I endorse these meditation and healing techniques as antidotes that can prevent a negative future. They can awaken and empower human consciousness in the individual and by so doing, change destiny for the better, one individual at a time.

- John Hogue

Gurdjieff Sacred Dances Workshop
June 21, 22, 2008 in New York City

with Amiyo Devienne. Take me to the Store to register.
G.I. GURDJIEFF was a spiritual master who, at a very early age, developed a strong need to find the answer to the questions: "What is the purpose of life on earth?" and "Who am I?" His teachings, more particularly known as transmissions because they have more to do with physical realities than abstract ideas, are in the form of movement structures called the Sacred Movements or Sacred Dances. These wisdom teachings relating to self-awareness in one's daily life and humanity's place in the universe form the basis of his philosophy and work. Amiyo Devienne, one of the foremost teachers of Gurdjieff's Sacred Movements, gives a workshop in New York City, June 21, 22 this year. Cost: $225 for 2 days. Registration: $50 to reserve your space.

Sacred Dances Video

courtesy gigurdjieff.net. Press play button to start. For a high quality version click here.

Our sleep and slavery express themselves in the automatism and limitations of our feelings and thoughts, and these are bring closely bound up with the automatism of our movements and postures. This is a vicious circle. Vice versa our 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 one another. One does not change without others changing too and 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 and our movements in our eyes, etc.

Benefits of the Sacred Movements workshop

Participating in the Sacred Movements workshop can awaken an individual from this automatism. The technique is actually simple. 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 on new and unusual positions enables us to observe ourselves outside of our usual postures. The Gurdjieff Dances introduce non-habitual movements and sequences breaking the cycle of automatism.

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Even though the dances are beautiful and charismatic, it is not esthetics and beauty that are mesmerizing about them. The experience of the Sacred Dances offers much more than a new perspective and relating to the body/mind. New energetic channels open in the body. Participants speak of feeling a "solidly" new structuring at the level of the brain, as if new pathways, suddenly discovered and transformed into open circuits, have opened new bridges between the two hemispheres of the brain. More than an art of dance, the movements belong to an ancient, objective Science.

Different fragrances of consciousness induced by the movements include: The peaceful inner space of prayers, the longing, awakened by others, the heartful feeling of knowing that the "I" is much more vast and blissful than the little "i" I am living. The Gurdjieff Sacred Dances will make one become aware of the inner fire, the passion and determination enjoyed and awakened in Whirling Dervish Sufi dances and much more. They bring unity and harmony to the body, mind and spirit like no other tradition, ancient or modern.

Take me to the Store to register for this workshop.

Travel Info

Travel info: Joffrey Ballet Studios
434 6th Avenue (between 9th and 10th)
NYC, 4th Floor
Subway:
1,2,3,F,V,L - 14th Street
A,C,E,F,V,B,D - W. 4th Street
PATH - 9th Street

Amiyo Devienne:

is a professional dancer, choreographer, dance teacher and dance therapist. She is trained in:

• psycho-corporal techniques in Esalen Institute (USA)

• African dance in Douala (Cameroon)

• Contemporary dance in France.

She studied Gurdjieff movements with Deborah Rose, Avrom Altmann and James Tomarelli, direct students of John G. Bennett. In February this year, Amiyo met with George Gurdjieff's daughter, Dushka, in New York. She will meet again with Dushka again shortly before the June 2008 New York Sacred Dances workshop, when Dushka will share with Amiyo personal notes on many of the dances to correct variations and mistakes that have crept into the movements over the years.

Amiyo lived many years in India, in the international commune of Osho, where she created a unique synthesis between the Eastern and Western visions of dance, and where she learned the stillness of meditation.

Since 1989, Amiyo works personally in the Gurdjieff teachings with the Fourth Way Master, Selim Aissel, in France.

For 30 years now, she travels worldwide, sharing her experiences with the Dances, with movement as an art, a science, and as a tool for inner development for both amateurs and professionals. In 2002 she taught at Carolyn Carlson Institute “Accademia Isola Danza”.

Amiyo is currently leading Sacred Dances Seminars in London, Madrid, Rome, Sicily, Munich, Nurnberg, New Delhi, Dharamsala, Moscow, St Petersburg, Boulder and New York.

As a choreographer, she created and directed many performances of the Gurdjieff movements. She has also opened schools in Alsace, France, as well as Dharamsalla, India, where she offers initiation and training in Gurdjieff movements, as well as dance therapy-expression seminars.