In Search of the Miraculous

then translating them for me into Russian. After a quarter of an hour, let us say, when I had completely disappeared beneath forms, symbols, and assimilations, he said:

"There, now make one line out of that." I did not try to create any measure or to find a rhythm. This was quite impossible. G. continued and again after a quarter of an hour

he said: "That is another line." We sat until the morning. This was in Koumbaradji Street a little below the former Russian consulate. At length the town began to wake. I

had written, I think, five verses and had stopped at the last line of the fifth verse. No kind of effort could make my brain turn any more. G. laughed but he also was tired

and could not go on. So the verse remained as it was, unfinished, because he never

returned again to this song.

Two or three months passed by in this way. I helped G. all I could in organizing his

Institute. But gradually the same difficulties arose before me as in Essentuki. So that,

when the Institute was opened, I think in October, I was unable to join it. But in order

not to hinder G. or to give rise to discord among those who came to my lectures, I put

an end to my own lectures and ceased to visit Constantinople. A few of those who

came to my lectures visited me in Prinkipo and there we continued the talks begun in

Constantinople.

Two months later when G.'s work had already become consolidated I again started

to give lectures at the "Miyak" in Constantinople and I continued them for another six months. I visited G.'s Institute from time to time and sometimes he 'came to me in

Prinkipo. The inner relationship between us remained very good. In the spring he

proposed that I should give lectures in his Institute and I began to give lectures there

once a week in which G. himself took part, supplementing my explanations.

At the beginning of summer G. closed his Institute and went over to Prinkipo.

Somewhere about this time I told him in detail of a plan I had drawn up for a book to

expound his St. Petersburg lectures and talks with commentaries of my own. He

agreed to this plan and authorized me to write and publish it. Up till then I had

submitted to the general rule, obligatory for everyone, which concerned G.'s work.

According to this rule nobody under any circumstances had the right to write even for

his own

use anything connected with him or his ideas, or any other participants in the work, or

to keep letters, notes, and so on, still less to publish anything. During the first years G.

insisted strongly upon the obligatory nature of this rule and it was supposed that

everyone accepted in the work would give his word to write nothing (and it goes

without saying to publish nothing) referring to G. without special permission, even in

the event of his leaving the work and G.

This was one of the fundamental rules. Every new person who joined us heard

about it and it was considered to be fundamental and obligatory. But afterwards G.

accepted in his work people who paid no attention to this rule or who did not wish to

consider it. This explains the subsequent appearance of descriptions of various

moments in G.'s work.

I passed the summer of 1921 in Constantinople and in August left for London.

Before my departure G. proposed that I should go with him to Germany where he

once more intended to open his Institute and prepare his ballet. But in the first place I did not believe it was possible to organize work in Germany and secondly I did not

believe that I could work with G.

Soon after my arrival in London I began to give lectures in continuation of the work

at Constantinople and Ekaterinodar. I learned that G. had gone to Germany with his

Tiflis company and with those of my Constantinople people who had joined him. He

tried to organize work in Berlin and Dresden and intended to purchase the apartments

of the former Institut Dalcroze in Helleran near Dresden. But nothing came out of it

all and in connection with the proposed purchase some strange events took place

which ended in legal proceedings. In February, 1922, G. came to London. I at once

invited him, as a matter of course, to my lectures and introduced him to all who were

coming to them. This time my attitude towards him was much more definite. I still

expected a very great deal more from his work and I decided to do everything I could

to help him to organize his Institute and the preparation of his ballet. But I did not

believe it was possible for me to work with him. I saw again all the former obstacles

which had begun to appear in Essentuki. This time they had appeared even before he

arrived. The outward situation was that G. had done very much towards the

accomplishment of his plans. The chief thing was that a certain cadre of people, about

twenty, had been prepared, with whom it was possible to begin. The music for the

ballet had almost all been prepared (with the co-operation of a well-known musician).

The organization of the Institute had been worked out. But there was no money to put