Gurdjieff said that after 20 years of exploration throughout Central Asia and the Middle East, he brought back three things. First of all, the system of esoteric knowledge. Second, a set of sacred dances and exercises and lastly, musical pieces, many of which he considered objective art. People, who worked close to him for a number of years have said that Gurdjieff considered these three things of equal importance for his teaching. It is not possible to speak of the Sacred Dances without reference to the music that accompanies them and the knowledge that they embody.

   Although many people today consider Gurdjieff basically as a philosopher, the importance that he gave to the Sacred Dances illustrates the fact that he frequently describes himself as a teacher of dance. And, according to his own words, "a rather good teacher of temple dances". In fact, in many European circles in the 1920s, he was not considered as philosopher but as one of the greatest experts on the ancient sacred dances of the East.

   At the heart of Gurdjieff´s teaching on the nature and purpose of music, lies the difference between objective and subjective art. He understood that much of the music that we listen to is just subjective art, an entirely accidental phenomenon that appears from a fluctuating subjective state of the composer at the moment of composition and affecting the listener according to the state, also totally subjective, in which he happened to be when hearing it. Objective art, on the other hand, is the product of Consciousness and does not contain any accidental element in its creation or effect. It is a universal language, which acts in the same way on everyone, according to their level of being.

   Gurdjieff once said:

"I measure the merit of art by its consciousness. A work of objective art ought to be a book; the only difference being that the artist transmits his ideas not directly through words or signs, but through certain feelings which he excites consciously and in an orderly way, knowing what he is doing and why he does it."

   The Western System sees the universe in terms of circulation and transformation of energies and much of Gurdjieff´s music and many of the Movements express in non-verbal form the interaction of the two great universal laws, the Law of Three and the Law of Seven or Law of Octaves. The Law of Seven governs the development of all phenomena or cycle of events and demonstrates the principle of the discontinuity of the vibrations. The musical scale is an expression of this law. The other great law, the Law of the Three Forces, determines the genesis of any new occurrence.

   Gurdjieff composed several hundred Movements in his lifetime.

He said in ancient times dance was a branch of real art, serving as intention for higher knowledge. The limits of the dancer were expanded through non-natural and non-habitual maneuvering of movement. In its practice, they obtained a new quality of attention and a new direction of the mind, all with a defined intention. Through strict patterns represented by the participants certain laws became visible and intelligible."

   Gurdjieff created the Movements in two separate periods of his life and his teaching and they can be divided in two main historical periods. The first went from 1917 to 1924, when about 60 Movements were studied and presented on stages in Paris and America. Here there are extracts of his ballet "The Struggle of the Magicians" (now lost) and the Movements which were created in the years in which Thomas de Hartmann collaborated with him. Gurdjieff himself composed the music for the Movements in this period to be performed by a 36 pieces orchestra. Later, this was transcribed for piano only. According to Gurdjieff, these are the Movements both, the music and the postures, which were records of what he saw and heard during his years of traveling.

   These early Movements are of different kinds and for different purposes. First come the Obligatories or alerting exercises, designed to bring the three levels to a state of attention and awareness of the present moment. The second group is the Occupationals or the work-dances, which are representations and mimes which reflect the essence of a particular craft or activity. These Movements are practiced essentially with one's companions, sensing that one is working with others as a unified whole. Next, there are Movements which express the two great Laws, the Law of Three and the Law of Seven. Traditionally, it was said about the combination of these two laws that they required to be experienced in movement for the fullest understanding to be obtained from their interaction. Close to this type of Movements are the devotional Movements or prayers, with their symbolic positions and gestures. Another group of Movements are those which are practiced just by men or women. To take part in these Movements gives the dancer the opportunity to experience the essence of male and female energies

   After his near fatal car accident in 1924, Gurdjieff did not transmit new Dances for over 10 years. He then worked very intensively on creating new Movements for his group in Paris, based on the circular representation of the enneagram. This second period went from 1939 until his death in 1949, in which he gave classes almost everyday and, in fact, represents the only structured teaching that he transmitted. This period includes the series of the 39 Movements, the last one of which, nº. 39, was created 18 days before he died. As De Hartmann had left Gurdjieff in 1927, Mme. De Salzmann improvised the music for these Movements, often, in accordance with Gurdjieff´s suggestions. Then, Mme. De Salzmann asked Thomas De Hartmann to compose music for these series, based on the earlier improvisations and fragments. Pupils of Gurdjieff say that many Movements have been lost, because often he refused to repeat the initial teaching of a new Movement if dancers could not remember it the next day.

   So the Movements comprise an anthology of objective physical activities to work with attention, being designed to balance the intellectual, emotional and physical centers and to open higher parts in them. They involve the three aspects of human endowment which can simply be referred to as Head, Heart and Hand.

   The most superficial meaning of the word attention could be to direct the mental powers towards the understanding or the improvement of a particular physical activity, like shooting an arrow or centering a piece of pottery. At a deeper level, it is possible to know "what is" before it becomes "that".

   If properly done, with the correct attention, the Movements may reveal truths in a new way. Such discoveries are the privilege of those who practice them. They result in a feeling for 'the right kind of movement' in each case, and of using this feeling to try to reach the heart of the maze, like Ariadne with her thread.

   Fundamentally, therefore, The Movements are about and for learning about The Source. They begin with learning the details of the outwardly correct form but should proceed, for everyone at his or her own speed, towards learning the true meaning of each. Everyone learns in a different way. Or at least, there are different ways of learning. This can be a great discovery in itself. The learning and practice of The Movements should be regarded as an objective activity. That is, they are supposed to have known and knowable effects according to universal Laws. They must never be subjected to personal psychology. The most important undertaking in beginning these Movements is to add nothing, change nothing.

   The Movements themselves, and the practise classes, take differences of nature into account as well as the differences between men and women. Different things are taught in different ways. Certainly, at least to begin with, some people learn some Movements more easily than others, and, indeed, prefer some to others. Facility, of course, has not much to do with Aim. The feeling of 'learning' keeps us free of our own subjective interferences - the part of us that invents and justifies and takes pride in self-expression. The need for inner stillness is the same as in Meditation. The Movements offer us opportunities to create a situation in which our personal psychology can be taken by surprise. Something new is then possible.

   The Movements and their accompanying music are a means through which we can begin that process - a process by which our efforts to remember ourselves is linked with a sense of service to the divine.

   There is a Work aphorism which says, "A man may be born but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake."