Gurdjieff Movements are a collection of over 200 dances (they are alternatively called Gurdjieff Sacred Dances) created by George Gurdjieff, an Armenian spiritual teacher, that are set to piano music, also created by Gurdjieff. But a Gurdjieff Movements Workshop is not a dance workshop; even though we spend the majority of our time learning Movements, – and I am not a dance teacher! Gurdjieff created the Movements in order to create in us what he called “Presence of Being” The Workshop is focused on Presence and Awareness – through movement. Man, as he is, hurtles his way through life like a driverless car, on and on, but really having no idea where he is really going; he is simply a collection of automatic and unconscious reactions – or as Gurdjieff sometimes put it: Man is fast asleep. Gurdjieff Movements are a way of waking up to our potential – and they work purely through the body/mind/emotions connection, purely through the medium of dance. So we may say that the Movements are a form of meditation, a device for our personal growth – but they are also stunningly beautiful and engaging to work on, and may give us an inner sense of calm and centredness. However, unlike many forms of dance as used in therapy and meditation, the Movements are not about expressing our feelings and emotions through our movements; rather, through the learning of precise sequences of postures, the Movements hold up a clear mirror to allow us to begin to see who we are, to become more aware of our self, and to our life strategies, to become more present to the reality of what life is. Awareness Work functions primarily through simply seeing: seeing clearly who we are; once we begin to see who we are, and simply say yes to that, without any opinion or judgment about what we see; then this opens up the possibility for change to occur in our life – not that we actively have to find means to change; not that we have to actively do something; rather, change occurs naturally through our understanding and awareness”
I’ve been on my spiritual journey, on the path of meditation and awareness for over 40 years; in the 80s and 90s I trained in Humanistic Psychology and Counselling. I’ve been teaching and practicing Gurdjieff Movements now for almost 30 years; my main teachers were Deborah Rose Longo and Avrom Altman; and I’ve also been taught by Solange Claustres, Margit Martinu, Wim van Dulleman, and James Tomarelli. During the 90s I was based in India, and for over 10 years I led the 6-weeks Gurdjieff Movements Intensive at Osho Meditation Resort, Pune, India, as well as leading 10-day silent Gurdjieff Movements Retreats; plus also leading Satori Awareness Intensive Retreats, and assisting in Primal Therapy and Inner Child Workshops. Also, since the mid 90s, I’ve travelled to many different countries leading Gurdjieff Movements Workshops and Satori Retreats: the UK, Germany, Austria, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan, China, the US, and Costa Rica. Since 2006 I’ve been based in Israel, but from 2008 till 2019 I worked almost exclusively in the Far East: Mainland China – I’ve worked in around 15 different cities, including the now famous Wuhan! – and Taiwan and Hong Kong. I’ve worked many times since 1996 with U Theatre Company of Taiwan, a company led by 2 Tibetan Buddhists, the most recent time being in January 2020. U Theatre have produced 3 shows inspired by Gurdjieff Movements, in 2006, 2011, and in 2021, all premiered at the National Theatre of Taiwan in Taipei.”
