Welcome to Ellersiek gesture games!

The next translator’s conference is taking place from 24^th to 31^st July in Stuttgart, Germany. You can read a personal report from last year’s conference by Alexandra Dragunova (PDF, in English).

Wilma Ellersiek was a professor at the Academy for Music and Theatre in Stuttgart, Germany. She dedicated her life to developing her now-famous gesture games, focusing her attention on the needs of young children and perfecting her sense of rhythm and musicality in these intricate little plays. Over the years she composed about two hundred of these gesture games, all of which have been published in several books in German. These have long since become a rich resource in Waldorf early childhood education.

Her gesture games have turned out to be wonderfully healing and therapeutic in working with small children, and they have gained a large following not only in Germany, but also internationally. Our association INSEL (Institute for Wilma Ellersiek’s gesture games) is dedicated to bringing the joy and wonders of her plays and games to as many people as possible. Translating Ellersiek gesture games in ways that preserve their richness in rhythm and musicality is no simple task, however, and we are always happy to find native speakers who can contribute.

What are Ellersiek gesture games?

Wilma Ellersiek’s gesture games are little rhythmic-musical plays that reflect nature and her myriad wonders, sometimes involving touch or song. Please see our video page for a few examples (currently in German only).

Who are these gesture games for?

Ellersiek gesture games are of interest to anyone working with children from 0 to 7 years of age, for example parents, kindergarten teachers, or daycare workers.

How can I learn these gesture games?

We hope that in time, this website will become the most complete list of resources for Wilma Ellersiek’s gesture games for all languages. All her games have been published in German, and some books are available in English and Spanish. Our video page will show you some gesture games in German – if you have a video in another language, we would love to feature it here! Please get in contact with us. There are no regular courses in languages other than German so far, but we hold a translator’s conference each year (usually in the summer). This is an excellent starting point if you are seriously interested in these gesture games and would like to help bring them to other languages.

How can I help with translations?

We have just started to collect all the available international resources here, and this information may not be complete for some time. If you cannot find any resources in your language here, please contact us to find out whether there is something we have not published online yet. Our annual translator’s conference is an excellent starting point for meeting likeminded people and learning more about Ellersiek gesture games in different languages. And if you are already working on translations, please share them with us, even if they are still works in progress. If you put them online, feel free to use the hashtag #ellersiekgesturegames. We hope to collect everybody’s efforts here in time.