[1][2] Gurdjieff taught that the movements were not merely calisthenics, exercises in concentration, and displays of bodily coordination and aesthetic sensibility.
The movements are purportedly based upon traditional dances that Gurdjieff studied as he traveled throughout central Asia, India, Tibet, and Africa where he encountered various Indo-European and Sufi orders, Buddhist centers and other sources of traditional culture and learning.
[3] However, Gurdjieff insists that the main source, as well as the unique symbol of the Enneagram, was transmitted to him as an initiate in the Sarmoung Monastery.
[citation needed] Gurdjieff collected and taught thousands of movements throughout his teaching career.
A brief glimpse of the dances appears at the very end of the motion picture about Gurdjieff, Meetings with Remarkable Men, produced and directed in 1978 by Peter Brook.