October 7 to 11, 2024
10:00 am to 11:15 am (Mon-Fri)
Full week: $55 (taxes included)
Drop-in: $17 (available one month prior)
Language of instruction: Frenglish (mix of French and English)
Questions can be asked in English and French
CATEGORY
OBJECTIVE
Gaga raises awareness of physical weaknesses, awakens numb areas, exposes physical fixations, and offers ways for their elimination.
The work improves instinctive movement and connects conscious and unconscious movement. It allows for an experience of freedom and pleasure in a simple way, in a pleasant space, in comfortable clothes, accompanied by a well-curated playlist, each person with themselves and others.
The layering of familiar movements with Gaga tasks deepens dancers’ awareness of physical sensations. It expands their palette of available movement options and enhances their ability to modulate their energy and engage their explosive power while enriching their movement quality with a wide range of textures.
CONTENT
Gaga is the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin, the Artistic Director of the Batsheva Dance Company. This class is open to professional dancers and advanced dance students aged 16 and over.
In Gaga we move continuously. From the beginning until the end of the class, participants are taken on a journey through various bodily states, ways of moving, speeds, and intensities. Instructions are given verbally by the teacher; who is not only teaching the class, but also doing it. All parts of the body are called into use, though each participant can work at their own level and adapt as appropriate. Gaga welcomes the investigation of concepts explored even on the subtlest of levels.
| Workshop Pace | Workshop Features |
| Variable Adaptable to the group’s needs | Physical contact between participants Short verbal applications Exercises are adaptable High music or sound level Jumps and shocks Cardio exercises Standing up for a long time |
BIOGRAPHY
Laura Toma is a contemporary dance artist living in Montreal, Canada. In August of 2012, Laura graduated from the first official Gaga Teacher Training Program in Tel Aviv, Israel and is the first certified Gaga teacher in Canada.
In addition to her ongoing Gaga/people classes, she has taught for Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, and L’École Supérieure de Ballet du Québec, among others. She is co-founder and co-choreographer of LA TRESSE collective alongside partners Geneviève Boulet and Erin O’Loughlin. Between 2014 and 2022 Laura was a core member of Andrea Peña and Artists, touring nationally and internationally. In 2016, she performed at the Venice Biennale of Dance for Israeli/French choreographer Emanuel Gat.
Listen to her body scans and meditations on Spotify and Apple Music, and enjoy her curated Gaga playlists available only on Spotify.
Allows to explore different ways et relating to my body and movement to keep investigating & researching old and new ways.
— Michelle