Gurdjieff's Movements and
European Art

The strongest parallel with Gurdjieff's Movements is to be found in Dalcroze's approach, especially in his rhythmically orchestrated body movements that liberated his dancers from the constraints of classical ballet.
It is reported that on the night of the first demonstration of Gurdjieff's Movements in Paris on Thursday, December 13 of 1923, Dalcroze's students protested in front of the theatre, shouting "Tricheur! Voleur!" ("Cheat! Thief!"), as if Gurdjieff had stolen his ideas from Dalcroze. It is highly unlikely that Gurdjieff would have been in the least interested in any European who had developed something comparable to his own work, let alone copy it; but the existence of these similarities demonstrates that Gurdjieff was submitted to the mysterious force by which, in any given cultural period, the same experiments are performed simultaneously by independent and geographically separated people.