Jeanne de Salzmann

Jeanne Matignon de Salzmann born Allemand, (* 1889 in Reims, † 25 May 1990 in Paris) was a Swiss-French ballet teacher and a student of the Greek- Armenian Georges I. Gurdjieff esotericist.

Life

Jeanne de Salzmann - the French family Allemand entstammend - grew up in Geneva and studied piano, composition and conducting at the Geneva Conservatory. In another study with Emile Jaques- Dalcroze taught dance and rhythmic musical education.

In 1912 she met at the Festspielhaus Hellerau the Caucasus German painter and stage designer Alexander von Salzmann know. The couple married in the same year.

During the Russian Revolution she lived with her husband Alexander von Salzmann in Tbilisi (Georgia) where they opened a dance and music school. In 1919, she came by the composer Thomas de Hartmann in contact with Georges I. Gurdjieff and became one of his closest students. She stayed with Gurdjieff until his death in 1949.

The next forty years she worked hard to pass on the teachings of the Fourth Way. Together with other students of Gurdjieff she founded in the early 50s, the Gurdjieff Foundation, consisting of The Gurdjieff Society in England, the Institut Gurdjieff in France and other Foundations in New York and Caracas. This organization is led today by direct disciples and the next generation.