. Through the creation of Eutony, Gerda Alexander collaborated with medical centers, pedagogical and artistic training institutes in Europe, North and South America and the Middle East. Gerda Alexander was a pioneer among the creators of somatic education practices in the world. Her school in Copenhagen trained professionals for 45 years, and Eutony is currently taught in professional training schools in Europe and South America.

Gerda Alexander was born in Wuppertal, Germany, and her parents were enthusiasts of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, passing on to her a similar interest in the arts. Her parents avoided telling her explicitly about Dalcroze, but Gerda Alexander had her first contact with his work through some photos of the first festival of the Dalcroze school in Hellerau, followed by a Rhythmics course given by Otto Blensdorf in her city in the same period, and insisted on joining the classes. She attended the Dalcroze Eurhythmics school of Otto Blensdorf (the Blensdorfschule für körperlich musikalische Erziehung, lately named as Blensdorfschule für Rhythmik) in Wuppertal from 1915 until 1929. From 1922, at the age of 14, Gerda Alexander began to get involved in the activities, trips, stage productions and as an assistant teacher at Blensdorf's school and its affiliates in Essen, Düsseldorf, Köln, Remscheis, Solingen, etc. Around 1923, Gerda directed her first play open to the public, staging the first two acts of Humperdinck's Hänsel and Gretel. In 1924, Otto Blensdorf opened the Blensdorf Schule (Dalcroze Seminar) für professionellen Rhythmik Unterricht, a professional training for those who were interested in becoming Dalcroze Eurhythmics teachers, thus providing the pedagogical foundations of the method. Gerda Alexander was part of the first intake of the Seminar. Through her early experiences, Gerda Alexander got in touch with the development of the modern dance in Germany. She performed in the local theatre in Wuppertal (at that time, known as the Vereinigten Stadttheatern Barmen Elberfeld) and in international congresses through the country in the 1920s (e. g. GESOLEI). In later interviews and remembrances, Gerda Alexander referred to personalities as Rudolf Laban, Mary Wigman, Elsa Gindler, Heinrich Jacoby, Bess Mensendieck, Loheland school (Louise Langgaard e Hedwig von Rohden) and Anna Herrmann, and highlighted how the observation of their students were important on the development of her work. Two of Gerda Alexander's teaching internships were remarkable. In 1926, Otto Blensdorf's oldest daughter and collaborator, Charlotte Blensdorf, was invited to teach Dalcroze Eurythmics for children and teachers at the first Institute for Scientific Pedagogical Research under the leadership of Peter Petersen, internationally known for the Jena Plan. At the same period, Charlotte was also invited by the state government to teach at the Staatlichen Erziehungsheimen Stadtroda, a residential institution that cared for around 600 children and adolescents up to the age of 21 with physical disabilities, mental disorders, children of single mothers, prostitutes or mothers aged 13 or 14, including those from dysfunctional homes and with a criminal record in the city of Stadtroda. Gerda Alexander completed a year of practical work as Blensdorf's assistant in these experiences between 1926 and 1927, to which she refers as being "the best pedagogical education of my life, being able to come into contact with all these cases, with the guidance of teachers who have profoundly influenced my work". In 1959, Gerda Alexander organized the "First International Congress for Release of Tension and Functional Movement" in Copenhagen with the support of the Danish Ministry of Education. On this event, she gathered pioneering psychosomatic researchers and methods creators (methods later denominated as "Somatics", "somatic practices" or "somatic education techniques"). Gerda Alexander worked with institutions as diverse as the Fröbel College and Fröbel schools, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Karolinska Institute, Ericastiftelsen, Frederiksberg Folkemusikhøjskolen, Sydsvenska Gymnastikistitut, Private Theater School, Royal Theatre Copenhagen, Theater Academy, Danish Broadcasting House (orchestra, choir and staff), Royal Music Conservatory, Danmarks Lærerhøjskole (Department of Music), Rigshospitalet, Dalcroze Societies, CEMEA (Centres d'Entraînement aux Méthodes d'Education Active, in France), and others. She gave lectures and workshops in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Israel, Greece, Italy, Holland, Mexico, Venezuela, Belgium and Argentina. Gerda Alexander died six days after her 86th birthday in Wuppertal, where she lived in her old age. Her students today continue to teach her work in several places in the world.

By her ongoing reflections with her students of all ages, an enthusiastic inquiry about artistic development and the overcoming of her difficulties, Gerda Alexander made her own research on human movement. In her own words: "I tried to find out how I could develop every person's own expression without programming him/her. At the same time, there was my personal need to learn how to survive"Alexander found ways of somatically modulate and regulate neuromuscular tone. The word "eutony" (from Greek Eu: good – and Latin Tonus: tension, the grade of tension or elasticity of muscle fibers) was coined with the help of the Dr. Alfred Bartussek. According to Alexander, "we use high tonus for effort, and medium tonus or low tonus for rest and sleep. In Eutony, we learn to use the best tonus for the action in question". The psychosomatic processes initiated by her classes were reported by the students, recognizing benefits in their psychic well being and in their daily life, and Alexander began to receive medical referrals and make partnerships with medical centers, treating patients that "specialists could not give any hope of improvement" as paraplegic, spastic, amputees, with psychosomatic cases, among others. Scientific theories came a posteriori to support her practices, as she describes "from that time, new finding in neurophysiology have become an important support of our work, and our practical discoveries can be explained step by step".

The Eutony professional training includes: Eutony (practice and theory, pedagogy and therapy), speech training, psychology, anatomy, physiology, neurology, neurophysiology, neuropathology, psychiatry and seminars from visiting specialists about current development in neurophysiology and other relevant disciplines. Gerda Alexander opened her school in Copenhagen in 1939/1940 for teacher training in Dalcroze Eurhythmics. In 1943, Gerda Alexander changed the programme to a three year training course for afspændingspædagoger (teachers/pedagogues of release of tension). In 1957, the school in Copenhagen got state technical college recognition, with a three to four years training with diploma. As she started to use the word "Eutony" to describe her work, the diploma was referred to as "Eutony teachers/pedagogues" and later "Eutonists". It was officially closed in 1987 by the name of "The Gerda Alexander School – International Centre of Eutonia".