On Friday our families and friends came to Kay Meek Centre to watch this year’s fairy tale called Mother Holle.
To start off our performance, one group of co-workers and companions dressed up in white, did movements to the music of Max Schuurman. This was called EVOE, a greeting from the cosmos. Then Aiden, Mary, Jason and the Northwest Eurythmy Company danced to Antonio Vivaldi’s music.
Lorna’s Bell Choir, dressed in black, played a musical piece by Pachelbel – Canon – while the Grade 10 students from Vancouver Waldorf School entertained us with their eurythmy. The Eurythmy Northwest also danced to Mendelssohn and Pärt. After all the musical pieces were over, Patricia read a poem by Rudolf Steiner, which was also performed in eurythmy. Then she introduced and narrated the fairy tale, Mother Holle.
In the Mother Holle fairy tale, a young beautiful and industrious girl sits at a well and weaves a cloth with her spindle until she pricks herself. Her finger bleeds and when she bends over to wash the blood off the spindle, it falls into the well.
Her unfair and angry stepmother told her to jump into the well to retrieve the spindle. The young girl jumps in to the well and wakes up in a meadow where she is surrounded by thousands of beautiful flowers. She picks them up while walking down a path. On her way she sees an oven with bread baking in it and the bread spoke to her. They said, ‘Take me out, take me out or else we will burn.’ She did as she was told and took the bread out. She continued on her way until she came to an apple tree filled with ripe apples. The tree said, ‘Shake me, shake me, we are all ripe.’ Again the girl did as she was told and shook the tree. After that she continued on her way until she came to a small house.
She met Mother Holle. At first the girl was very frightened by her big eyes and big teeth. She soon realized that Mother Holle was kind. Mother Holle asked her to do jobs around the house. The most important job that she had to do was to shake out the feather blanket. When the feathers fell, they turned into snow. Finally, the little girl became homesick and asked to return to her home.
Mother Holle was pleased with her kindness and work ethic. She allowed the girl to return home and she was rewarded with gold.
When the little girl met her stepmother and stepsister, they were very happy to see the gold. But they were also very jealous. The stepmother sent her ugly and idle daughter to Mother Holle hoping that she would return with gold also. She went on the same path but she refused to help and she refused to do the work. Mother Holle sent her home covered in black pitch which stuck on her for the rest of her life.

The golden girl receives her spindle back from Mother Holle and can return home again
Mother Holle was performed in music, eurythmy and speech. Highlights of this show was the contribution of so many people working together to create an entertaining and enjoyable play. The music was written by Lorna, her daughter Ella, and Stephen Chobaniuk, and played by the Bell Choir, Alison, Jeff and Stephen. The eurythmy was created and taught by Laurel, Sonia and Ruth. Patricia narrated the play and Ruth was the artistic director overseeing the costumes and set design.
Thank you to Eurythmy Northwest, North Vancouver Eurythmy Group, Waldorf School and all the companions and coworkers for all their work.
Jeff’s rooster was a highlight for everyone especially for my nieces and all the youngsters in the audience.