Why are the dances called "Sacred" ?
Motionlessness lies behind all Motion...
Why do "Gurdjieff
movements" ?
Who is Gurdjieff and what is the origin of the dances?
G.I. GURDJIEFF was a spiritual master. As a youth, growing up in a cultural crossroad between Turkey, Russia, Armenia and Greece, he was subject to a great variety of influences which opened his vision.
He developed a strong need to find the answer to the questions: "What is the purpose of life on earth?" and "Who am I?”... When he was twenty years old, he embarked on a twenty year spiritual search which brought him on astounding expeditions in Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean Afghanistan, Turkey, Central Asia, India, Tibet and the Gobi desert.He discovered that much of a universal wisdom coming from ancient traditions was transmitted through music and dance. In temples, monasteries and special schools he visited, the dances were varieties of movements and postures that were similar to an alphabet, that could be read as books for those who could interpret it. So in the evening when the priests and the priestesses danced in the hall of the temple, one could read in these postures the truths that were implanted in them several thousands of years ago and which are transmitted in this way from one generation to another.
In 1912 Gurdjieff travelled back to Russia and devoted his life to sharing what he had learned. He made tradition becomes contemporary. All of Gurdjieff's teaching is very practical; he firmly proclaimed the importance of the body and physical work in the transmission of his teaching. An important part was the teaching of “sacred dances” or “sacred movements” or “sacred gymnastics” which he adapted or created or choreographed himself for the modern man. In collaboration with De Hartmann he also created the music for the movements...
Why are the dances called sacred?
For two different reasons:
- The first one is the one already mentioned: they are used to preserve and transmit a great knowledge. They represent certain laws that govern the universe and thus, the lives of human being
- The second one is the inner development of those who participate in them
Our sleep and slavery express themselves in the automatism and limitations of our feelings and thoughts, these being closely bound up with the automatism of our movements and postures. This is a vicious circle. Vice versa our usual limited vocabulary of movements will keep us within the confinements of a restrictive routine like way of feeling, seeing life, thinking. We do not realise how intimately connected together are our 3 functions, moving, emotional and mental. They depend one upon the other. They result one from an other. One does not change without others changing too. The attitude of our body is the outer reflection of our emotions and thoughts. An emotional change such as a sudden relief of worry will immediately affect our way of standing, the depth of our breathing, the movements in our eyes etc.
To each position of the body corresponds a certain inner space and to each inner space corresponds a certain posture. In our life we have a certain number of habitual movements and postures quite limited in regard to the immense potential of the body and we move through them most of the time without awareness. Taking new unusual positions enables us to observe ourselves differently from the way it is possible in usual conditions. And the Gurdjieff Dances break the cycle of automatism by introducing non-habitual movements and sequences.
Motionlessness lies behind all motion.
Stillness is our nature
Even in the midst of deep agitation, there exists a center where stillness is. In this peaceful, still spot is our real existence
Paradoxically Gurdjieff dances or movements can be a path towards stillness
If a wheel is motionless, it is difficult to know the still point. If the wheel is in motion, it is easy to distinguish the axle because it will not move when the wheel is moving. As the moving goes on , the wheel spins faster and faster, and the center point appears in its utter stillness. This still point is the center of all movements
Watching the body move, the watcher remains untouched . And by and by , the watcher steps aside in favour of the center, an empty, motionless space, yet so full!
The body is the earth, consciousness is the sky and between the two, a great exchange of giving and taking can happen. But often this flowing transaction gets lost somewhere in the desert of the world. The river never reaches to the ocean
How to combine within us earth and sky?
We can start simply by watching our body, from the surface at first: the outer forms of the movements , to the deeper layers: the inner forms of the movements.
A fragmentary sensation of some parts of the body, nourished by a quality of sustained attention, suddenly becomes sensation of oneselfas a whole.And we experience what can be called "presence"
For this, it is necessary to first find within ourselves the proper alignment , the proper balance between tensions and relaxation and to maintain attention and the ability to observe. And so, we place our center of gravity into the watcher again and again, without criticising , analysing , comparing , but just watching .
Movements belong to an hygiene of inner life, an inner discipline, door to freedom.. Through them , we see our life , our oscillation between the external world and the inner world. Through them , we are searching a balance where we can have "one eye out and one eye in" : not being taken and overwhelmed by outside events or people, and not with drawing into the deepest recesses of ourselves, unable to communicate and to act
While practising the movements we try to keep one eye on the outer forms, the lines and files, the rhythm and spirit given by the music, and one eye beyond the visible, into the subtleties of energy movement, impulses, inner spirit and archetype of the movement, its effects, the emotions and thoughts that arise
At first we realise how small is our scope of attention, a few seconds, and then , the mechanical train of our thoughts takes us away. This is reflected immediately by a "mistake"in the outer form , or a mechanicalness that takes away the true grace inherent to these movements. This is mirroring the daily life of most people , manipulated through joys and pains, according to the strings that are pulled by the wheel of life. But by and by , with a quality of attention becoming more sustained and subtle- merely a question of practice…and wish- another vision unveils, a new sensation of the body, not in its different fragments, but as a whole vibrating living being. And the journey through places unreachables up to now begins, the discovery of the treasures hidden in this body , "the lotus paradise"
I have spend my whole life searching my Self through different techniques of dances. I saw the dances for the first time in the movie :"Meeting with remarkable men". I was then living in India, in Osho commune. Osho had asked me personally to study the demonstration of the movements given at the end of the movie, in order to start the process of learning and then teaching the dances in his commune. Something strongly caught my attention, to the point that I could hardly breathe.
Eventhough the dances were beautiful and charismatic, it was not esthetics and beauty that were mesmerizing , but something behind the visible movement, an inner state that was reflected through a particular quality of presence on the face of the dancers. Here was in my eyes a dance "technic" which involved obviously not just the body , but the whole of the being. A dance was not created, rather dancers were created through it. They seemed to be animated by forces inherent to the movements themselves, by a new substance.I sensed that each outer movement was just the tip of the iceberg ,inner forms laid within, a living path and a path for life. Maybe I would finally have an opportunity to embody my long years search for a meeting between meditation and dances.And I happily dived , body and soul, into what would become a totally new discipline for my body , mind and heart. A dancer all my life, it took a while before I could let go of the "performer", and before I could start feeling the power of these inner exercises that accompany each movement. First , the work looked like a great deal on coordination, rhyhm , and inhabiting the body in a new way, through these unheard of types of positions, transitions, sequences :feet doing one rhythm, right arm another, left arm another, or strangely assymetric sequences, one part of the body round, the other staccato.
But this process offers much more than that: New energetical channels open in the body. I sometimes felt nearly "solidly"a new structuration at the level of the brain , as if untrodden paths are suddenly being transformed into open circuits, new bridges being opened between the 2 hemispheres of the brain. And rather than being an Art, the movements belong to an ancient objective Science.
When the music and the movements stopped, I watched in amazement a new quality of energy running powerfully inside the body, and the joy that this realisation brought swelled up in my heart. I had never experienced this in my whole dancing carrier before! I started to be emotionally involved, yet detached through watching. I started to investigate all the different flagrances of the movements: The peaceful inner space of some prayers , the longing , nostalgy , awakened by others, the heart tearing feeling of knowing that "I" is much more than what I am living , the inner fire , passion and determination triggered by dervish dances , and also the humour contained in some pieces . I started to embody in my flesh the language of the different positions and transitions from one to another. It is not reaching to the positions that just matters , it is the way "there" , this continuous uninterrupted message given by the movement and its substances: sometimes, a very small change in the fingers spatial position , and the meaning changes drastically . At the condition , again and again that someone is "home" , watching , at the condition that BEING stands in front of DOING . And here, we experience the trilogy expressed also verbally in some dances:
"I am I wish I can"
I am , therefore, I can do
This alone showed me a new direction in my daily life
If" I am " , reunited in my body , my heart and my mind in this place, this moment then only I am able to act in life in a conscious and efficient way
The movements are showing me that there is no in-between:either I am present, with the 3 centers , physical , emotional and intellectual, in support of each other, or I am not present
And the taste of these 2 states is so different! One is the taste of freedom, the other is the foggy taste of sleep , unclarety, anxiety
For the beginners at first , the main difficulty remains in "taming "body, breaking its automatism and apathy , establishing correct postures , sequences and displacements individually and within the group. The attention is constantly called to different parts of the body, simultaneously or successively. One notices how we are not yet master over the right balance between tensions and relaxationWe learn to discriminate between resistances, which are the natural demands of a posture or movement , and extra tensions often emotionally induced ,that we too often bring And the movement is either too rigid, or flabby, in case of a lukewarm attitude. Attention and absence of tensions, these are the conditions for harmony to be. If the attention is total and purified from unnecessary "luggages" such as physical tensions, worries, emotional charges, mental restlessness, then it suddenly leads to a blissful sensation o f the whole of oneself, as well a s awareness of the room , the group members, the air , the music….The movement happens without the interference or control of the mind. We are "being danced" by the spirit of the movement . Grace descends….We have moved from active participation through efforts of body and attention to an active surrender, lighter, effortless, and the sky meets the earth….What Taoists call "Wei wu wei", action through inaction, effortless effort.
Seeing the difficulties one encounter in a body that feels clumsy at first, emotions arise. Gurdjieff was provocative, "a danger" says Michel de Salzmann, danger to our comfort, our illusions , our self-image and passivity. The discomfort is not so much physical as it is emotional and mental.Memories of being "bad" at school , or the tension to stay"good"!, self condemnation , comparisons, desires for a result, identification with success But if we can maintain our center of gravity in the watcher, ( and this is one of the main support an instructor can give!) , then a very beneficial lesson is learned: the possibility to distance ourselves from emotions and thoughts which so often prevent the free flow of energy and life. IN our daily life discouragement, anger, frustration, fear, greed , or beliefs such as :" I will not be able" " I am not good enough" are affecting the clarity of our decisions, the harmony in our relating, inhibiting the fullfillment of our potential, holding us in a psychological prison. But how can we take them so seriously when they keep on coming and going frontstage at such a speed? Hence the search for oneness…While practising the movements, we face these fragments of our personality, and some distance is created. You face it, and you let go, you face it, and you let go. The quality of attention required by these strange movements does not let you hold on. And the coming back again and again simply to the sensations in the body- breathing , weight , alignment , and the energetical flow . Such is the dance of attention. Instead of the interference coming from the lower part of our intellectual center, this constant turning of thoughts, the escape in dreams, in past or future, the practise encourage the participation of the intelligent part of the mind. They involve understanding of individual and global patterns , but also words, counting...This allow the brain to enter into specific vibrations that are in total support with the movement given. The verbalization is an intrisic part of the movement , and must be respected as such, the whole being the result of a long-studied science of impressions.
In the same way, the movements are often calling for a specific feeling or emotion, either triggered by the music, or visualisation, or words.The emotional center can then enter in a particular state, such as memories of parents funerals, or nostalgy for the higher etc...This mobilization of the 3 centers open the doors to a new quality of energy
This also helps maintaining in alert the 3 types of attention: -the instinctive global attention of the body , similar to the one of a little child , or the animal in the night, choiceless, inclusive of all -the powerful emotional attention present when we love or value what we are doing - the intellectual attention that sees , understands and connects.
so the 3 centers , physical, emotional and intellectual , are meeting . In our daily life, this is not so often the case! Observe yourself preparing a lemon pie in the kitchen. The body in the kitchen is pressing the lemons, the heart is somewhere along the road from school to home, as the children are late, the mind is busy calculating which type of printer to afford … The practise of the movementsis an exceptional opportunity of unification. And when this unification is felt, a very peculiar emotional quality is born: The bliss of feeling oneself at the right place , at the right time , in alertness and relaxation, aliveness and peace, lightness and fluidity, stillness and movement. Moreover, our awareness expands , as we enter deeper inside ourselves, and spreads its wings to other human beings, to the animal and vegetal world. Hence inner freedom , sensitivity and care
The being has renewed its contact with the source of life itself. The lower and higher worlds arre meeting, "Falling upwards " as Sufis are saying Man then can fullfill its destiny on earth, becoming a bridge between sky and earth, a subtle receptor of a higher quality of energy , bringing more consciousness into earth, otherwise bound to destruction by the forces of unconsciousness
Then truly can the dances be called "Sacred"
Amiyo Devienne.
Content of the Seminars
Intensive practice of dances coming from the Sufi, Tibetan Buddhist, Esoteric Christian and Pythagorean traditions, as well as those created by Gurdjieff himself. The combination of these Movements expresses different sensations, produces several levels of concentration of thought, creates necessary efforts in different functions and shows the possibilities of individual force.
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Inner and centering exercises: these exercises help us to create an appropriate inner state for the practice of self-observation and the movement, developing attention and subtler perception.
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Subjects of self-study: psychological aspects of the Gurdjieff´s system. An invitation to self-observation, de-identification and transformation of "the type of person" we are beyond our judgment.
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Practice of attention and "sensing":basic tools of this work. Attention as impartial concentration of force and sensing as a higher step of being aware.
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Meditation's techniques and "sittings": coming from different traditions. They help us to get attuned with the quality of outer and inner stillness, basic conditions for watching ourselves*
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Dialogue and sharing in a respectful and loving atmosphere, encouraging us to understand through verbal expression the living messages that are revealed through the experiences of the movements.
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Silence: Movements´ learning is done in silence.
These practices support self-observation, non-identification, and the search for an awakened consciousness free from conditioning. The program is included within a theoretical-practical frame that makes the integration of the experience and the ideas possible.
Experience in dance, corporal expression or meditation is not necessary. In order to attain the maximum benefits from this program, regular attendance to the meetings from the participants is suggested and a receptive attitude towards the new experiences what might arise in the body-mind. The aim of these seminars is to vivify our life with attention and awareness.
Why do Gurdjieff movements?
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For a real deep contact with our body in its totality
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For a connection with others that is more true and essential, beyond our personality meeting of presences
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To bring more conscious energy to our planet
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For the establishment of new neurological connections between the right and left hemispheres of the brain
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To find a balance between masculine and feminine polarities within us
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To strengthen our centre, anti –stress shelter, learning to remember ourselves while in activity
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To transcend limitations on the 3 levels: Physical, emotional, intellectual, and thus, restore inner respect and dignity
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To be able to DO
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To open up to a higher quality of presence and a higher energy
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To develop 3 centres whose vibrations are in harmony with each other
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To bring distance from our emotions, and in the same time, to live passionately and totally
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To face our inner struggle between I must and I cannot
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To forgive ourselves for our mistakes and learn from them creatively.
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For the joy it brings…