The American 46 and French 39 Series of Movements

This introrductory description of the 39/46 series of Gurdjieff’s Movements comes from Dushka Howarth, posted on the Gurdjieff Heritage Society website. Please refer to http://www.gurdjieff-heritage-society.org/movements.htm for more information.

Of the several hundred Movements created and experimented with by Mr. Gurdjieff in the last ten years of his life, only a small percentage did he consider to be complete and evidently to fulfill his aim so that he then gave us permission to continue working with them. The so-called “Thirty-Nine Movements” are those he finished and authorized for continued use in France and another seven he added when we worked with him in New York during his last visit.

 These forty-six authorized movements are what we are particularly concerned with preserving for the future. The American order is the exact order in which Mr. Gurdjieff gave them to us in New York before his death in 1949.  Therefore we consider it to be of more significance for teaching the Movements than the French order, which simply reflects the order in which these Movements were completed and does not include seven of the authorized Movements.  (See below for the complete list in the American order.)

 In addition to our own memories, experience and notations, we depend on the valuable notes made by Jessmin Howarth and Alfred Etievant working together in New York in 1949. These were made in response to instructions left by Mr. Gurdjieff before he returned to France that: “Movements must be the same in America as in Europe.”

This description comes from Wim van Dullemen in the introduction to his two volume CD recording of the 39 series.

The ’39 Series’

The last decade of Gurdjieff’s life, the second stage of his Movements teaching, was one of extraordinary creativity. “Our group had a class once a week,” remembered Mme. Solange Claustres, “and he taught at least one new Movement in each one of them. This continued for the seven years I was in his classes! He demonstrated the new Movements, but rarely explained much about them. His presence was so strong – it literally filled the whole place-that you could absorb the new exercise in a direct way. No further explanation was needed. It was never allowed to make choreographic notes, because this activity would reduce our first and complete impression to an analytical or rational attitude.” Gurdjieff’s stream of creativity was confirmed by another pupil, Mrs. Jessmin Howarth, a choreographer at the Paris Opera and a pupil of Dalcroze before she joined forces with Gurdjieff: “He used to come every evening with three or four absolutely new attempts.” Those who were in his classes at that time described Gurdjieff’s creativity to me as an empirical experiment of great intensity, lasting years. He made a supreme effort to develop exercises that would help people to strengthen their awareness, will and power of attention. Sometimes he was weak or sick and had to support himself, leaning against the piano to keep standing, but kept on working

It was also explained to me that Gurdjieff studied the results of each new Movement he gave by observing the state of the people in the class. Many of his new exercises did not reach the goal he had in mind. It is reported that sometimes he went away during the classes, to come back after a while to propose a small change in a Movement: for instance, a wrist that had been straight was now bent, an arm that was horizontal forward was now diagonally forward. Occasionally even these new changes did not bring about the desired state in the dancers, and he then gave a strict order: “No… stop and forget this one, don’t perform it again ever.” However, if a Movement did create the desired state in the psyche and bodily expressions of the performers he’d say, “That’s it, this one is set and ready now. What number are we?” referring to the numbers they gave to the new set of “successful” Movements, representing the slowly growing list of what became the “39 Series.” The 39 Series were thus the kernel of his new exercises, the ones he had accepted as finished and relevant. All his other attempts, many of which have been remembered and have been performed since by his students, did not have his full approval. However beautiful they are, their relevance remains open to discussion

Work on the Series went on until the last moment, to come to a stop only because of Gurdjieff’s sickness and, ultimately, his death. Even on his last trips to America he added seven new Movements to the list (resulting in what’s now referred to as the American 46 series)

If we compare the 39 with Gurdjieff’s earlier Movements we find the same components: strong dervish dances, beautiful and quiet women’s dances, powerful geometrical patterned Movements, as well as sacred prayer-rituals. However, the ancient religious and ethnological components are markedly reduced while abstract gestures and positions, performed in mathematical displacements, now prevail. It is as if, during the fifteen-year interval since his first efforts, Gurdjieff had digested his earlier impressions and reflected upon them. When he continued his work on the Movements, they re-appeared with an even more personal style, in which mathematical and geometrical crystallizations are now dominant

The drama of the human condition, so poignantly captured in a number of the old Movements, seems to have given way to a more abstract construction, but one that gives immediate and plentiful opportunity for work on oneself and work for the class as a whole. The later Movements were even more difficult to perform than the earlier ones and demanded a huge effort from a class in terms of precision, quickness, discipline and sustaining attention

The 39 Movements have been called Gurdjieff’s magnum opus; many have felt that they summarized his whole teaching to mankind

Additional Information:

Many of the numbered Movements from the 39/46 series have been given names. A partial list of these names is shown below in the following two tables. The first table is sorted according to the American numbering system for the 46 series. The second table is sorted according to the French numbering system for the 39 series with the additional American movements added at the bottom. Details about some of the Movements are available through the menu on the left for logged in participants.

The American 46 Series of Gurdjieff’s Movements

AMERICAN #	FRENCH #	NAMES ADDED LATER…
1	19	STOP or WHEEL
2	5	POINTING DERVISH
3	2	PRAYER IN 4 PARTS
4	30	CANON OF 6 MEASURES
5	31	RHYTHMS
6	No Fr. #	AMERICAN MARCH
7	No Fr. #	AMERICAN. “I WISH TO BE”
8	16	RUNNING or SEAGULL
9	18	BODY CIRCLING
10	10	PERSIAN DANCE
11	17	MULTIPLICATION
12	13	ANCIENT WALTZ or PERSIAN WALTZ
13	12	“ALLELUIA”
14	1	COUNTING AUTOMATON
15	23	MAZURKA
16	32	AUTOMATON NOTE VALUES
17	24	SHARSSE VARSSE
18	11	“LORD HAVE MERCY”
19	27	CANON TO TWELVE
20	8	RUNNING SIX POSITIONS
21	3	TABLEAUX
22	21	REMORSE
23	No Fr. #	AMERICAN MULTIPLICATION
24	No Fr. #	AMERICAN MULTIPLICATION or “I AM”
25	14	BREAST BEATING DERVISH
26	No Fr. #	SLOW MORSE OR AMERICAN MORSE
27	4	PRAYER FOR INSTRUCTION or HOP
28	6	CANON
29	15	“LUNDI, MARDI,”  etc.
30	7	WOMEN’S DANCE
31	9	OLBOGMEK
32	20	DERVISH or TRAMPING
33	22	MARCH
34	25	BLACK & WHITE MAGIC
35	26	CUTTING MULTIPLICATION
36	28	MACHINE GROUP
37	No Fr. #	ENGLISH TURNING
38	No Fr. #	SECOND ENGLISH
39	29	OLD 39
40	33	COSMIC RHYTHM
41	34	MULTIPLICATION
42	35	MARCH
43	36	CANON OF LEFT ARM
44	37	DANCE
45	38	TWICE SIX
46	39	MEDITATION

The French 39 Series of Gurdjieff’s Movements

FRENCH #	AMERICAN #	NAMES ADDED LATER…
1	14	COUNTING AUTOMATON
2	3	PRAYER IN 4 PARTS
3	21	TABLEAUX
4	27	PRAYER FOR INSTRUCTION or HOP
5	2	POINTING DERVISH
6	28	CANON
7	30	WOMEN’S DANCE
8	20	RUNNING SIX POSITIONS
9	31	OLBOGMEK
10	10	PERSIAN DANCE
11	18	“LORD HAVE MERCY”
12	13	“ALLELUIA”
13	12	ANCIENT WALTZ or PERSIAN WALTZ
14	25	BREAST BEATING DERVISH
15	29	“LUNDI, MARDI,”  etc.
16	8	RUNNING or SEAGULL
17	11	MULTIPLICATION
18	9	BODY CIRCLING
19	1	STOP or WHEEL
20	32	DERVISH or TRAMPING
21	22	REMORSE
22	33	MARCH
23	15	MAZURKA
24	17	SHARSSE VARSSE
25	34	BLACK & WHITE MAGIC
26	35	CUTTING MULTIPLICATION
27	19	CANON TO TWELVE
28	36	MACHINE GROUP
29	39	OLD 39
30	4	CANON OF 6 MEASURES
31	5	RHYTHMS
32	16	AUTOMATON NOTE VALUES
33	40	COSMIC RHYTHM
34	41	MULTIPLICATION
35	42	MARCH
36	43	CANON OF LEFT ARM
37	44	DANCE
38	45	TWICE SIX
39	46	MEDITATION
No Fr. #	6	AMERICAN MARCH
No Fr. #	7	AMERICAN. “I WISH TO BE”
No Fr. #	23	AMERICAN MULTIPLICATION
No Fr. #	24	AMERICAN MULTIPLICATION or “I AM”
No Fr. #	26	SLOW MORSE OR AMERICAN MORSE
No Fr. #	37	ENGLISH TURNING
No Fr. #	38	SECOND ENGLISH