2006 01

Tue, 17 Jan 2006

Tanja Masukowitz appointed professor of eurythmy

ALFTER (NNA) – Tanja Masukowitz has been appointed professor of eurythmy at Alanus University in Germany.

According to the university, she is the first female professor in this subject in the country. Her appointment required the approval of the science and research ministry of the region of North Rhine Westphalia. The ministry is responsible for tertiary education in North Rhine Westphalia.

Alanus University has been offering eurythmy as a subject since 2003 and is the only institution in Germany to teach it at university level.

Tanja Masukowitz started teaching eurythmy at the university two years ago. She directs the department together with her colleague, Prof. Stefan Hasler.

“I look forward to continuing to work with the students to develop eurythmy, which asks to be rediscovered with each new student,” the new professor said at her appointment ceremony. She is currently teaching 35 students ranging from first to final year.

The 40-year-old dancer wants to focus her research on the relationship between the centre and its surroundings. The interaction between the body and its surrounding space, which can also be observed in our every-day lives, would be studied and utilised for the composition of eurythmy movements.

Since completing her own studies in 1991, Tanja Masukowitz’s work has included 14 projects with the Hamburg Eurythmy Stage which were performed across Europe. She also took the main role in the piece „Eros und Fabel“ by Novalis with the international festival ensemble at the Goethanum in Dornach.

END/nna/ung/cva

Item: 060117-01EN 17 January 2006

More NNA reports at: http://www.nna-news.org/

US Waldorf opponents appeal against court ruling

SAN FRANCISCO (NNA) – The legal action by PLANS (People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools) against two California public school districts for operating Waldorf-method schools has not reached its end yet despite the most recent court ruling rejecting the allegations of the organisation.

The anti-Waldorf grouping has lodged an appeal against the decision of the District Court for the Eastern District of California in September that the organisation had failed to prove that anthroposophy is a religion.

The case against the Sacramento Unified and Twin Ridges schools districts collapsed after 30 minutes, partly for technical reasons, after District Court Judge Frank C, Damrell agreed with the defence that the plaintiffs had failed properly to disclose witnesses. PLANS was then unable to present any other admissible evidence.

In its appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco PLANS alleges that Judge Damrell made “erroneous and prejudicial rulings on witnesses and evidence”.

Lawyers for the school districts were confident that the appeal court would confirm the ruling of the lower court: “We are confident that the PLANS appeal in the action against the school districts will fail,” NNA was told. Judge Damrell had been correct in his judgement.

Describing “plaintiffs only proffered evidence” as “rank hearsay”, Judge Damrell in his conclusions found that “plaintiff failed to carry its evidentiary burden of establishing that anthroposophy is a religion for purposes of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or other California constitutional provisions involved in this case.”

PLANS has been battling unsuccessfully since 1998 to prove in court that publicly-funded schools using Waldorf methods in the United States are “intrinsically and inseparably based upon Anthroposophy, an occultist sect”, thus violating the US and Californian constitutions.

The bifurcated trial first addressed the issue of whether anthroposophy is a religion. Since the plaintiffs failed to show that anthroposophy is indeed a religion, the remaining issues of the trial, related to whether the Waldorf-inspired methodology employed by the two school districts advances and promotes anthroposophy and results in an excessive entanglement with anthroposophy, were also dismissed

The Anthroposophical Society in America submitted an amicus curiæ brief arguing that anthroposophy is not a religion but a method of philosophical or spiritual inquiry, which was accepted by the court in July 2004.

Commenting at the time on the outcome of the September hearing, the administrative director of the Anthroposophical Society in America, Jean W. Yeager said: “Despite the fact that PLANS had more than seven years to find witnesses and produce acceptable evidence, PLANS presented neither. We were not surprised by the outcome. This totally discredits PLANS and their assertions about anthroposophy.”

END/nna/cva

Item: 060117-02EN 17 January 2006

More NNA reports at: http://www.nna-news.org/

﻿Tanja Masukowitz appointed professor of eurythmy

﻿US Waldorf opponents appeal against court ruling

Tanja Masukowitz appointed professor of eurythmy

US Waldorf opponents appeal against court ruling