Everything We Currently Know About The OA's Five Movements

One of the many interesting things to come out of the first season of Netflix’s The OA was the introduction to what Prairie referred to as the Five Movements, an almost dance-like sequence that Prairie and her fellow captives collected during their Near Death Experiences while being imprisoned by Hap. And while the gestures may have looked silly to see performed in action, a further understanding of what The OA's Five Movements mean proves that they serve a very important purpose.

When put together in the proper order, the Five Movements supposedly have the power to not only heal the sick, but also allow the users of said Movements to ascend into another dimension — something that appeared to happen to the show’s protagonist, Prairie Johnson, at the end of Season 1. It seems borderline absurd that a combination of hand motions could pack such a significant punch, yet the Season 2 trailer of The OA certainly seems to indicate that Prairie finds herself in an alternate dimension — one that never saw the presidency of Barak Obama and finds Prairie living the life of a rich Russian heiress.

Odds are that the Five Movements will continue to serve an important role throughout this new batch of episodes and those brave enough to try and imitate the movements are more than welcome to try with this very helpful, step-by-step guide.

Seasoned choreographer Ryan Heffington is the one responsible for creating the Five Movements in the first place and spoke in an interview with Thrillist back when Season 1 debuted about his thought process in bringing this concept to life. "A lot of them were based on natural things," he explained to the outlet. "Not all animals — just organic, natural references — whether its ancient tribal dance, or… I don't want to give away too much."

Not giving away too much is certainly part of this show’s bread and butter. It’s impossible to ever fully know exactly what’s going on at any given time. But that’s kind of the genius of it. By the time we begin season 2, we know the movements can transport souls to another dimension and that they can sometimes heal or revive deceased people. But what we don't know are things like, did they really stop the school shooting in the final episode of the first season? Is it the moves that heal people or is the people that actually do the healing? Is that why Jesse can't be revived but Scott is, because only Homer and Prairie/OA can heal? Hopefully the series will give us clearer answers over the five planned seasons, but either way, the movements certainly make for an interesting twist in already complicated show.