What is the history of rhythmic activities?

Answer 1

In gymnastics, rhythmic activities grew out of ideas by Jean-Georges Noverre, Francois Deisarte, and Rudolf Bode, who believed in movement expession, or using dance to express oneself and exercise the body. Catherine Beecher expanded the idea and founded the Western Female Institute in 1837 in Ohio, where women exercised to music.

In the 1880s, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze of Switzerland developed a form of physical training for musicians and dancers called eurhythmics,, and George Demeny of France created exercises to music that promoted grace of movement, muscular flexibility, and good posture. The styles were combined into the Swedish school of rhythmic gymnastics around 1900, and dance elements from Finland would be added later. It was around that time that Ernst Idla of Estonia established a degree of difficulty for each movement. n 1929, Hinrich Medau founded The Medau School in Berlin to train gymnasts in "modern gymnastics", and to develop the use of the apparatus.

Competitive rhythmic gymnastics began in the 1940s in the Soviet Union, and the discipline was formally recognized by the FIG in 1961.

The first World Championships for individual rhythmic gymnasts was held in 1963 in Budapest, and rhythmic gymnastics was added to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles with an Individual All-Around competition. Canadian Lori Fung was the first rhythmic gymnast to earn an Olympic gold medal. The Group competition was added to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The Spanish group won the first gold medal of the new competition with a team formed by Estela Giménez, Marta Baldó, Nuria Cabanillas, Lorena Guréndez, Estíbaliz Martínez and Tania Lamarca.