When concerned with movement, we must also be concerned with rhythm, whether this is the rapid rhythm of a mouse's heart, or the beating of a bee's wings, or the rhythm of the sound of a lion's roar that trembles in our marrow and makes us shiver. What we can perceive as rhythm in our human selves is most likely the breath, which simultaneously marks the beginning and the end of our life on earth (after the separation from the umbilical cord). It can be controlled at the same time and continues to swing back and forth between inhaling and exhaling even when we are asleep or unconscious, like the pendulum of our life clock.
Nature is inexhaustible, because in it all growth and decay take place in a healthy rhythm. Anselm Grün
Nada Brahma - the world is sound, a programme produced by music journalist Joachim Ernst Berendt, which describes this principle of life, of the world and of movement, is a masterpiece of the 20th century.1 2
Based on the heartbeat and our rhythm of breath, we can first perceive movements of our mind in our body and then move our body. Rhythm can therefore be found in the blinking of our eyes, our heartbeat and also when we speak, walk, run or run.3
Rhythm is important for our health and the effectiveness of our movement. In the art of movement, we can learn to act proactively in a way that is favourable in the long term, for example in terms of a holistic strategy. If we can follow the rhythm of our body and play into the rhythm of our surroundings so that we utilise the natural rhythms instead of fighting against them, we are in harmony.
Moving with the flow is also often referred to as swimming with the current, riding the wave, in rhythm with day and night, with the inhalation and exhalation, with the heartbeat, with the sequence of steps that our body offers us to fit into the environment.
So what Khalil Gibran warns us against forgetting:
Wir werden mitgerissen vom Strom des städtischen Getümmels, bis wir den Rhythmus des einfachen Lebens auf dem Lande vergessen, das im Frühling heiter lächelt, im Sommer keine Mühen scheut, im Herbst die Früchte dieser Mühen erntet und im Winter ruht. Khalil Gibran, Wenn die Liebe dir winkt, folge ihr
Gesellschaftswissenschaftlich findet sich Rhythmus in der Resonanz wieder, die Hartmut Rosa4 für seine Soziologie der Weltbeziehung beschreibt. Es geht hier nicht um das im deutschen bekannte Prinzip: "Wie man in den Wald hineinruft, so schallt es heraus." Sondern um eine Erweiterung, nämlich eine Antwort, die auch eine eigene Stimme hat.