Gurdjieff’s Sacred Dances
Mr. Gurdjieff introduced the Movements as one of the most important practices for living his teaching. He and other fellow Seekers of the Truth pursued during many years, through many countries of the East, a series of investigations which proved that oriental dances have not lost their deep significance – religious, mystic and scientific – which belonged to them in far of ages.
As for the dancing itself, it has in that form quite another meaning to that which we in our Western modern world are accustomed to give. Just as we give out our wisdom through books, in ancient times art – like these sacred dances – served the purpose of transmitting higher knowledge and religious wisdom.
The Key for Being
The Movements allow the experience of the laws governing the Cosmos and the transformation of energy. They can show us how to be in life, how to experience presence, and at the same time have a freer manifestation – instead of endless mechanic reactions. The Movements help to obtain certain qualities of sensation, various degrees of concentration and give direction to thought and the senses.
Connecting Mind, Body and Feeling
Practising the Movements connects mind, feeling and body – and is thus one means of educating the students’ moral force, and developing their will and their patience. Through the Movements, when all the energies within us are related, a new energy is produced. This energy comes from a higher part of our minds where there is an intelligence, a capacity of seeing. We see other people, we see what is, very clearly without reaction. We see ourselves as we are. I see myself as I AM.
Foreword to the Gurdjieff Movements Demonstration
Cologne November 2024
„In the rhythm of certain dances, in the precise movements and combinations of the dancers, certain laws are vividly recalled. Such dances are called sacred.“
G. I. Gurdjieff
History of the Gurdjieff Movements
Chronological context
Die Geschichte der Movements und deren Unterweisung durch Georgi Ivanovich Gurdjieff ist sprunghaft, nichtlinear und von Ungewissheiten geprägt. Die Gründe hierfür sind vielschichtig. Sie stehen in Zusammenhang mit der Unbegreiflichkeit und Tiefe der von Gurdjieff vermittelten Lehre.
The history of the Movements and their teaching by Georgi Ivanovich Gurdjieff is erratic, non-linear, and marked by uncertainties. The reasons for this are complex and relate to the incomprehensibility and depth of the teachings Gurdjieff conveyed.
In principle, the Sacred Dances can be assigned to two distinct eras. The threshold is marked by Gurdjieff’s serious car accident in 1924. All dances created between 1916 and 1924 can be classified as “old” Movements, representing Gurdjieff’s first phase of teaching and creative work.
The second period extended from 1937 until his death in 1949 and encompassed the “new” Movements. The differences between the dances taught in these periods are considerable, affecting both their function and their form. What they share in common is their central importance within G. I. Gurdjieff’s teachings (see Wim van Dullemen (2018): The Gurdjieff Movements).
The first creative phase
The older Movements were practiced daily by Gurdjieff’s entire group of students from 1918 until the performances of 1923/1924, for sessions of five to six hours. A total of 27 of these dances have been transmitted and are still practiced today. The “Six Obligatories” belong to this group.
The Obligatories were among the very first Movements that Gurdjieff taught in 1918 in Tiflis, Georgia. Every new student had to learn these exercises before being allowed to participate in regular classes. From some of the older Movements that Gurdjieff performed and taught, only the music has survived; the choreographies themselves were forgotten.
Revival of the Movements
During the last ten years of his life, Gurdjieff organized almost daily Movements classes for various groups, teaching them up until his death in 1949. During this period, he created what later became known as the “39 Series.”
A major difference between the old Movements and the new dances lies in their musical accompaniment. Gurdjieff composed the music for the early Movements together with Thomas de Hartmann. However, the music for the 39 Series was composed by de Hartmann after Gurdjieff’s death, without his guidance.
In the new Movements, the religious and ethnological elements were significantly reduced. Abstract gestures and postures predominate. The dances were even more difficult to perform than the earlier ones, requiring enormous effort from a class in terms of precision, speed, and attention.
Origin of the Gurdjieff Movements
Although the origins of the Movements have been widely speculated about and mystified, there is little doubt that Gurdjieff created most of them himself. Some of these dances originated in the Middle and Far East, where Gurdjieff studied them during his travels and visited religious communities and specific ethnic groups. The majority of the Movements, however, were created by Gurdjieff himself.
Preservation and transmission of the dances
Only a fragment of the Movements led by Gurdjieff has survived to the present generation, an estimated 30 from the early period and 220 from the second phase. The Sacred Dances are passed on and taught by various organizations and private individuals who stood in direct contact with Gurdjieff or his students and serve as transmitters for the living teaching.
„If our aim is a harmonious development of man, then for us, dances and movements are a means of combining the mind and the feeling with movements of the body and manifesting them together. In all things, we have the aim to develop something which cannot be developed directly or mechanically.“
Solange Claustres
Inner transformation of the dancer
Part of an organism
The external form of Gurdjieff’s Movements provides insufficient information about what a particular dance expresses and what forces act on the dancers in their innermost being. Only by being thrown into a group and finding oneself as an element of a higher-level organism, the arcanum might reveal itself to the participants: the triamazikamno, the sacred “law of three”.
In the eye of the storm
An essential part of this process is the experience of one’s own powerlessness. Being faced with alternating rhythms, canonically taken body positions and complicated counting sequences, everyone is confronted with the automatic reactions of his or her personality. The dancer’s self-image, hardened over many years, becomes porous and therefore open for the discovery of what is real.
Gurdjieff’s Movements are designed to make students clearly aware of their inner turmoil. It is precisely in the midst of the greatest friction, at the apex of the clash between two opposing forces, that the willingness on part of the dancer to witness and experience the conflict with the greatest possible distance comes into play. It opens the door for the emergence of the reconciling force. It is an act of mercy from another world.
Inner alignment
The inner alignment of the student is of utmost importance in the Movements. Gurdjieff’s dances demand an unwavering willingness to confront the unconscious and mechanical reactions of one’s own personality with sincere determination.
Attention intensifies, enabling participants to observe themselves as if they were a stranger. Without judgment, one perceives one’s own existence. This surprising, relentless, and at times painful experience is an essential part of the process toward achieving a more authentic self-understanding.
The Gordian Knot
Gurdjieff’s Sacred Dances require a harmonious interplay of all three human centers: mental, emotional, and physical. In their neglected state, these centers are tangled into an inextricable knot.
Through continuous practice of the Movements, the centers gradually regain their independent freedom. The Gordian knots upon the royal chariot begin to unravel. This process forms the basis for the harmonious development of the human being.
Simplicity and Beauty
The Sacred Dances of G. I. Gurdjieff demand the ability to expend precisely the amount of energy required. The dancer must find the right measure and manage their forces carefully. Both excessive and insufficient effort fail to achieve their purpose.
True, objective beauty emerges from the reduction of all movements and expressions to their essentials. The Movements and their dancers strive, in every aspect, for clarity and precision. There is neither space nor time for superfluity. Within this energetic field, even the simplest gesture, a single word, or a fleeting breath can make a profound impression.
Journey within
Through the Movements, the dancer embarks on a journey inward and becomes subject to unknown energies. What occurs often lies beyond their control. Attention heightens, perception sharpens, and the space opens to a less identified contemplation of existence.
„Ears are no good for this music. The whole presence must be open to it. It is a matter of vibrations.„
G. I. Gurdjieff
Music from Gurdjieff and de Hartmann
Expression of a vision
Nearly eighty years after his death, an entire library has been written about the ideas of G. I. Gurdjieff. Yet his music has reached only a small audience to this day. Similarly, the Movements remain largely unknown outside a narrow circle of initiates.
These disparities are regrettable, for his writings, his music, and the Movements are not only expressions of the same vision but also complement each other in a unique way. Each form of expression represents one of the human sub-centers: body, feeling, and intellect.
A unique collaboration
A particularly remarkable aspect of Gurdjieff’s music lies in its creation. It emerged from a unique collaboration between Gurdjieff himself and the composer Thomas de Hartmann. De Hartmann notated and harmonized the themes dictated by Gurdjieff, translating them to the well-tempered piano – ranging from ethnic music to the rituals of remote monastic brotherhoods.
Through this collaboration, Western audiences gained access to a unique repertoire of Eastern music, which might otherwise have remained hidden and very likely lost. In this blending of Eastern and Western musical traditions, Gurdjieff’s aim becomes clear: to unite the wisdom of the East with the knowledge of the West.
Music as a guide to the Higher
Thomas de Hartmann described this music as follows:
It becomes clear why Gurdjieff always attributed such great importance to music. He himself played and composed. When one compares his work with the music of all religions, it is evident that music holds a central role in religious ceremonies. Yet through the work of Georgi Ivanovich, it becomes clear that music does not merely accompany; it places us in an inner state in which we can receive the highest vibrations. Music is therefore precisely the means by which we are guided to recognize the Higher.
Vibrations of Creation
The music of Gurdjieff’s father, an Ashok (troubadour), shaped Gurdjieff’s early youth. It was music from a very ancient tradition, encompassing Greek Orthodox liturgy as well as Caucasian and Greek folk music.
Even more significant than its emotional value, for Gurdjieff, was the insight that music consists of vibrations through which universal laws can be explored. When Gurdjieff describes the processes of creation, evolution, and involution, he establishes in musical terms a connection between science and music that reaches back to the oldest and most venerable traditions of Western thought.
Fourth Way Literature
There is a wide range of books about the Gurdjieff Work. These include the works G. I. Gurdjieff wrote himself, transcriptions of his talks, first-hand accounts by his pupils, and attempts to summarise the teaching of the Fourth Way as a whole. The existing literature, together with the recommendations listed below, should be understood as a complement to the inner work within a Gurdjieff group. It offers a mental perspective on the teaching that Gurdjieff always conveyed in the most direct way possible.
G. I. Gurdjieff | Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
With the first series of his collected work, Gurdjieff stated that his aim was to demolish, mercilessly and without compromise, the centuries-old beliefs and views rooted in the reader’s thinking and feeling about everything that exists in the world.
The protagonist of the story is Beelzebub, who shares with his grandson Hassein the insights he gained during his long journeys and sojourns on the planet Earth about its peculiar inhabitants and their characteristic traits. Gurdjieff described his work as an „objectively impartial criticism of the life of man,“ cast in a challenging literary form woven through with symbolism and allegory. „Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson“ is regarded by many as the central work among the Gurdjieff books.
G. I. Gurdjieff | Meetings with Remarkable Men
In the second series of „All and Everything“, Gurdjieff recounts, in ostensibly autobiographical form, his search for the meaning of life and for the keepers of esoteric hidden teachings. He takes the reader on a journey that begins with his childhood at the foot of the Caucasus mountains and continues through his adventurous travels across the most remote regions of Central Asia.
At the heart of Gurdjieff’s book are his encounters with „remarkable men“ – among them Gurdjieff’s father, the Armenian priest Pogossian, and a Russian prince. The aim of the work is to acquaint the reader with the material needed for a new creation, and to demonstrate its soundness and quality.
G. I. Gurdjieff | Life is Real Only Then, When „I Am“
Building on the first two series, Gurdjieff’s intention in the third series is to shape, in the reader’s thinking and feeling, a picture that corresponds to the world as it truly exists – in place of the imaginary world he currently perceives.
Through a series of talks, Gurdjieff deepens his teaching on human consciousness and on the need to overcome a purely mechanical existence. According to Gurdjieff, real life begins only once a person attains „Being“ and comes into contact with their true „I.“
P. D. Ouspensky | In Search of the Miraculous
The Russian writer Pyotr Demianovich Ouspensky processes, in this work, his encounter with Gurdjieff and his years of study under his influence. With unparalleled precision and literary skill, Ouspensky recounts the teaching of the Fourth Way that was conveyed to him, bearing witness to the depth of the knowledge he received about the possibilities of human development.
Jeanne de Salzmann | The Reality of Being
Based on her own notes, Jeanne de Salzmann’s book offers a profound insight into the spiritual teaching of G. I. Gurdjieff. Her work is a comprehensive and uniquely authoritative guide to her teacher’s ideas and to the methods he offered for freeing us from the state of waking sleep in which most of us spend our lives.
Wim van Dullemen | The Gurdjieff Movements
Wim van Dullemen, who for decades accompanied Solange Claustres’s Movements classes as a pianist, traces the historical development of the Sacred Dances that Gurdjieff created in the early 20th century. Van Dullemen argues that the Movements, and the choreographies built upon them, are a badly neglected aspect of Gurdjieff’s spiritual teaching.
Questions to the Movements of G. I. Gurdjieff
Seminars in Gurdjieff Movements
We regularly host seminars in Gurdjieff Movements. All workshops take place on weekends with overnight accommodation. This allows us to create the intensity necessary for our inner work.
If you are interested in participating, please contact us using the contact form. We are also happy to answer any further questions you may have about the Gurdjieff Work.
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