Movements (sacred dances)
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The movements is the name given to the collective body of sacred dances that were collected or authored by G. I. Gurdjieff and taught to his students as part of the work of self observation and self study the aim of which was development of a stable subjective and then objective consciousness in the being of his students under his direction, which is in many ways similar to natya yoga of Bharatanatyam or Odissi.
The movements are based upon traditional dances the Gurdjieff collected as he traveled throughout Central Asia and Africa. where he encountered various Sufi Orders, Buddhist centers, and other sources of traditional culture and learning. There were literally thousands of movements collected and taught by Gurdjieff throughout his teaching career. The music for the movements was written by Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann.
The names of the 39 most common movements that Gurdjieff taught to all his students are:
- 1. The Automat.
- 2. Prayer in Four Parts.
- 3. Three Tableaux.
- 4. Prayer for Instruction.
- 5. Pointing Dervish.
- 6. Movement in canon
- 7. Esoteric
- 8. Triads in Pairs. Complexity in Simplicity.
- 9. 'Olbogmek'. Double Multiplication
- 10. (A light dance with counting in canon)
- 11. Lord Have Mercy.
- 12. Halleluia
- 13. (A prayer movement)
- 14. Reading from a Sacred Book
- 15. (Tibetan) Days of the Week.
- 16. -- 17. Multiplication of Enneagram
- 18. -- 19. Stop Exercise. 'Frightened'
- 20. Six Displacements. Dervish exercise.
- 21. Remorse of Conscience
- 22. of Mesoteric series
- 23. -- 24. Chadze Vadze (Lord, Mercy!)
- 25. Black and White Magic.
- 26. (A multiplication)
- 27. (A canon)
- 28. -- 29. -- 30. Canon of Six Measures. A 'cosmic' dance.
- 31. Fifteen Rythmns. Getting up and Down
- 32. Automaton.
- 33. Premier exercise apri le retour d'Amerique
- 34. (A continuous multiplication)
- 35. -- 36. Dervish Movement. People scattered about
- 37. -- 38. (A canon)
- 39. (Thinking, Feeling, Sensing)
