Gurdjieff Movements Programs at Camp Caravan

We have a long history of practicing Movements at Camp Caravan in the context of group work. Contact us to find out opportunities for classes, seminars, and gatherings.

Adaptations for manifestations of the aging process are available, so don't let your creaky knees stop you. Even if you haven't done Movements for a while….come again, renew, and rediscover. Experience how the Movements can reconnect the three centers, connect us with group Work, and connect with something higher.

Weather and meetings

Open Work Days usually schedule Movements classes in the late morning. If a storm is predicted and you are coming from a distance, contact us before heading out, as Royalston is in the snow belt.

 

Movements seminars

2017
What is the Role of Movements in the Work?

View Poster here

Please note that this event has been postponed, probably to spring of 2018
5:00 p.m. October 12, through 12:00 noon, October 15
Convened by Margit Martinu, hosted by the Group at Camp Caravan

Movement as a tool for experiencing group consciousness in movement and activity

For questions or to enroll contact Stefan Maier at registrar@campcaravan.org

We warmly extend this invitation to members of all Gurdjieff lineages to encourage the building of bridges and strengthen the WORK by sharing our experience and understanding

Presentation by Elan Sicroff on Music and its relationship to the Movements

Gurdjieff Movements, Sittings, Dialog/Exchange, Themes, Carpentry, Gardening, Team Work

Bring dancing slippers and an open mind

 

Accommodations include the newly renovated heated dormitory and all snacks and meals, served family style. Please let us know about special dietary needs. Contact registrar@campcaravan.org for details.

Please share your intentions by September 15 with Stefan Maier

Fees: $350 includes tuition, meals, and housing
Inquire about available scholarships, transportation, and logistical assistance

About the Movements-by Margit Martinu

The Movements combine the inner life and the outer life together – and that is something that we usually separate. We think of our inner practice that we do sometime, with other people in a nice, quiet environment, and then we have this very busy, stressful life outside – and there is a big gap between these two. What Gurdjieff brought to us is something that is useful to us in our daily life. The form is really just a tool for how to arrive at a study of oneself. It is a way to approach our inner life. Many traditions have a quiet sitting meditation and others make use of the body in various ways, but the Movements are very complete because we bring the meditation into movement.

 

Examples of previous Camp Caravan Movements seminars and classes

2014 Movements Seminars at Camp Caravan This year's ten-day residential Movements seminar takes place from July 5-13. Additional long-weekend seminars will be scheduled for spring dates. Please check back soon for full details.

Movements Seminar July 5-13 with Margit Martinu

Participants in the residential Movements Seminar of 2014 will give a public presentation in Buckland, Massachusetts on July 13. Read below for details.

We encourage people from near and far to participate, especially those who have already worked on Movements.

Although the Movements are primarily a method for self-transformation, rather than a discipline of the performing arts, there are important reasons for public showings.

Room and board and a full program of inner work is included in this residential program. Please contact us, movements@campcaravan.org with your intentions.

Your presence is important and special arrangements may be made. Work-study may be available for those who cannot afford the full fee. Do not let an inability to pay prevent your attendance.

Movements Project Dates for 2014
Jun 7, 14, 21    Movements classes 10:30 a.m.-noon at Camp Caravan
Jun 27-Jul 5     Camp Caravan Summer Seminar-Margit in residence
Jul 5-13           Movements seminar at CC with Margit
July 13            Movements Demonstration and Inauguration Event 7:00 p.m. in Shelburne Falls, MA (near Buckland)

July 13 Public Demonstration of the Gurdjieff Movements

Read full details

A performance of sacred dances by the Movements Project at the thirtieth anniversary of a Dzogchen Community in Western Massachusetts

Sunday, July 13, 2014 7:00 p.m.
Mohawk Regional High School, Rt 112
Shelburne Falls, MA (near Buckland)
Free and open to the public

Event and Project Summary

An auspicious occasion:

The Gurdjieff Movements, a form of sacred dance rarely performed in public, will be presented and demonstrated July 13, 2014, in Buckland MA, in collaboration between the European instructor Margit Martinu, and MREC, a Gurdjieff "Work" group, based in Royalston, MA. This will take place as part of a three-day celebration called Tsegyalgar 30. The Dzogchen Community in America (Tsegyalgar), located in Conway, and Buckland, MA is organizing the three-day event.

The purpose of the overall event is the inauguration of the Mandala Hall, a unique structure recently constructed on Tsegyalgar's retreat land in Buckland, MA, which houses a large colorful Mandala for the practice of sacred Vajra Dance. In addition, the event celebrates the thirty+ year presence and history of Tsegyalgar, the North American center established by the Tibetan Dzogchen Master, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu.

Movements Project Dates for 2013
Oct 24-27        Movements Seminar

Participate in a Movements seminar with Margit Martinu at Camp Caravan. Beginners and experienced dancers are equally welcome. This is a very special opportunity to work intensively with the group. We work with a variety of Movements, including women’s and men’s Movements.

A message from Margit Martinu

This October seminar is a call to all of you who feel the necessity to take the Movements to different level. It is a call for different vision, different perception and different relationship with ourselves, with the work and with others.

Working with attention and precision of gesture are only very basic aspects of this Work. Our working together needs greater intensity in order to concentrate a “substance” which brings about a new quality of thinking, feeling, and capacity for seeing.

This seminar also outlines the working plan for possible public demonstration in July 2014. Committing to this preparatory work for July is not a condition for participating in this seminar. Neither is participation of the proposed demonstration a requirement for working at the movements at Camp Caravan.

Can we open ourselves with a conscious positive attitude and allow something new to arise?

 

BEING IN THE RHYTHM

   BEING IN THE MOVEMENT

      BEING IN THE RELATIONSHIP

How do we relate to the continuous call that the Movements provide? What is our relationship to inner and outer movement; to the sound; and to the environment?

Can we take advantage of connecting the body with our thinking and thus relating to whatever arises in the present moment?

Read PART ONE from an interview with Margit Martinu

The Movements are a unique method that Gurdjieff brought to us. We can think of Movements as a learning process, but the first thing we need to do is to unlearn. And what we need to unlearn is everything we've learned in our usual ordinary way. So, if we look attentively at how we do things, we realize that we are somehow disconnected. Our thinking is not connected to our body, and our feelings also have a life of their own.

But the Movements create a condition where putting these three functions together is required. It is not something we train for gradually, that we will do "one day" in a wonderful way. No, it is in the very moment. It is an immediate situation. We cannot plan to do this later. It is not a kind of gradual way of doing things. In a Movements class you are put in front of yourself, really. The Movements class gives you the possibility to actually do something in that very moment; but do it differently than normally you would, because normally when things are difficult, we leave them. But because we have the energy of the class, and we have the support of the music, which is also very important, we have more energy available to us, so that we can actually see something about ourselves, through the process of learning the Movement.

But of course it is not just about learning the Movement; it is actually a very profound study of how we are. If we look at ourselves closely, we might see that we are not really living to our full abilities or full capacity. So the Movements develop this process in us where we can actually come to some sort of understanding of how we can not only "improve" ourselves but how we can function better in our own real lives. So the Movements are not just something for the Movements class in itself, but they are a kind of school for our lives.