ROBERT HILL
has a long association with the Rudolf Steiner Institute, having served at various times as registrar, director, faculty member, president and board member. He holds an MFA in creative writing and has completed all course work for a Ph.D. in Old English Literature. He was Instructor of English at a number of colleges, including Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College. For eighteen years he worked as an organizational development consultant for Tunnell Consulting, holding the position of President and CEO during the last five years of his tenure. He is currently retired and is working on a book and serving on the board of several anthroposophical institutions.
PRESTON BARKER
is currently Director of the Theater Department at the Teaterakademi B¾rum in Olso, Norway (www.stib.no). Preston's biography includes twenty-five years in theater, eurythmy, and cultural management in Switzerland. His education includes a bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Maryland, a diploma from the Akademie fŸr eurythmische Kunst (Goetheanum, Switzerland), and a post-graduate degree in Cultural Management from the Hochschule fŸr Gestaltung & Kunst (Luzern).
How can human beings live, work, and co-exist in ways that allow liberty, equality, and fraternity to be the basis for true community rather than mere abstract ideals? This question — the seminal issue of the consciousness soul age — was what Rudolf Steiner referred to as "the social question." In many respects the most up-close and personal space within which to address this question is the small group. Within this microsphere of human society we are offered the opportunity to master the polarity of self and other, thereby becoming truly human within a truly human community.
In this course we will focus on the threefold social dynamic that gives the space of the small group its formative energy and defines its inner, spiritual life. We will look at the transformation of the principle of leadership from an egocentric model of power and authority to a peripherally centering energy that moves freely within the group, building a cohesive sense of trust and a sustaining feeling of confidence in the wisdom of the whole.
The small group space when formed in this way can be the ideal environment from which to initiate new social impulses that have the threefold social dynamic as their core intentionality. In order to be true to such intentionality, the way of working together should be in harmony with the purposes of the initiative. This course will offer you the opportunity to explore the synergies of your initiative and this 'method'.
We will use the discipline of eurythmy to explore the dynamics necessary for leadership transformation. Synthesizing a centric and peripheral orientation, the goal is to create and lead from a more generative, more authentic presence in the now. Discussions and social exercises will examine new ways of working together. Eurythmy addresses the development of tools of perception and deed that lead to new social impulses and help us to meet that which comes towards us from the future.
Suggested Reading:
Heinz Zimmermann,
Speaking, Listening, Understanding: The Art of Creating Conscious Conversation, Lindisfarne Press
Robert Sardello,
Power of Soul: Living the Twelve Virtues, Otto Scharmer,
Theory U.
