American Eurythmy School

Weed, California, U.S.A.

The American Eurythmy School is the second four year Eurythmy training to be initiated on the West Coast of North America. The first one, the Gold Ridge School folded after only a couple of years in existence in Fair Oaks California. Karen (Sherman) McPherson, who studied primarily with Ilona Schubert in the 1970s in Dornach, Switzerland, was a principle teacher at the Gold Ridge school along with Gene Schwartzkopf. After leaving that school, she started the American Eurythmy School with Michael McPherson in the town of Mt. Shasta in the early 1980s. The first graduation from the four year program was held in 1990. By this time, it had moved to a location near Weed, California in the area of Mt. Shasta.

The teaching in this school differs from other eurythmy schools in the world in its emphasis on the transformation of the thinking by the student, something that was indicated by Rudolf Steiner as necessary for a strong foundation for the healthy development of the eurythmist's artistic instrument. Anthroposophy and related classes have at AES been on an equal footing with the studies in eurythmy. The eurythmy work itself is mainly grounded in a stream of work identifiable with Ilona Schubert. While in Dornach, Karen had worked with three of the first eurythmists, who had in their turn studied with Rudolf and Marie Steiner, including Ilona Schubert and Friedel (Simmons) Thomas.

The school, along with its founders have maintained a staunch position of independence from the general structures and leadership of the Worldwide Anthroposophical Society, as well as from other streams of eurythmy work in America. As of this writing (2009), the four year diplomas issued by AES are not yet recognized by the Eurythmy Association of America or the Artistic Section of the Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland.