Gaga Beginnings

I just got home from my fourth day at the Gaga intensive.  I should probably shower, but I'm too tired to stand, so I figured I would do this first.

Saturday morning the Juilliard gang met at 11am for a tour of the Bauhaus architecture in Tel Aviv.  While the tour focused on this architecture style that has given Tel Aviv the nickname of "The White City," we learned a whole lot more than just about the buildings.
Yafo is a city nestled in the southwestern corner of Tel Aviv.  Turns out, Tel aviv was built around it.  Originally white sand dunes, 66 families decided to build a city outside of the cholera infested Yafo to have a nice place to live.  Their goal was to build a garden city with plenty of room to grow food and raise a family, and to go to Yafo only to work.  The plan was to have Tel Aviv be a residential area only.  From those 66 families Tel Aviv has grown into its current population of 7.8 million.  In the planning of Tel Aviv a German architect was brought in, and with him came his Bauhaus style.  Bauhaus buildings are three stories tall so that all floors are easily accessable without the expensive installation of an elevator.  Residents in all three floors have rooftop access to create community within the building and to give the people room to entertain.  The apartments themselves are very small.  The buildings must have twelve meters from the next building to provide room for growing a garden.  The exterior of the buildings are usually white and very simple.  They sometimes have curved corners and usually have plain balconies.  There are not banisters or railings because these things are deemed unnecessary.  A lot of time the balconies are built one right over another to provide shade to the apartments below.  In Tel Aviv alone there are 5,000 Bauhaus buildings, which is why Tel Aviv has been awarded the title of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Currently, out of those 5,000 building, only about 1,200 are salvagable because of the poor care that was taken of them before UNESCO acknowledged them.  On Rothchild, a big street running through lower Tel Aviv with a bike and walking path through the middle, you can see Bauhaus after Bauhaus, some in great condition, others not.  Our tour guide was great and her love for Tel Aviv really rubbed off on everyone that went on the tour.

Sunday was Day 1 of the intensive.  The 200 attendants are divided into 6 groups and those groups rotate between working from 9am to 3:15pm, and working from 3:45pm to 9:45pm.  They have a little system worked out so that there are no more than 60 people in a room at one time.  For the majority of the time, there are only 35.  Out of three rotations, I am in the morning for the first two, so I have had a pretty regular schedule thus far.  I was also pretty excited to be placed in a group without any other Juilliard students.  It has given me an opportunity to meet new people, but also has given me some mental space to explore all of the concepts we have been given without influence from my usual peers.
Our day consists of an hour and a half gaga class, a two hour session of learning rep, finished by another hour and a half class called "Methodics."  For those of you that do not know anything about Gaga, it is a technique developed by Ohad Naharin that is completely improved based.  The teachers, both current and ex-Batsheva dancers, give the class concepts that we incorporate into our movement layer upon layer.  We are not allowed to stop moving for the duration of the class and the teacher takes us through some tendus, jumps, and floor work.  So far there doesn't seem to be a strict structure about what we cover, and I think that the teacher really takes the class moment by moment, trying to feel what we need next.
In the rep part of the day we learn different solos from Batsheva's rep.  Some of the things are high energy, some are low, but everything is very sensation based.  After a Gaga class and a break, it is important to keep the sensations experienced during Gaga in your body as the material that is being taught is incorporated into your body.
Methodics goes deeper into the concepts covered in Gaga.  The teacher will even stop and start the movement in the class to make sure that we understand certain points and sensations.

Every moment I feel like I am making small discoveries.  I am finding my own movement patterns and trying to find new pathways throughout my body.  One of the ideas really emphasized is to find concepts through the use of movement.  If the task is to feel thick in your right arm, you have to find it through the use of movement.  Another idea talking about hugely is being available.  If my arm is to the side, my shoulder has to be available to move forward or back.  This doesn't mean that it should go forward or back, it just has to be available to.  The teachers are careful to use very specific vocabulary so as to create a certain sensation in the bodies in the room.
One of the biggest things I have gained in the program thus far is mobility in my lower back.  In my second year at Juilliard I did not dance for my Fall semester because of a lower back spasm.  Since then, with the help of  Pilates and massage therapy, I have gotten to a place where my back can spasm and I can continue dancing, rather than sit out of classes for two weeks.  Also, because I have a better grip on how to handle my back, it rarely spasms anymore.  Although things are much better, I still regularly feel a thickness in the spasmed area.  With the use of imagery and sensation, however, I have been able to find moments where my spasm feels like liquid and can move freely.

I think I am just beginning to physicalize my mini-discoveries, so trying to articulate them with words is proving to be much harder than I expected.  Maybe once I have a firmer grip on the details of what I am learning, I will be able to describe things better.

Having come from almost two months of no dancing, day two was definitely a struggle with regard to soreness.  So was day three, and day four, for that matter.  Each morning I wake up and climb out of my loft bed to feel a new part of my body aching.  It feels great to be working in such a physical way.  The studios are not air conditioned, but have huge windows that let in a great breeze from the sea.  This doesn't take away the the heat, though!  I have learned that I need to bring a different shirt to every section of the day because at the end of each one, my clothing is soaking through with sweat.  It may be the heat, or the constant motion, but it is pretty gross.

I think it is time I shower.  Thanks for reading!

I forget what I did for the rest of Saturday, so it must not have been to exciting.

Sunday was day one of the Gaga Intensive.