Word of the Day: eurythmics

eu·rhyth·mics [yoo-rith-miks, yuh-]
–noun ( used with a singular or plural verb )
the art of interpreting in bodily movements the rhythm of musical compositions: applied to a method invented by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, a Swiss composer, aiming to develop the sense of rhythm and symmetry.
Also, eurythmics.

Origin: 1910–15; see eurhythmic, -ics

eu·ryth·mics also eu·rhyth·mics (yŏŏ-rĭ th 'mĭks)n. (used with a sing. verb) The art of interpreting musical compositions by rhythmical, free-style bodily movement. eu·ryth'mic adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved

▸ noun: the interpretation in harmonious bodily movements of the rhythm of musical compositions; used to teach musical understanding

eurythmics or eurhythmics (both: yrĭth`mĭks), harmonious bodily movement, especially as expressed according to the system of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze Jaques-Dalcroze, Émile (āmēl` zhäk-dälkrōz`), 1865–1950, Swiss educator and composer, b., who developed eurythmics (1903) at the Geneva Conservatory of Music in an effort to overcome the rhythmic difficulties of his students. His aim was to bring the body under control of the mind through a system of gymnastics correlated with music. First, an unconscious technique of bodily response to the rhythm of music is developed, with the student eventually able to improvise an interpretation, through gesture language, of an entire composition. The system has influenced not only musical instruction but also the ballet and even fields outside musical study. The first demonstrations of it were given in 1905, and the first Jaques-Dalcroze Institute in the United States was established ten years later.