Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (July 6, 1865 - July 1, 1950), was a Swiss musician and educator who developed Eurhythmics, a method of learning and experiencing music through movement. (The influence of Eurhythmics can be seen in the Orff Schulwerk pedagogy, common in public schools throughout the United States.)
The Dalcroze Method is based on the principle that music and movement are linked. For every movement, there is corrseponding music. And for any music, there is a corresponding motion. The Dalcroze Method consists of three equally important elements: Eurhythmics, solfege, and improvisation. Together, according to Dalcroze, they comprise the musicianship training of a complete musician. In an ideal approach, elements from each subject blend together, resulting in teaching rooted in creativity and movement.
Dalcroze began his career as a pedagogue at the Geneva Conservatory, where he taught harmony and solfege. It was in his solfege courses that he began testing many of his influential and revolutionary pedagogical ideas. By 1906, Dalcroze had begun giving public presentations of his method. In 1910, with the help of German industrialist Wolf Dohrn, Dalcroze founded a school at Hellerau, outside of Dresden, dedicated to the teaching of his method. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the school was abandoned.
Dalcroze returned to Geneva, where he founded the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze. He taught there for the remainder of his life, and left to the school the exclusive right to present the highest level of certification in the Dalcroze Method, the Diplome Jaques-Dalcroze.
