Gurdjieff Movements in Sofia Bulgaria, February 2024

Описание: Nearly 30 years ago, when I worked at Osho Commune in Pune, I led for 10 years running, together with a selection of other teachers, a 5 or 6 week Course of Gurdjieff Movements, at the end of which we gave a big presentation of the Movements with costumes, lights and stage set.
But actually, the presentation was always the least interesting aspect of the work for me - which is strange in a way, because as a young man I studied theatre at university and worked for 5 years or so in professional theatre!

These days I very rarely give public presentations at the end of my workshops, but once a year I do - in Sofia, Bulgaria, where my Organiser, my good friend Vesselin Dimov, is now Artistic Director of a large beautiful theatre and arts centre in central Sofia.

We work for 7 days in the largest of 3 studios in the theatre building - Movements need a lot of space!
and on the last day, in the evening we give a public presentation. We don't have costumes as such, but we all wear white, and show the Movements in a black 'box', with no stage set, but with lighting.

This video is not actually from the presentation, but from our last rehearsal before the presentation, while the lighting designer was experimenting with the lighting.

Although I would not wish to do more public presentations, it is great to do this once a year; mainly because it gives the participants a very real and intense experience of 'presence of being' - which is really where the power of these Movements lies; yes, they are beautiful dances, but their power, for those watching comes from the radiance of the participants' presence.

At Osho Commune, in the presentation, both myself and the other teacher would also dance in the presentation, but we would usually be in the back row; this meant, of course, that we could see most of the other participants - that meant, of course, that we could see any 'errors' or 'mistakes' were made - and there were often many!

However, every year, in the days after the presentation, people who had watched it, would come up to me and say things like "that was amazing!" or "that was absolutely stunning!" - the reason being, not because of the perfection of the execution of the Movements (they were never perfect!), but because of the very tangible presence of the participants.