Ruth Alperson:
Bringing the Page to Life with Dalcroze Eurhythmics
Dalcroze eurhythmics is an approach to learning music through natural body movement. Jogging, walking, stretching, and simple gestures, provide us with many elements in music, including rhythm patterns, articulation, phrase, and nuance. In a Dalcroze class, these elements are explored and developed through improvising, in movement, singing, and instrumentally, often with partners, and in groups. Our workshop session will focus on a variety of music subjects, inspired by a beautiful musical work from the repertoire that will be presented in our session.
During this two-hour workshop, we will explore these subjects, in a eurhythmics session. Exercises in solfège will help us grasp the melodic and harmonic elements in our work, while developing our inner hearing. We will devote time as well to improvising for movement.
The experiential nature of the Dalcroze work will encourage us to internalize elements of our piece as we work toward meaning.
Please note: You are encouraged to wear comfortable clothes for moving, such as sweatpants and tees, and to work barefoot, or to wear non-slip socks, or slippers with flexible, thin-soled shoes.
Ruth Alperson stepped into her first eurhythmics class at Oberlin College, where she studied with Inda Howland; she continued Dalcroze studies in eurhythmics, solfège, and improvisation at the New York Dalcroze School with Hilda Schuster. Ruth earned the Licentiate from The Dalcroze Teachers Training Course in London, England, under the direction of Elizabeth Vanderspar, and the Diplôme Supérieur from L’Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, Switzerland. Ruth has a Ph.D. in Arts and Humanities from New York University. She is a former faculty member of NYU, the Manhattan School of Music, and L’Université Laval, in Quebec City, Canada. She has presented Dalcroze workshops across the United States, in Canada, Mexico, The Dominican Republic, England, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia. Ruth is a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference of Dalcroze Studies (ICDS). She is Dean Emerita of the Hoff-Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale, New York.