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.
Life and work
Early life and education
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".
Between the ages of 15 and 21, Gerda Alexander had several severe attacks of rheumatic fever, followed by heart diseases and culminating in an endocarditis, which was considered a disabling illness in the 1920s. She was hospitalized many times and had to find ways to move that would not overload her circulatory system.
Gerda Alexander graduated as a Dalcroze Eurhythmics teacher from the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin in 1929. During this period, Dalcroze Eurhythmics was taught in all large universities and music schools in Germany due to Kestenberg-reform.