Feldenkrais + Gaga

This Feldenkrais + Gaga story began in May of 2022 when I attended a Gaga class taught by Ana Harmon at the Dance Complex in Cambridge, MA. First let’s address: what is Gaga?

“Gaga is the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin throughout many years, parallel to his work as a choreographer and the former artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company. Gaga originated from Naharin’s need to communicate with his dancers and his curiosity in the ongoing research of movement.”

Here is a little personal background: I grew up taking dance classes at the Contemporary Dance Studio in Montpelier, VT. While pursuing music in college and graduate school and then professionally, dance had been put on the back burner but was always a place where I felt drawn to visually, kinesthetically, and socially. I found myself back in the dance classroom at a Gaga workshop with Mario Zambrano around 2018. Within a Gaga class, there is a balance between structure and freedom that I think feels simultaneously safe and liberating, thus good grounds for creative exploration. The fact that Ohad Naharin’s mother was a Feldenkrais Practitioner was a point of interest because of the practical application and ongoing development of Feldenkrais’ method to create a new modality.

I was a student in the Boston Feldenkrais Training Program when first encountering Gaga and I remember feeling ethically challenged by the cues to connect pleasure with effort. With my Feldenkrais training I was practicing efficiency, ease, and conservation of energy. I was confused on where to begin with the suggestion of taking things to the max without contradicting the Feldenkrais principles that had become a sort of blueprint for living. Nevertheless I found my way, enjoyed it, didn't get hurt, and life went on.

Fast forward to the spring of 2022 when I met Ana Harmon at her class at the Dance Complex. It was a particularly packed class and I remember she wore a mask because we had just come out of the Omicron surge and she was about to travel overseas. We went for food and drinks at a nearby restaurant and despite the music being too loud (as is often the case in Boston restaurants) I started to get to know Ana and learned that she lived in Jamaica Plain as well. I threw the idea out there of collaborating on workshops and she agreed. I trusted my instincts!

Over the course of the year we collaborated on four combined workshops at the Integrarte Dance Studio in Jamaica Plain (August 2022), the Dance Complex @ Canal (January 2022), the Dance Complex in Central Square (February 2022), and the First Church of Jamaica Plain (April 2022). Almost every workshop was sold out, there was a wide range in ages, and there was a mixture of “dancers” and “non-dancers”. I hesitate to draw a distinction between the groups because this is the kind of space that connects each individual with their natural birthright to dance. Nevertheless, we must give credit to the individuals who have spent many more hours honing their craft and formed their identity around dance.

The general response to the workshops was resoundingly positive. I think people who attended found their way there because they wanted to explore sensation and movement with others within a context that is open-ended and process-oriented. They understand the necessity of self-care and the therapeutic benefits of movement.

The combined workshops took on a form different from an individual Feldenkrais or Gaga class. By traversing the movement spectrum from subtlety to full activation, the individual is confronted with the dilemma of shifting gears. Some people are more comfortable with slow, small movements, while others find the subtlety challenging. Some people are more comfortable with fast, big movements, while others find the high-end challenging. Thus, we confront our own strengths and weaknesses. We receive signals from our sensations: the pleasure of movement, and the pain of movement. For some people they are at home at any level of activation, and perhaps find that exploring the subtlety allows them to be more present when going to their max.

Expanding the range of one’s capacity was something that was talked about in my Feldenkrais training. Many people have a narrow range within which they operate in terms of how activated or not activated their nervous system can be. Dr. Feldenkrais talked about his work as balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system as well as creating more differentiated states within a person. A lot of the Feldenkrais lessons are very parasympathetic-dominant in nature and help to relax us. Gaga has a healthy sympathetic activation to it, so when paired with Feldenkrais, I believe, they are like two peas in a pod. There are so many different states we can experience! What a gift to be able to explore.

Eve BoltaxJune 13, 2023