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MOVEMENTS:
Gurdjieff's Movements and European Art 1/4
Georgi Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1866-1949) left a legacy of unique diversity.
Besides his three books, which present an original vision of God, the
universe and man, he also composed over 200 musical pieces, in collaboration
with the Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann (1885-1956), and created
an intriguing body of some 250 dances and physical exercises called "the
Movements." No doubt, the Movements were intended as the spearhead
of his teaching, and he once wrote that he wanted to be known simply as
a "teacher of dancing."
For many, the first impression of the Movements will be like a revelation,
because of their difference from anything they have seen before in the
world of dance. For those who have practised the Movements often, they
are known as "Sacred Dances." The Movements can make an extraordinary
impact on a dancer's psychological state, expanding his awareness into
new areas of experience.
Although the origins of these dances have been the subject of considerable
speculation -and mystification-, there remains little doubt that Gurdjieff
created most of them himself. A number of these dances stem from the Middle
and Far East, where Gurdjieff studied them during his travels, visiting
religious communities or special ethnic groups, but the majority he created
himself.
If we ask ourselves what is really new about the Movements, we must consider
them in relation to the works of contemporary prominent artists. A whole
library could be filled with writings about Gurdjieff's philosophical
and psychological ideas, but a comparative study regarding his Movements
has never been made. What is offered here is just the sketch of a beginning.
According to one of his own explanations, the aim of his Movements was
to assist the "harmonious development of man," by a method of
"combining mind and feeling with the movements of the body, and manifesting
them together."
This is a development that can never happen mechanically, by accident
or by itself, and which stimulates the development of something that,
Gurdjieff said, "interprets the whole man: mind, body and feeling."
The division of man into body, emotions and intellect was not uncommon
in the writings of the Russian Symbolists and also brings to mind the
work of François Delsarte. Now regarded as one of the founders
of modern dance, Delsarte taught, in the mid-nineteenth century, a system
relating all human expressions to one basic law, his Law of Three.
Gurdjieff's Movements and European Art 2/4
Painter and choreographer Oscar Schlemmer was another pioneer fascinated
by the threefoldness of man, as shown by his Triadic Ballet, first performed
in 1916 with music by Paul Hindemith. By 1923, when he worked for the
Bauhaus in Weimar, he had already fully developed his geometrical concepts
of the human body, which were in dramatic contrast with the then prevailing
flowing and free expressions of Isadora Duncan. Moreover, Schlemmer was
able to explain the deep significance of geometric body positions with
an astonishing and visionary precision. His figure drawings are certainly
evocative of the powerful abstract body positions employed by Gurdjieff
in his stage presentations the very same year.
Schlemmer's involvement with dance took shape through his collaboration
from 1912 through 1916 with Albert Berger, a soloist with the Royal Opera
Ballet, and his wife, the dancer Else Hötzel. The little-known fact
that Berger and Hötzel were influenced by the dances created by Émile
Jacques-Dalcroze shows us an interesting historical connective pattern.
Gurdjieff's Movements and European Art 3/4
The strongest parallel with Gurdjieff's Movements is to be found in Dalcroze's
approach, especially in his rhythmically orchestrated body movements that
liberated his dancers from the constraints of classical ballet.
It is reported that on the night of the first demonstration of Gurdjieff's
Movements in Paris on Thursday, December 13 of 1923, Dalcroze's students
protested in front of the theatre, shouting "Tricheur! Voleur!"
("Cheat! Thief!"), as if Gurdjieff had stolen his ideas from
Dalcroze. It is highly unlikely that Gurdjieff would have been in the
least interested in any European who had developed something comparable
to his own work, let alone copy it; but the existence of these similarities
demonstrates that Gurdjieff was submitted to the mysterious force by which,
in any given cultural period, the same experiments are performed simultaneously
by independent and geographically separated people.
Gurdjieff's Movements and European Art 4/4
Gurdjieff appeared to have used his books, music and dances to mutually
sustain and enhance one another. The concept of Gesamtkunstwerk ("whole-art-work"),
first used and propagated by Richard Wagner, deeply influenced Russian
Symbolism, in which the merging of different arts was to call forth a
new vision and ultimately a new form of being, as in a religious service.
It is noteworthy that both the composer Alexander Scriabin and the painter
Vassily Kandinsky, who were to develop the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk
further into the area of "synaesthesia", were personal friends
of Thomas de Hartmann.
Movements represent the result of an ultimate effort by Gurdjieff to re-install
in people's lives the importance of dances and physical exercises in the
processes of self-development. In this sense, Gurdjieff's Movements can
be seen as a new liturgy or ritual. They can be a point of reference and
study, and can assist transformation both on an individual level and on
the level of our society as a whole.
The Earlier and the Later Movements 1/4
Gurdjieff created his Movements in two periods of his life: the first
from 1918 until 1924, the year of his almost fatal car accident, and the
second from 1939 until his death in 1949. The earlier ones were performed
on stage in 1923 in Paris and in 1924 in America and consisted of obligatory
exercises, work dances, dervish dances, a group of women's dances and
several elaborate prayer rituals and ceremonies.
During the last decade of his life, Gurdjieff organised Movements classes
for different groups almost every day and gave scores of new Movements
and exercises until his death in 1949. In this period, he created what
became known as the "39 Series."
An important difference between the old Movements and the new exercises
is in their musical accompaniment. Gurdjieff composed the music for his
early Movements in co-operation with Thomas de Hartmann. The music for
the 39 Series was composed by de Hartmann after Gurdjieff's death. This
time he had to compose alone, without Gurdjieff's guidance, but he used
the same style as in his earlier musical co-operation with him.
Although there were two main periods for the creation of the Movements,
we find it useful to divide them into three categories:
The older Movements 2/4
1-The older Movements, stemming from Gurdjieff's first stage of teaching.
These were practised for 5 to 6 hours a day by the whole group of Gurdjieff's
pupils from 1918 until the demonstrations in 1923 and 1924. Of these Movements,
a total of 27 are remembered and practised until this day in authentic
lines of transmission reaching back to Gurdjieff. The Six Obligatories
belong to this group. The Obligatories belong to the very first Movements
Gurdjieff gave as early as 1918 in Tiflis, Georgia. As their name already
indicates, each new student had to learn these exercises first before
she or he could participate in the regular classes. Of several other Movements
used in the early demonstrations, only the music remains because the dances
themselves have been forgotten or were too difficult to reconstruct.
The '39 Series' 3/4
2-The 39 Series, the set of 39 Movements selected by Gurdjieff out of
the multitude of his new exercises given from 1939 until his death in
1949. He recommended these for further practice and he considered them
completed. In fact, the prominence of these 39 among his other attempts
was so obvious that, when Gurdjieff asked Thomas de Hartmann to compose
music for his newer exercises, everybody understood he was talking about
these particular Movements. After Gurdjieff's death, Thomas de Hartmann
composed the music for this Series; but only for 37 of them because, for
two of the 39, the pianist is required to improvise.
The remaining Movements 4/4
3-The remainder of the new exercises that have been remembered and are
still practised vary from the most complicated exercises with separate
roles for every dancer in the class to short fragments for study of a
certain rhythm or of a certain body action. Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann, who
represented Gurdjieff's work in France after his death and through whose
activities many of those newer exercises have been preserved, explained
once that it had only been possible to remember a minority, some 25 percent,
of all the exercises that Gurdjieff taught. Thomas de Hartmann wrote music
for fifteen Movements of this group, eight of which can be heard on our
previous 2-cd set Gurdjieff's Music for the Movements. Over the years,
many of the remaining Movements of this last group acquired their own
musical accompaniment through the dedicated efforts of other composers
associated with Movement classes, such as Alain Kremski and Edward Michael
as well as many amateur composers.
The '39 Series' 1/2
The last decade of Gurdjieff's life, the second stage of his Movements
teaching, was one of extraordinary creativity. He demonstrated the new
Movements, but rarely explained much about them. His presence was so strong
-it literally filled the whole place- that one could absorb the new exercise
in a direct way. No further explanation was needed. It was never allowed
to make choreographic notes, because this activity would reduce one's
first and complete impression to an analytical or rational attitude.
Gurdjieff studied the results of each new Movement he gave by observing
the state of the people in the class. Many of his new exercises did not
reach the goal he had in mind. It is reported that sometimes he went away
during the classes, to come back after a while to propose a small change
in a Movement: for instance, a wrist that had been straight was now bent,
an arm that was horizontal forward was now diagonally forward. Occasionally,
even these new changes did not bring about the desired state in the dancers,
and he then gave a strict order: "No... stop and forget this one,
don't perform it again ever." However, if a Movement did create the
desired state in the psyche and bodily expressions of the performers he'd
say, "That's it, this one is set and ready now. What number are we?"
referring to the numbers they gave to the new set of "successful"
Movements, representing the slowly growing list of what became the "39
Series."
The 39 Series were thus the kernel of his new exercises, the ones he had
accepted as finished and relevant. All his other attempts, many of which
have been remembered and have been performed since by his students, did
not have his full approval. However beautiful they are, their relevance
remains open to discussion.
The '39 Series' 2/2
If we compare the '39 Series' with Gurdjieff's earlier Movements, we find
the same components: strong dervish dances, beautiful and quiet women's
dances, powerful geometrically patterned Movements, as well as sacred
prayer rituals. However, the ancient religious and ethnological components
are markedly reduced while abstract gestures and positions, performed
in mathematical displacements, now prevail. It is as if, during the fifteen-year
interval since his first efforts, Gurdjieff had digested his earlier impressions
and reflected upon them. When he continued his work on the Movements,
they reappeared with an even more personal style, in which mathematical
and geometrical crystallisations are now dominant.
The drama of the human condition, so poignantly captured in a number of
the old Movements, seems to have given way to a more abstract construction,
but one that gives immediate and plentiful opportunity for work on oneself
and work for the class as a whole. The later Movements were even more
difficult to perform than the earlier ones and demanded a huge effort
from a class in terms of precision, quickness, discipline and sustaining
attention.
The 39 Movements have been called Gurdjieff's magnum opus; many have felt
that they summarised his whole teaching to mankind.
Movements Traditions 1/3
Any learning process has stages. It requires the acquisition of new knowledge,
the absorption and digestion of this material, and finally the application
in practice of what has been learned in theory. In learning Movements
these stages add up to a minimum of ten years.
It only makes sense to study with a teacher who knows the Movements, is
willing to give the whole Movement and not just in fragments, and is able
to stimulate the class in its inner work.
A transmission line is authentic when founded by a personal pupil of Gurdjieff.
These pupils often co-operated with one another, at least in the years
immediately after Gurdjieff s death, and amidst the labyrinth formed by
these lines, the Institute Gurdjieff in Paris and the related Foundations
stand out because of their historical bonds, their competence and the
size of their organisation, and because all were led by their founder,
Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann.
Several other lines, independent from the above-mentioned organisation,
and smaller in size, can also be qualified as authentic because they too
were founded or guided by direct pupils of Gurdjieff who themselves stood
in his Movements classes.
From this last group the original Ouspensky and Bennett lines seem the
most important, insofar as comparative study of Movements transmission
is concerned, but these are by no means the only ones.
All these organisations differ widely. To call the Bennett line an organisation
is a misnomer in the first place, because it consists of a varying group
of pupils of John Bennett who have organised different sorts of activities,
open to everybody, according to specific needs or circumstances.
The Ouspensky line is a relatively small one, while the Foundation, by
which term I indicate the different international Foundations founded
or supported by the French Institute Gurdjieff and the Foundations, which
incorporate thousands of students. Despite their different sizes, these
last two have in common that they could be qualified as hierarchic.
Movements Traditions 2/3
If we, just as an example, want to compare these three lineages, we need
criteria for comparison. The following criteria seem relevant.
Criteria for comparison - whether or not Movements are related to the
study of Gurdjieff's teaching as a whole:
- the number and type of Movements that are being transmitted;
- the relation between form and content of these Movements;
- to whom they are taught;
- whether or not whole Movements are given, or only fragments of Movements.
Application of these criteria will quickly bring the strengths and weaknesses
of the different lines of transmission to the surface.
Both the Foundation and the Ouspensky line teach Movements only to members
of their organisations, as an integrated component of the whole teaching
they are supplying. The Bennett line experiments with short seminars,
open to everybody, where the Movements dominate all other activities.
The repertoire of the Ouspensky line consists only of the 27 older Movements
that have been preserved, but not only do they know them in full historical
detail, they also transmit them in their totality.
The Bennett line has a mix of some old Movements and several newer exercises.
They too teach the whole Movement, however not with the same painstaking
care for detail as demonstrated by the Ouspensky line.
The Foundations have a true wealth of newer exercises at their disposal,
unequalled by any other existing lineage. However, in Europe many of the
older Movements are hardly practised at all and are almost forgotten.
Equally unparalleled as their repertoire of newer exercises is their knowledge
and experience in exploring the inner content of them. The other side
of this coin is that they show a shocking disrespect for the form of Movements
by their inclination to teach fragments only. Further, because of their
size, they are in danger of creating "specialists" for different
areas of Gurdjieff´s teaching, Movements being one of them. To become
a "specialist," in whatever part of the Gurdjieff Work, means
to suicide oneself for the whole of it.
It is remarkable, and touching as well, to realise that the three entities
we selected all reflect, to this day, the historical stage of the Movements
at the time when they received them.
Movements Traditions 3/3
The intensive training programs in the Ouspensky line, where everybody
knows all the old Movements by heart, originated no doubt from the time
that Gurdjieff demanded his pupils to exercise them, five to six hours
a day, as preparation for the public demonstrations in Paris and in America.
The focus on the newer exercises in the Foundation, and the way to connect
them to inner work, stems from the last stage of Gurdjieff´s Movements
teaching and the enthusiasm of Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann, who preserved
many of these exercises. The readiness to experiment with new forms of
Movements education, characteristic of the Bennett line, mirrors the open-mindedness
of John Bennett himself.
The key supplied by this comparative effort, and the basic lesson to be
learned is that no line is perfect. When you want the best of these three
worlds you have to sacrifice your isolation and start working together.
That means to co-operate without being incorporated. This is what we in
the Berlin and Amsterdam Movement groups have done.
Two years ago, we organised in Amsterdam an exchange on the subject of
the "old" Movements between our group and a group of the original
"Ouspensky" line. To our surprise, Mrs. van Oyen, one of the
two living members of Ouspensky's London group, turned up to join us and
when asked why, given her extreme old age, she replied, "I saw many
years ago how the Work had split itself into small fractions. Now I heard
that an effort is being made to unite what I had seen drift apart, and
for this reason I insisted on being present. Only if we work together
will there be results!"
This is a direction we hope will continue.
Movements today
Curt Sachs, the great German researcher on music and dance, formulated
the principle that no single cultural phenomenon exists that will not
be influenced by other cultural phenomena and in its turn not influence
other cultural phenomena. When Gurdjieff presented his Movements in France
and in America, these events were open to anyone interested and with a
single exception, admission was always free.
When he was asked, "Why do you open this to all these people?"
he answered angrily, "How can you judge?... We have to let everyone
hear. The results do not belong to us."
The only way we feel that the Work could be productive is to avoid a hierarchical,
or closed structure. The new sociological situation of our time had done
the same thing to large commercial institutions as to the Work organisations,
and therefore it required co-operation rather than incorporation. It requires
working on the same level, in smaller sub-units, rather than in a "topdown"
structure.
We tried to find a middle way; we didn't want to throw the Work out onto
the street at the feet of every passer-by, but rather, to open it to those
with a real interest.
That has worked marvellously well. Almost by itself, two Movements groups
were born, consisting of hard-working and serious-minded people, one in
Berlin and one in Amsterdam, and they have stabilised themselves rather
quickly. These groups have been in existence for over three years.
We want to offer this Internet platform to everybody who is interested
in Movements and for those who have something to offer. We believe that
sharing and communicating is always a good idea.
Movements tomorrow
Movements could be taught to many people. A Movements class is a very
alive happening. There is always a living synergy between instructor and
musician. One needs to improvise, to finds one's own way, and together
with the class. Feel, listen to the class, listen to your sound... make
variations... work.
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