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Newsletter 6/2002
Shopping List
What is my head doing while making Movements
Author: Maja Moeser Thimm
The other day I mentioned in a conversation that I sometimes
used to do shopping lists in my head while doing movements.
There was surprise in the face of my friend. Now I remembered
this incident and started to look at it and there are various
sides to it, one is why do such a thing and what does it have
to do with movements? Again there are various answers and
I want to investigate this a little, trying to go deeper as
my understanding -hopefully- grows.
I did my shopping list
- to keep my head busy, the body was doing its part and keeping
my head supervising it often creates disturbances, this was
a practical solution for this situation.
- The body was working nicely, but what about the rest of
me? Where was I? There is always so much to 'do' in a movement,
why wasn't I working on this?
- I did not know more of the movement. We have heard and read
about being three-centred beings and it looks to me as though
some of my centres did not know what to do and the boss was
not there to give instructions.
- I was bored. It can happen when standing in a class that
repeating the same steps or gestures again and again becomes
a little tedious. At the time I did not remember anything
'better' to do but I remember that slight feeling of unease
that went with it. After a while when a similar situation
came again I started to look for a new approach. Coming back
to 'Zero' or neutral position , outwardly and inwardly, was
the first thing I tried. Next I tried to stretch this attitude
into the moment when I started moving. Of course I lost it
quickly again but I had found something to keep me busy and
I was never bored in class again -and I had found an important
key to movements.
I have found some answers and they in turn pose new questions.
Gurdjieffs movements are multi-layered, often impossible to
perform, just the body alone has so much to co-ordinate: arms,
legs, body-bends, head and so on. The job of the thinking
part is to remember the pattern and sequence. Now we have
two different activities and challenges going on: the mind
remembering the instructions and the body doing it, or rather
trying to do it. Each centre has to be clear and precise,
that is the theory. In practice we are not clear, and the
result is often an emotional upset. The third centre has entered
the stage and often wants to play first fiddle. As we need
to co-ordinate our arms and legs, so do we need to bring our
centres into balance so they can work together. We need to
find out how they can communicate with each other without
interfering and remembering that each centre is specialised
for its own role. Once we are on the way in that, we find
the next challenge - and help- in the inner part of the movements,
the activity that is not visible but that can be perceived
by our finer senses.
One of our most important tools in doing movements is our
attention; we learn to direct it, to divide it: one part can
go to the arms while another part goes into the displacement
and then into the finer layers of the movement, the sensing
of the limbs and other inner exercises. I have also found
that diverting the attention can be helpful, i.e. trusting
the feet to walk where they should when what I perceive as
'I' cannot get it right.
There is no better place than a movements class to make a
fool of oneself! Just look at us, mostly respectable and often
middle-aged people trying to do some absurd gymnastics! Most
children would be better at this than us! So why do we do
that? And why do we take so few of the chances offered us?
Start afresh on 'one', come back to 'neutral' position, try
a new approach if the old one did not give the results I wanted
it to.... we are creatures of habit, mortally afraid of losing
our 'face'. In class there is no face to lose, anyone who
has ever stood in front of a class knows this, but there is
something to be found: a human being.
Maja offers an open seminar
in February 2003 in Austin Texa USA
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