Gurdjieff's sacred stones are not very common. They consist of coded sequences, accompanied by music: each dance has a precise sequence and precise music.

The discipline and practice of dances constitute a deep and concentrated meditative commitment . The movements appear simple, but they train mind and body to a focused and continuous mastery.

Soili Rainieri lives in Lumen, an ecovillage where the fundamental principles of naturopathy are taught and lived. A teacher of holistic disciplines, Soili has been dealing with Gurdjieff's Dances for about 18 years, first as a student, then as an assistant, and still herself as a trainer in movements and dances.

Among the various courses organized by his teacher Shurta, who has been practicing and spreading dances for over 30 years throughout northern and central Italy, Soili collaborates in organizing seminars in Milan and Piacenza .

When I ask Soili what I am for her, the dance responds very naturally : "My first experience through dancing was very strong. I had no idea what I was doing, but they left me a taste and a state that I was unable to reproduce except through the dances themselves. My goal has become practicing the dances to be able to reach that state also in my daily life ".

So let's try to better understand Gurdjieff's sacred dances .

What are dances?

The dances are a practice disclosed by GI Gurdjieff, a Caucasian master of philosophical disciplines. Through his travels, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Gurdjieff collected information, mainly drawing on an ancient oriental culture. Thus he also encountered sacred dances.

He then spread what are exercises related to the possibility of using the brain in an unusual way . The dances consist of free-body movement techniques performed in groups .

Why define these dances as "sacred"?

The dances are called sacred because Gurdjieff, who taught a precise number, has derived them, in part, from the ancient Sufi culture.

Gurdjieff also created 39 movements, inspired by the Dances. The movements have a different purpose than the dances: the dances connect the human being with a greater energy, to which one can draw, while the movements, for what is my experience, produce an inner energy, more linked to the release of certain conditions of the human being.

What benefits for the body and mind?

The aims of the dances are many. The first of these is, through the asynchronous movements between the right and left parts of the body, to make the two hemispheres of the brain work in balance .

The dances force the hemispheres to a collaboration that is not ordinary. This collaboration produces an inner state that allows the person to experience emotions and states out of the ordinary .

Not only: the dances allow us to create a meditation in motion, thus producing a condition of inner emptiness, which allows us to feel more present at that moment, allowing us to stop what is the incessant cycle of thoughts, and to experience unusual and not mechanical.

The benefits are therefore manifold: I have seen people who, following the groups of dances and movements, have managed to recover balance at the physical level, regaining motor skills compromised by accidents and traumas.

What is the underlying philosophy?

We know well that the human being is composed of several parts, according to the philosophy of the "Fourth Way" disclosed by GI Gurdjieff. Three of these parts can be identified as "rational plan", "emotional plane", and "physical plane" .

The interesting aspect of the dances is that they push the body to create particular movements, and for these movements to be performed it is necessary that the experience be made to free the mind, and therefore the rational plan.

When I manage to make the body move according to its energy, without the limits imposed by the mind, then I can experience emotions that do not normally arise.

In this way all three centers of the human being are able to feed on their own energy, without using the energy of another center, and move in synchrony.

This state is not normal to produce it in our daily life, it takes effort, and the dances allow me to experience it both during the performance and outside the group of dancers.

Photo from the profile Fb of Soili Rainieri