Professor John Habron-James co-edits significant publication in Dalcroze studies
Navigating Landscapes of Dalcroze Practice: Histories of Music and Movement is an important new book about Dalcroze Eurhythmics, a pioneering educational and therapeutic approach to music and movement first introduced by the Swiss composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950).
Co-edited by Professor John Habron-James (Head of Music, Health and Wellbeing), the book provides the first collection of Dalcroze histories to focus on the evolution and rich variety of Dalcroze-inspired practices across the globe and over more than one hundred years of transdisciplinary exploration and reflection.
Along with co-editors Selma Landen Odom (Professor Emerita, York University, Toronto, Canada) and Dr Johanna Laakkonen (Director, Theatre Museum, Helsinki, Finland), Professor Habron-James brought together sixteen international collaborators to address the many ways in which practitioners have adopted Dalcroze principles in the fields of music, dance and physical education, theatre and music therapy.
Professor John Habron-James (middle right) and co-editor Selma Landen Odom (middle left) at the book launch with two other contributing authors Marja-Leena Juntunen (left) and Katarzyna Forecka-Waśko (right).
Through a collection of fourteen essays, this team of leading scholars contextualises expansive pedagogical innovations inspired by Jaques-Dalcroze’s original work, before taking readers along many less well-known paths of practice where the exploration of music and movement can provide benefits to people from various backgrounds and with diverse educational needs.
Navigating Landscapes of Dalcroze Practice: Histories of Music and Movement was recently launched during a roundtable session at the 7th International Conference of Dalcroze Studies (ICDS7) in Luxembourg in July 2025. The book is available in hardback and as PDF via the publisher Boydell & Brewer.
23 October 2025
