NEWS All & Everything International Humanities Conference 2017 Wednesday 3rd May to Sunday 7th May, 2017 Krokstad Herrgård Hotel, Säffle, Sweden Below is the dates & times for Greg Loy's presentations. Greg is President of the GHS and Publisher of the GIR Thursday, 4 May 2017 4:15 pm Seminar Greg Loy: Presentation on behalf of Gurdjieff Heritage Society Saturday, 6 May 2017 2:30 pm Paper Greg Loy: Presentation about the Gurdjieff International Review  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Website at http://aandeconference.org/ Contact address is: KROKSTAD HERRGÅRD HOTEL 661 94 Säffle, Sweden Tel. 0533-69 10 80 E-mail: es.dragrrehdatskork@ofni Go to the Hotel Registration post to learn more about the cost of the Hotel and how to reserve your hotel room. The Conference Registration Fee is payable directly to the “A & E Conferences” and is a separate fee from your Hotel costs. It includes lunch and coffee breaks.   In   New Platz, NY August 6th & 7th! We hope you can join us for the Whirling Dervish & Persian Sacred Dance workshop. Please remember to RSVP at your earliest convenience.       The Board of Directors of The Gurdjieff-Heritage-Society, Inc  is pleased to announce the completion of cooperation with The New York Public Library. Below is the Library's Summary of the contents and history of the collection and project from 1910 to date (April 2015). Links to several helpful created by the Library are duplicated below for your aid. We have received questions regarding access to various Documents, Photos, and letter copies. In cooperation with the library, we have been working on a method to make assess to the public (*other then at the actual Library, which is in place as of this date). Please see the Library's  present policies on the site links below: *Access to materials Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required. Restrictions apply   Howarth ~ Gurdjieff Archive 1910-2010 Creator Howarth, Dushka Call number (S) *MGZMD 412 Physical description 23.85 linear feet (52 boxes, 3 volumes, 1 oversized folder); 14.5 Gigabytes (5131 computer files) Preferred Citation Howarth Gurdjieff Archive, (S) *MGZMD 412. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library Repository Jerome Robbins Dance Division Access to materials *Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required.Restrictions apply The Howarth Gurdjieff Archive holds Movement materials and writings collected by Dushka and Jessmin Howarth and the Gurdjieff Heritage Society to preserve the integrity of G. I. Gurdjieff's teachings. The archive also holds Dushka and Jessmin Howarth's personal papers and research for the book It's Up To Ourselves: A Mother, A Daughter, and G.I. Gurdjieff: A Shared Memoir and Family Photo Album. Funds for processing provided by the Gurdjieff Heritage Society, Inc. See bottom of the data posted below for further administrative information regarding this project from the NYPL website...   Overview Detailed description Printable (PDF) version Contact the division Collection Overview Biographical/historical information Scope and arrangement Administrative information Key terms *Using the collection Direct link to The New York Public Library  Archives & Manuscripts   Biographical/historical information GEORGE IVANOVICH GURDJIEFF George Ivanovich (G.I.) Gurdjieff was a spiritual leader who advocated for achieving a higher state of consciousness through what he called "The Work" which was internal work on oneself. Born in Russia in the late 19th century to parents of Greek and Armenian origin, Gurdjieff taught in Russia, Georgia, Turkey, France, and eventually the United States. Gurdjieff taught that the way to experience "The Work," was actual physical labor. He emphasized strenuous labor combined with lectures, music, and sacred dance. His focus was to increase mindfulness and minimize daydreaming. Gurdjieff's choreography, called "Movements," was one method he used to help followers clear and focus their minds. The Movements were not intended for performance, but for spiritual contemplation. Practitioners would repeat movements over and over again until they were perfect and second-nature, allowing them to use the Movements as a form of meditation. His followers included composer Thomas de Hartmann and his wife Olga, who became Gurdjieff's secretary; Jeanne de Salzmann (who founded the Gurdjieff Foundation in 1949); Alfred Orage (who would eventually supervise The Work in New York); P.D. Ouspensky (one of Gurdjieff's earliest followers) and many others. Among his early pupils was Jessmin Howarth, who became an expert on Gurdjieff's Movements and how they should be performed. Other Movement students included Alfred Etievan and Marthe de Gainernon. JESSMIN HOWARTH Jessmin Howarth began her career as a dancer in 1912 when she registered at the Institute of Dalcroze Eurythmics in Germany, which eventually led to a job with the Paris Opera in the early 1920s. In Paris, Howarth encountered Jeanne de Salzmann, who introduced her to Gurdjieff. She immediately began studying the Movements and assumed the task of teaching and preserving the Movements as they were created. On a Movement Demonstration trip to New York in 1924, Howarth discovered she was pregnant with Gurdjieff's child. After giving birth to her daughter Dushka Howarth later that year, she moved to California and then London, returning to the United States at the start of World War II. After Gurdjieff's death in 1949, Howarth set about compiling accurate Movement notations and recordings and supervised the training of Movement instructors, assistants, and pianists. She travelled to France to assist Jeanne de Salzmann with filming Movements for posterity. She was also a consultant on the 1979 film Meetings with Remarkable Men. She retired from teaching Movements at the Gurdjieff Foundation in 1978, but continued to lead Movement Seminars until her death in 1984. DUSHKA HOWARTH Dushka Howarth was raised in the United States and London by her mother and had little contact with Gurdjieff as a child, though she learned of his teachings and the Movements. In 1949, she traveled to Paris with five other young women to train with Gurdjieff in the Movements, and went on to lead Movement classes in London. Howarth also worked as a tour guide in Paris, followed by a career as a folk singer under the name "Dushka, the Jet-Set Gypsy." In 1986, Jeanne de Salzmann's daughter Nathalie de Etievan (wife of Alfred Etievan) asked Howarth to return to teaching Movements and join her in South America to help supervise and establish Movement classes. Howarth went on to visit South America many times over the next ten years and conducted Movement seminars, trained teachers, and recruited new pupils. GURDJIEFF HERITAGE SOCIETY Dushka Howarth was a founding member of the Gurdjieff Heritage Society, which sought to preserve the Movements and Gurdjieff's teachings in their original form. To do this, members gathered original notes, photographs, music, and descriptions of Movements from around the world in order to compile definitive instructions for as many Movements as possible. The Society also lent resources and support to others undertaking Gurdjieff preservation projects, such as Gert-Jan Blom's preservation of Gurdjieff's harmonium recordings. As the artistic director of Netherland's Metropole Orchestra, Blom was also able to produce full orchestra recordings of Gurdjieff's music with assistance from the Society. In 2009, the Gurdjieff Heritage Society published Dushka Howarth's book It's Up To Ourselves: A Mother, A Daughter, G.I. Gurdjieff, A Shared Memoir and Family Photo Album. Howarth researched the material for the book over a ten-year period and used her mother's essays, correspondence, photographs, and the accounts of others to piece together the story of Jessmin Howarth's life and her own experiences with Gurdjieff and his pupils. Dushka Howarth continued to work with the Gurdjieff Heritage Society until her death in 2010. Scope and arrangement The Howarth Gurdjieff Archive (1910-2010) holds notes and writings collected by Dushka and Jessmin Howarth and the Gurdjieff Heritage Society in order to preserve the integrity of G.I. Gurdjieff's teachings and Movements (sacred dances), as well as Dushka and Jessmin Howarth's family papers and research for the book It's Up To Ourselves: A Mother, A Daughter, and G.I. Gurdjieff, A Shared Memoir and Family Photo Album. Audiovisual material from this collection has been separated. Inquiries regarding audiovisual material in the collection may be directed to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division (dance@nypl.org). Audiovisual material will be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access. The Howarth Gurdjieff Archive is arranged in four series: Series I: Movements Series I contains material compiled by the Gurdjieff Heritage Society and Dushka and Jessmin Howarth with the intent of organizing and preserving the integrity of the Gurdjieff Movements. Movements, or sacred dances, constitute an integral part of the Gurdjieff Work. Series II: Dushka and Jessmin Howarth Papers The Dushka and Jessmin Howarth Papers include correspondence, scrapbooks, Gurdjieff memorabilia, photographs, and other materials belonging to and collected by them. Much of the correspondence is between Dushka and Jessmin Howarth from the late 1940s and early 1950s when Dushka was living in Europe and studying the Movements. The letters cover topics such as Jessmin's health and work in New York, Dushka's living arrangements and travels in Europe, and Gurdjieff's failing health. There are also many letters to Dushka in the weeks after Gurdjieff's death, describing the state of affairs among his followers in New York, and requesting reports on the situation in Europe. Later letters are remembrances about certain Movements, and Dushka's descriptions of her time performing and working on cruise ships in the 1960s and 1970s. Dushka Howarth's correspondence from the 1980s to 2007 concerns the research, editing, and publication of It's Up To Ourselves as well as conversations about preserving the integrity of Movements and inquiries from Movement students and instructors about discrepancies in teaching they have experienced. These discussions lead to the formation of the Gurdjieff Heritage Society. Frequent correspondents include her agent Billie Biderman and Walter Driscoll, editor of a Gurdjieff bibliography. There is also correspondence and flyers relating to Howarth's membership and participation in the Gurdjieff Foundation, the Gurdjieff Heritage Society, and other related organizations. Gurdjieff Heritage Society material consists of original text files with website content as well as correspondence and photographs documenting the Society's collaboration with Gert-Jan Blom. Outside of her exchanges with Dushka, Jessmin Howarth's other correspondence details life as a follower of Gurdjieff teachings. Some correspondence is outgoing only, as these letters were returned to Jessmin once she began working to reconstruct the Movements. Correspondence with Ethel Merston includes original letters, photocopies, and a notebook of transcribed letters in Jessmin's hand. This series holds a small selection of correspondence from Bernard Metz and Elizabeth Gordon to others which was collected by the Howarths. Metz was a note-taker at many of Gurdjieff's early lectures. The letters from Gordon to Margaret Matthews date from 1924 to 1930 and were given to Jessmin Howarth by Margaret Matthews. Matthews and Gordon were both members of Gurdjieff's all-female Work group, "The Rope." Other items include Jessmin and Dushka Howarth's passports, appointment books, and address books; and programs, photographs, and contracts from Dushka's time as a folk singer. Photographs include many images of Dushka Howarth as a child as well as reproductions of photographs of Gurdjieff and his followers. There is a set of labeled and mounted reproductions used for an unidentified exhibit in 2004. These photos depict Gurdjieff alongside his early followers. Gurdjieff memorabilia includes programs and posters from performances and lectures by Gurdjieff and others who transmitted and followed his Work. Scrapbooks were given to Howarth by others and include a book that depicts the early group working in France, making costumes for the Movements, and performing in exhibitions from 1921 to 1924. A second scrapbook chronicles P.D. Ouspensky's 1910 trip to India. Most images are of buildings and scenic views. Series III: Research Dushka Howarth's research files consist of internet printouts and photocopies of articles with annotations which she used when writing It's Up To Ourselves. Research was filed by subject (such as Fourth Way groups), or by individual (such as teachers Osha and John G. Bennett), though the bulk of the research was filed under "Gurdjieff." These files include copies of articles (primarily from the internet) documenting his life, his work, and his influence. Arranged alphabetically by file title. Series IV: Writings and Publications Writings and publications consist of copies of articles, typescripts, and pamphlets collected by Dushka and Jessmin Howarth to preserve and share Gurdjieff research and drafts of It's Up To Ourselves. The files include memoirs from former Gurdjieff followers such as Olga de Hartmann and Joyce Collin-Smith, as well as contemporary writers' thoughts on the Gurdjieff methods and various film and theatre scripts about Gurdjieff's life. There are also transcripts of lectures by Gurdjieff and Alfred Orage. Published journals on Gurdjieff and other related spiritual research are here, the bulk of which are copies of the Gurdjieff International Review. Arranged alphabetically by author or journal title. Administrative information Source of acquisition Donated by Dushka Howarth and the Gurdjieff Heritage Society, Inc., 2012, 2014. Processing information Compiled by Lea Jordan, 2015 The hard drive and floppy disks that comprise the Electronic Records were forensically imaged for preservation. Audiovisual material has been separated. Key terms Names Gurdjieff, Georges Ivanovitch, 1872-1949 Howarth, Jessmin Ouspensky, Mme. Gurdjieff Heritage Society Subjects Dance -- Religious aspects Spiritual exercises Spiritual leaders and thinkers Spiritual life Material types Photographs Scrapbooks Using the collection Location Jerome Robbins Dance Division New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498 Third Floor Access to materials Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required. Conditions Governing Use The author/creator retains copyright of materials. For information on obtaining permission to publish, contact the Dance Division at dance@nypl.org. Access restrictions Inquiries regarding audiovisual material in the collection may be directed to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division (dance@nypl.org). Audiovisual material will be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access. © The New York Public Library, 2015   —   Built by NYPL Labs Privacy Policy Rules and Regulations Using the Internet Website Terms and Conditions Gifts of Materials to NYPL Komitas ECM records 2451   Dear Friends,   Greetings from Armenia!  After our  "Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff"  CD release on ECM records we have been working on a new program and now it’s time to share with you our latest news.   The ECM records released our second CD album called  “Komitas” link   Levon Eskenian formed the Gurdjieff  Ensemble in 2008 to explore the inspirational sources of Gurdjieff’s music. Komitas was an important reference for Thomas de Hartmann when preparing Gurdjieff’s music for solo piano and the music of Komitas , his articles and essays also influenced Levon Eskenian when preparing his ethnographically authentic arrangements of the G.I. Gurdjieff/Thomas de Hartmann piano music.  For this and many other reasons it was found relevant to have the music of Komitas on the second album.   The repertoire of the new album is Armenian ancient and medieval, secular and sacred music. In his work as a collector of thousands of folk songs, sacred songs and instrumental melodies, Komitas explored the connections that uniquely bind together Armenian sacred and secular music.   All of the works are authentically arranged by Levon Eskenian , some of the instruments used date back to antiquity, and it has been necessary to build replicas of those no longer in use. Many of these dances and their music reach back to Armenia’s pagan time, long before the state adoption of Christianity in 301. Komitas wrote that: ‘The pagans had two major types of dances, sacred and secular, that have kept their original functions to the present day’ – though he noted also that ‘religious traces still survive in folk or secular dances’.  “Dance”, he further observed, “is perhaps one of the most significant manifestations of human existence. For through its manifold movements dance unconsciously exposes the workings of the spirit.”   To further illustrate one of the dances recorded, the title of Msho Shoror means ‘Shoror of Mush’, the shoror (literally, ‘sway’) being a dance form, this particular one comprising of seven dances associated with pil­grimage to the monastery of Surb Karapet and Msho Shoror includes a wide range of folk dances having origins in the pagan era. On the site of the monastery there was then a temple, dedicated to the central divinity of the ancient Armenian pantheon, Vahagn, god of the sun and also of thunder and lightning, and to Astghik, the goddess of fertility and love. In Armenian mythology Vahagn was born when the universe and its three ele­ments – sky, earth and sea – were in travail, and in the purple sea, from the smoke and flame of a burning reed, came forth the young Vahagn, his eyes as suns.    Arshak Chobanian, a philologist and close friend of Komitas’s, describes the dance thus: “This is a solemn, ceremonial, almost religious dance, which the pil­grims all dance together: men, women, the elderly and children. It is an infinite round dance, in which two or three hundred people might take part. After a few beats of the drum, calling the dancers to form a circle, the zurna starts to play a swaying melody that leads the circle of dancers in gentle, very muted move­ment. All the dancers seem to be in a deep trance; mute and intoxicated by exquisite and noble feelings, they listen to the melody’s doleful mellifluousness. This must be a very old dance, most probably a remnant from pagan times: a mystic dance to praise a patron god.”    Msho Shoror comprises seven dance sections: These dances were habitually performed in the vicinity of the monastery, some of them having a subtle swaying motion while others were group dances or reserved for women. The Trnotsi evoked a leap to god.   To hear excerpts from the album and read about the project, please visit the ECM Player http://player.ecmrecords.com/komitas-2451   The CD booklet includes an introduction by Tigran Mansurian, liner notes by Levon Eskenian and photos.    ECM 2451 Komitas. Release date: October 2015  Availabe at ECM retailers and on amazons    We look forward to sharing with you our news in the future.   To keep up with our latest news, please follow us onFacebook    With best wishes,   The Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble   www.gurdjieffensemble.com       The Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble   Dear Friends,   We would like to thank all of you for giving us the opportunity to share Gurdjieff’s music with you. The Ensemble has had concerts in Armenia, Russia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands.   Our next concerts will be in:   -Lisbon , Portugal on April 23, 2014 at the Grande Auditório Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon (link)  -Sydney, Australia on May 7 and 8 , 2014 at St Andrews College Chapel, Sydney University -Canberra, Australia on May 11 , 2014 at Canberra International Music Festival -Zurich , Switzerland on June 22, 2014 at the Kongresshaus Zürich - Schaffhausen, Switzerland on June 26 , 2014 at the Rathauslaube, Schaffhausen   -Rudolstadt, Germany at the Rudolstadt TFF festival (link) on July 4 and 5, 2014   We will continue our tour and perform in the places where there is an interest to hear Gurdjieff’s music, including a trip to America we are planning in the near future.     We would like to share with you a film (link), which was filmed by the Arabic Almayadeen TV channel, in this film you can see footage of the Ensemble playing in Gyumri at the backyard of S. Merkurov’s house where Gurdjieff spent his childhood.   To keep up with our latest news, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.   We look forward to sharing with you our work in the future.   With best wishes, The Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble www.gurdjieffensemble.com

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New Book out GURDJIEFF IN THE PUBLIC EYE  By Paul Beekman Taylor

The history of Gurdjieff in newspaper articles, magazines and books during his lifetime traces his public figure; that is, what has been said of him on the world stage. Some of the writers were reporters, others visitors to the Institute or followers, and still others were persons interested in social and religious fads of the day. Many of the newspaper reports that were written by journalists who had neither seen his demonstrations nor listened to him or his followers, invented stories about his activities that pandered to readers intrigued by scandal and the sensational.

Nonetheless, articles printed between 1914 and 1949, the year of his death, constitute a topical history of his life and his work. They constitute a running account of Gurdjieff’s changing public image as a man and a teacher, and provide an insight into the way his teaching was perceived from an age in which theosophy was a prevalent intellectual occupation, before political, economic, and moral concerns captured the public’s attention.

Many of the writers whose work appears here were leading figures in the intellectual and cultural life of their age, among them the editor A. R. Orage, fiction writer Katherine Mansfield, Communist journalist Maurice Donzel, theosophist and actress Maude Hoffman, actress Georgette Leblanc, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, critic Denis Saurat, literary historians Waldo Frank and Gorham Munson, Hollywood screen writer Nunnally Johnson, and the founder and editor of the influential English New Statesman Clifford Sharp. From Paul B Taylor

GURDJIEFF IN THE PUBLIC EYE: NEWSPAPER ARTICLES, MAGAZINES AND BOOKS 1914-1949.

Available at By The Way Books  Price: $40.00

Date Published: 2011
Edition: First edition
Condition: Paperback in new condition
Book Id: 13965

Description: See above 246 pages

Memorial Events 2010: Reports on Services for Dushka

Click here to see Dushka's Obituary-Bio

On Sunday morning, May 9, In Memory of Dushka, a Mass was celebrated at St. Vartan's Cathedral. Later, a  Requiem Service began around noon. As it was Mother's Day, Jessmin Howarth's name was included. That evening an intimate service was held @ 4:40 in the Chapel where Dushka's remains were transferred from a lovely urn made by Sylvia March to the permanent church urn. A Vespers Service was then held at 5:00pm May 9, which included Dushka's inurnment.

Summary of Events May 21, 2010 at St. Peter's for Dushka’s Memorial Service:

Port o' Monkeys Band ~ Dushka singing ~ An appreciation of Dushka -- Patty de Llosa (text below) ~ Dick Hyman at the piano ~ Speaking of Dushka -- Lillian Firestone & others ~ Poem – Robert Schneck ~ Lord’s Prayer in Russian -The Foundation Choir ~ Georgian "Kartuli" - Victor Sirelson and Partner ~ Gurdjieff music: Duduki and Easter Hymn and Procession in the Holy Night - Meg Sinclair ~ Greek Dance - Livia Vanaver and attendees.

(Patty de Llosa): "As Dushka’s oldest friend here, we grew up together, it falls on me to welcome everyone to this celebration of her life. So welcome to the many who’ve come from the Gurdjieff Foundation, and those from Warwick and Claymont and Philadelphia and the West Coast. Welcome all! Dushka's ashes are right over there...

What’s that? Excuse me? Dushka? You’d like to welcome them yourself with a song? Ok.
                                    (DUSHKA SINGS)

When I think of Dushka, three words come to mind: Talent, Fidelity and Courage. She and I had extraordinary parents*, hard to live up to, so I know she had a struggle to become her own person. You will read about her in the small biography in your program, but let me say that at 25 she spent time with her father, G. I. Gurdjieff in the last year of his life and recorded much of the music he played on the harmonium, which has recently become available to the public.

She started off as a publicist for up and coming young stars of stage and screen, including Dick Hyman, who has come here tonight to help us celebrate. Her talent showed up as she learned the guitar and began to sing and play in performance, finally becoming a cruise entertainment leader on the Greek Line.

When her mother became elderly she left that job and came home to be with her. That’s where the loyalty comes in. And the courage? After her Mother died she taught herself computer techniques and in spite of heart attacks, fractures and illnesses which left her bedridden in the last few years, she put together a book which she published early this year, “It’s up to ourselves:” A Mother, A Daughter and Gurdjieff. So perseverance is another word we can apply to her.

Excuse me, Folks. Dushka’s talking to me again. Enough talking? You want a dance? Is Livia anywhere around? And you want to know where’s Dick Hyman? He’s right over there and he’s going to play for us after the dance".

                                  RIBBON DANCE
                                               DICK HYMAN PLAYS

"Have I mentioned Dushka’s adopted son? I bet you didn’t know she had one! But it’s Robert Schneck, who will read a poem he wrote for Dushka".

One of the people who has most cared for and taken care of Dushka in the last few years when she was bedridden is Lillian Firestone. Lillian will be the MC for the rest of the evening".

Patty de Llosa
  *(Patty is daughter of Dr. William and Louise Welsh)

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