Home Haikus Quotes Photogallery Workshops Contact us Links

 


 

contact Jivan:
jivansco@hotmail.com

 

By Jivan Sunder

I find it very difficult to describe the Movements: they are something to be experienced. What they are for me - and why they are such a powerful practice - are, quite simply, truth embodied in movement: Truth....dancing: they are the work of an enlightened man, Gurdjieff.

Another enlightened man, Osho, said that truth can only be experienced directly (and indeed, Gurdjieff said much the same thing in 'Meetings with Remarkable Men.'). That's why, for me, the only way to 'understand' the Movements is to practise them.

In this website I offer a small cyber-taste of Gurdjieff Movements, and also news of my upcoming workshops.

I've been practicing the Movements now for over 17 years. My regular teachers are Avrom Altman and Deborah Rose Longo, who are basically from the Bennett lineage. As well as them, I've been taught, albeit for just a few odd days over the last seven years, by Margit Martinu, whose words and movement are for me like pearls. As a young student I also attended a workshop with Solange Claustres: she scared me to death and taught me loads.

For over 10 years I led the 6-week Gurdjieff Movements Intensive at Osho Commune International (now re-named Osho Meditation Resort) in Pune, India, as well as leading 10-day silent Movements Retreats; these days, I live in Israel and travel to many different countries giving Movements Workshops and Intensives - UK, Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Ukraine, India, Taiwan, Hongkong.
I've also worked several times with Acco Theater Center in Israel, and U Theatre Company in Taiwan.

In September 2006, U Theater premiered their Movements production at the National Theater of Taiwan in Taipei.

******************

If you'd like to know more about the history of the Movements, a good place to look is here:                            http://www.gurdjieff-movements.net/movements.htm - this is the website of Wim van Dulleman, another Movements teacher.

Also, one of my students, Deva Smaran - now a teacher himself, has written a very good article on the experience of practising Movements on his website:                                 http://www.gurdjieff-sacred-dances.com/sacred_dances.html

*****************

I also lead a Zen Retreat called Intensive Awareness Who Is In (3 days) & Intensive Awareness Satori (7 days). I have a website for these (www.whoisin.co.il) but at the moment it is only in Hebrew; but you can read more in English about these kind of retreats at www.satori-retreat.com, a site run by two colleagues of mine.