A Pathway to Emotional and Social Expression

In the last ten years, many educators have perceived drastic changes in the ways students learn. In addition, students are being classified with various learning disabilities in more ways than ever before. In order to accommodate these expanding and changing populations, districts have improved and/ or added many additional programs and services.

Music is capable of reaching many of these populations in ways others cannot, and should be an essential part of these programs. Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a holistic method that connects mind and body, an approach perfect to meet the challenges of today’s classroom. It should be included in the training of all music teachers.

I was awarded the Dalcroze Certificate in 2007 by the late Robert Abramson at The Juilliard School Dalcroze Institute and have spent the past nine years using my training in a number of unique situations. I began teaching in an urban school in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. I moved to an inner-city public school in Newark, New Jersey and then to a county district specializing in alternative and special education. I taught in four of the district schools: one for children on the autistic spectrum, one for students with physical disabilities, an alternative middle/high school for students with behavioral classifications, and an alternative high school for at-risk inner-city students.

I was shocked (and continue to be) at the dramatic effects Eurhythmics-based exercises had within these varied populations.

Eurhythmics on the First Day

Consider a class of culturally and ethnically diverse high school students in an alternative setting. Many of the students are at risk of dropping out, and are past the typical high school graduation age of seventeen, the age range of the students being fourteen to twenty. Many have Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s) and/or Behavioral Modification Plans (BMP’s). Some come from troubled homes, live in poverty, or have attendance problems. Many don’t know who they are or where they fit into society at large. The classroom is a microcosm of their world, and it is what I faced on my first day.

How did I handle it? I began by handing each student a small beanbag and asking them to pass it from hand to hand while counting out loud to four. Some looked at me like I was nuts. Others cursed me out while saying how “easy” and “stupid” the exercise was. “If it’s so easy, then you should be able to do it,” I answered with a smile. Next, I asked them to pass in time with a beat I played on a small drum set I’d brought in. (They were shocked at my ability to lay down a hip hop groove.)

Eventually the game became passing in time between two people. They weren’t allowed to speak, but had to communicate through movement and facial expression. If they dropped the beanbag, or lost the beat, they couldn’t get mad. They had to work together to figure out the problem, then simply start again. This eventually grew into the whole class forming a circle and trying to get a single beanbag around in time. When they got good I added stops, starts, and changes in direction—quick reaction elements. They loved it.

One class was laughing so hard, a school security guard ran in thinking there was nonsense going on. A student who’d had trouble with attendance as well as social issues handed me a note after the first month of school. It read: “I love this class. I love everything we do in this class…I don’t like we only have this class two days a week.”

A simple game allowed a roomful of tough, at-risk inner city kids to begin to discover who they were. They did this through movement, expression, and listening. They woke up socially and emotionally—and did so through music. I was eventually able to start a strings program as well as a vibrant music history curriculum. Students with social issues began to express themselves more verbally. The power of eurhythmics was evident throughout.

Eurhythmics for Students with Special Needs

Eurhythmics also helped me with classes of autistic students as well as physically disabled and behaviorally challenged students. I played a game with my autistic students that involved them standing in assigned colored circles I’d placed on the floor, and moving rhythmically to my piano playing. The exercise began with small movements: shoulders, hands, head. These grew to larger, gross motor movements: knee bends, hips. The circles on the floor provided personal space, and allowed for recognition of body awareness as well as an easy way to identify their personal movements. This created a gradual understanding of the group dynamic, which is essential to their growth as students.

Eventually I gave the students rhythm sticks. The sticks led to drums which led to a healthy classroom with music and participation. The physical movement led to a sense of self realization. Some students began doing things in music they were not doing in occupational, physical, or speech therapies. The physical component of eurhythmics allowed the discovery of temperament and the role it plays with emotions, social skills, and expression. This enabled me to bring in basic solfège as well as improvisational exercises.

The greatest accomplishment was an actual string ensemble with my physically disabled students. This culminated in a dual concert between my students and those from a local middle school’s eighth grade orchestra.