Gaga is the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin throughout his work as a choreographer and Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company. Gaga has two tracks: Gaga/Dancers, which is the daily training of Batsheva Dance Company members (now taught also for other dancers in Israel and abroad), and Gaga/People, open to the public and available to everyone, without need of previous experience. Gaga classes are held for a growing number of people at the Suzanne Dellal Centre and other studios and festivals in Israel and abroad.
“Gaga challenges multi-layer tasks. We are aware of the connection between effort and pleasure, we are aware of the distance between our body parts, we are aware of the friction between flesh and bones, we sense the weight of our body parts, yet our form is not shaped by gravity… we are aware of where we hold unnecessary tension, we let go only to bring life and efficient movement to where we let go . . . We are turning on the volume of listening to our body, we appreciate small gestures, we are measuring and playing with the texture of our flesh and skin, we might be silly, we can laugh at ourselves. We connect to the sense of “plenty of time”, especially when we move fast. We learn to love our sweat, we discover our passion to move and connect it to effort; We discover both the animal that we are and the power of our imagination. We are “body builders with soft spines”. We learn to appreciate understatement and exaggeration, we become more delicate and we recognize the importance of the flow of energy and information through our body in all directions. We learn to apply our force in an efficient way and we learn to use “other” forces.
We explore multi-dimensional movement, we enjoy the burning sensation in our muscles, we are aware of our explosive power and sometimes we use it. We change our movement habits by finding new ones, we can be calm and alert at once. We become available . . .” – Ohad Naharin