Memories of Mimi Scheiblauer and the development of Dalcroze Eurhythmics as a therapeutic practice: An interview with Eleonore Witoszynskyj

Abstract

In this interview, Witoszynskyj remembers her first encounter with Rhythmics during the period immediately after the Second World War. In the early 1960s, she had the opportunity to shadow Mimi Scheiblauer, who had been a pupil of Jaques-Dalcroze and was a pioneer in the development of music therapy. Witoszynskyj recalls in detail Scheiblauer’s approach to teaching, describing the strategies and exercises she devised, and speaks of the deep impression this experience made on her. The interview also contains reflections on her teachers Brigitte Müller and Rosalia Chladek, who would later become her colleagues. Witoszynskyj shares her theoretical perspectives on music and movement, developed during work with children with various disabilities and adults with cancer, and through a commitment to continual study. This interview will be relevant to researchers in Dalcroze Studies, historians of rhythmic education and music therapy, and anyone interested in the practice and theory of music and movement that developed from the work of Jaques-Dalcroze, especially in German-speaking Switzerland and Austria.