Findings and thoughts from around the web
Bret
"Now that it’s online, it’s a little bit more personal. It’s a little bit more about me going through
a physical research and sharing that with you, as opposed to me feeling like I can really see all the, potentially, hundreds
of people in the "room" and comment. Although, there’s also times that I can see – in my box of 25 screens, whoever happens
to be in it – I’m finding now that I can still pull things from them. So that it doesn’t have to be me internally focused and
going through something, and you just happen to be there witnessing it. That there is this ability for us to see each other.
I'm thinking a lot about outward focus, trying to change the pattern, and notice how internally focused I might be when teaching
or researching. I'm trying to get out of that. Also, in the physical space, there’s such an exchange of energy in the room that you
can really feel. That was almost the biggest shift now that I’m isolated in a room teaching to a computer screen, that exchange.
But I’m recognizing defaults in my own personal movements and expressions. A way of letting my energy echo out further, that I can
try to potentially make you feel where I’m at through the screen. It’s a little bit more effort or oomph behind movements, and a
little bit more letting go and allowing movements to echo and leave me, but I'm recognizing that as a new territory for me as a dancer, performer, mover."
As a teacher, I get to witness the gratitude from people, and that’s really what it’s about – for me.
Reach your hands from your heart
Tony
"When I first did online [classes], it was a reminder of the in-person classes. But just recently, I am discovering some new things,
where it’s no longer just a memory of a past class, but that there’s something new that I’ve just discovered today. That I’ve never
done before, that I’ve never touched in the classes in Tel Aviv. I’m connecting more to the online now, where it feels like there
are new areas of research that the teachers are showing me. It’s like, “Oh, I don’t think he’s ever mentioned this before.” That’s
been great, those moments where I feel like there’s something new here. I think it’s fantastic...
As a non-dancer, this idea of working with images itself is so new. The whole concept that you can use that to power a movement, it
was a very foreign concept to me... It blew my mind that you can do that—and not only can you do that, but when someone’s doing that,
you can see it in their body. That blew my mind. A teachable voice, a certain kind of imagery, and then you could see it in their body...
Just the fact that you can do that is amazing to me, and that it can be learned."
Through Gaga, I think this connection with the body is something I value even more... This thing that I suspected was important truly is important.
Sasha
"The whole experience felt like there is no fear or uncertainty about what your body can do. The body isn’t as precious, and pain and
fatigue and everything, those aren’t bad things. I notice the emphasis on not judging those sensations as negative, but leaning into them.
It’s kind of sadist[ic] in a way, like the pleasure of squeezing the abs and feeling really tired. It felt like a really loving and fearless
process and experience, and I could really feel that. Afterwards, I was just really sweaty and euphoric...
You can feel your own body, and working hard doesn’t become bad, which is key. I need more of that. I need to train my mind more that way if
I’m going to want to do more dance, because you can’t be mad about being sore, or working hard, or being tired, because those are all things that
have to come with moving and feeling these pleasures too... If you pay attention to that effort dial and enjoy the play, and start to enjoy playing
with that, then I think you have access to a lot of different types of movement that have a lot of different types of looks and effects in performance.
That’s something I really care about when I’m trying to choreograph, but I don’t always emphasize effort qualities. Gaga is a fun way of doing that."
Yankalle
"What attracts me to Gaga? On the one hand, it’s very free, and on the other, it’s super precise—one of the least free movement languages. It’s a
combination of both at the same time. It's like... what else is both? It’s about the form, which is theoretically free but it also isn't. Gaga has a
good combination of requiring precision and still having lots of options.
Basically, the fact that I grew up with it is maybe the main reason I'm attracted to Gaga. I could say whatever I want, but this is really what it boils
down to. I grew up doing ballet maybe even more than Gaga, but Gaga is here. It’s local. It’s something I feel connected to because I am connected to it.
It’s not even about the feeling or the decision. It’s not like I chose—like I saw all the techniques in the world and I picked the one I wanted. In Israel,
Gaga is here, it’s present. Because it’s relevant and alive and meaningful. I know it influences me, and I can influence it, which is another interesting point.
Each class I give, I know I can change, in some small way, what Gaga is. And I can’t change almost anything else. I grew up with it, and it grows up with me."
I specifically like teaching non-dancers... The idea that people are coming to treat themselves—to make their bodies healthier, to make themselves better, more developed in their way of moving, thinking, doing things—it’s just amazing.
Savannah
"I actually think, because it’s taught online, there’s something that goes on with how we think… I think with studying in home and at home, you’re more noticing,
'Oh, wait, I do Gaga in this place so I can research more everywhere.' I’ll notice myself even in the shower, just feeling the water trickle down. 'Oh, well that’s
what it’s like to float,' or taking a cold shower and turning the water all the way cold, and I’ll be like, 'That’s the sensation they’re talking about and what they
want to research.' I think it’s making it more physical in a sense, because I’m actually searching for the physical sensations that they research, as opposed to just
imagining them in my head in the studio. I’m actually home, I can actually turn on the cold shower and feel that sensation through my body, and then bring it into the
Gaga class either later that night or the next day.
When it’s online, sometimes I feel like I can dig a little bit deeper, because I’m one of the people who will turn off the camera and it’s just me in my room. No one’s
even watching me, which I think is a gift to have, because I’ve already had those in-person classes so I’ve been able to know what the research is within the community.
It’s mainly just focusing on myself now... When I do take it, it’s more about just me in this room and no one watching, which is really special. But it also has been hard
because you don’t have that community of everyone screaming out the numbers when you’re counting down within the effort. I feel those efforts are a lot harder to be encouraged
by everyone else, because all you can hear is the teacher. When I’m back in class now, I can hear everyone yelling out numbers because everyone’s bones are shaking and your
muscles are aching—you miss that joy of everyone being together in that same effort struggle."
Emilie
"Knowing that I can always go and take my [Gaga] class enables me to really dig deeper into the concepts of it. I can tell myself during a class, “Hey, it’s not
because you didn’t get it this time, or it’s not because it didn’t feel the way you thought it feels that you won’t get it.” Which is different from the live Gaga class,
because then you’re like, “This is the class I have, and I need to get it.
But now with online classes, I can be like, “Okay, there’s another one tomorrow.” It’s fine, I can just come back to it in the comfort of my own house and really take my
time and digest, whereas being with other people, there’s so much information and you’re kind of forced to really go with it and absorb everything. Now, you can really
filter through much more of the information, which is helpful when it comes to dance and understanding the body and figuring out how I dissect the information and really
understand it more deeply."
Really pushing the body’s boundaries with Gaga and seeing how much more is inside of me is really refreshing. In quarantine especially, you’re so passive, and then to be pushed outside your body in, what, 40 minutes? That’s just incredible to me.
Lee B
"I think in this online process, a lot of new suggestions and ideas... have cancelled out things that existed in Gaga up until now, but I like that there isn’t a fear of doing that.
I think that’s really exciting. It creates this uncertain ground. On one hand, sometimes you want to grasp onto something that is really clear, and is really there, and you know exactly what it is;
on the other hand, it’s not really tangible, because everyday—with the information you have, with the information that is changing—you see things and sense a bit differently. I think it’s the
challenge that is the beauty of it. As a teacher and also as a user, I can never teach or take a class in the same way...
Understanding what [Gaga] does to people physically, how they are when they enter a room—it was really amazing to hear. It became even more evident; the ripples of effect that it has
beyond the physicality, or how the physicality affects other things as well... We go to a space to do Gaga, and then we come out of that space and we go on to live our life. Suddenly,
you’re doing Gaga while you’re frying an egg and while you’re brushing your teeth...
I think there are things, for example, like quiet moments, the being aware of space, distance... these things somehow seem less meaningful online, or maybe just meaningful in a different way.
When you’re in a space with others, there’s still so much information to take in during these “quiet moments", compared to when you’re opposite a screen. The resolution isn’t the same.
Okay, you’ve measured, you’re aware, now what? I think there’s also something with a screen–that you’re, or at least I found myself often waiting for the next instruction all the time,
whereas in the space with others, I find it easier to be on my own, to be in my own research, to take a minute for myself. As a teacher, this is what we try to offer—for people to be on their
own and not rely on us, and as a participant I practice this too. The screen version is more challenging with that. Doable, but challenging."
To be able to introduce it to people and to move with them and to see how meaningful it is for them is really giving.
Michael
"I am finding, after 50 years of figurative work as a painter, that Gaga influences my work now considerably, because my understanding of the body and movement is more… from inside.
I can use that more freely and less literally in dealing with the figure. It can become... I think the best word is “free,” so you can convey movement. You can layer the way you read
an image so that the figure is embedded in the page in different ways. Maybe even the same figure. That’s growing in me quite substantially out of Gaga—it’s informing my studio practice
and my life-drawing work, very much so. And that’s incredibly exciting for me, because it means that my work is going through changes just because of the exercise I do.
I find the pleasure in movement after a lifetime of battling with difficult body parts physically, because of the operations on my hips. I find—to take pleasure in movement,
to find yourself doing little dance swivels to open the fridge—I find that incredible. I just love it. I can’t wait to get back to Sadler’s Wells, seeing all those young kids walking
in just out of their daily dance practice, and go to see a work by Hofesh Shechter or Sharon Eyal [Gaga-trained choreographers]. I can feel a part of the world of dance in
the minor way that Home Gaga has allowed me to and know that I’m a part of that understanding of the universe. Never for a moment did I imagine that would happen to me. As much as I valued
dance, I never thought I’d be able to walk into Sadler’s Wells and feel just a little bit that I understand what dancing is. That’s an incredible feeling I am looking forward to."
We’re all dancing all the time in our own ways, aren’t we? I think that’s the point, that Gaga’s happy with us as a principle.
Susannah
"We have this pandemic that’s attacking people’s bodies, and the idea that you have to enjoy and embrace and love your body, and move and exercise its full potential,
and the joy of it, and the pleasure of the movement—I love when they say that in the Gaga classes. It’s very healing, and it’s especially important in this time...
There’s this availability [in Gaga] that is a word that has to do with your mental state and your relationship to the world around you. About being available for sensation,
for sight, for hearing, for all the senses. But also the availability of your body to adjust is a very meaningful thing, especially for me as someone who could be very
threatened by a fall, let’s say, with my—this is very personal—but with my osteoporosis. The idea that I can be available to move away from a fall if I were about to fall
down the stairs, which could be life-threatening, or certainly hip-threatening. To me, the word availability is meaningful and deep on so many levels. It’s availability to
my colleagues, to the world, to my friends, to my family. My physical availability to move and react, and then lately, the availability to adjust. And I think it’s also a
word that means flexibility at a time when we have so many other constraints. With physical and mental constraints in our lives right now, this word resonates as well.
We have to be available to be flexible to respond to this crisis, and go inwards. Every time I hear this word in class, which is a very literal thing,
'the availability to move,' you’re going to go from soft to hard, or from the muscle person to the relaxed person, the fast to slow, or gravity to antigravity. All that’s
about what they’re talking about, but it has such a deeper meaning as well. When I hear it in the class, I’m like, 'Yeah, okay. Be available,' including being available to
other people who are suffering. That’s how I experience that word as well."