Israeli Choreographer Gets People Moving Through Gaga Dance
Dance is a powerful way of releasing emotions and connecting to your body. Fascinating dance styles have been created all over the world throughout history — but one Israeli choreographer is making a difference through a movement that he pioneered: Gaga dance, which has changed people’s lives for the better.
According to gagapeople, Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin channeled his lifelong curiosity about movement to create and develop gaga. Since then, the movement style has swept dance floors in Israel and beyond. Gaga allows participants to engage with their bodies and imaginations, experience physical sensations, and enjoy the benefits of the dance in a warm and supportive space.
The Movement Language of Gaga
So what exactly is this dance style? Gaga provides a nonjudgmental space where dancers can experiment with gravity, laugh at themselves, go over the top, and push their limits. The dance promotes flexibility, stamina, strength, and speed. But it’s more than just a workout. Gaga also offers emotional benefits, allowing people to connect to powerful feelings, feel happier, and better navigate life’s challenges.
Throughout the class, participants follow instructions to heighten awareness of and further enhance sensation. The dance builds in physical intensity and allows dancers to connect with their bodies.
According to ISRAEL21c, Naharin calls Gaga a “movement language.” It’s a toolkit — not something he created from scratch, but something that was waiting to be discovered. “It was there,” Naharin told ISRAEL21c, “like the North Pole was there before someone discovered it.”
“Gaga is a very particular toolbox that we’re building that has to do with the sense of discovery. It’s a lot about giving dancers and people keys to open up something that exists in them,” he added.
A Global Dance Movement
While Gaga is practiced in Israel and takes place at iconic studios like in Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv, the movement has gone global. The dance, which involves twisting, wiggling, bending, stretching, falling, and jumping, has classes which have been held worldwide, including at Harvard University, according to The Harvard Gazette.
“It’s a sense of letting everything drop away,” Amy Thornton, a master’s student, told The Harvard Gazette. “It’s like a meditation but very different.”
For Mario Alberto Zambrano, a lecturer in Theater, Dance and Media, Gaga is about giving into the flow of movement that already exists in the body. “It’s all about sensation and letting the body tell you what to do. It’s about going beyond what you think is right or wrong and just doing it,” said Zambrano.
“You want to allow movement to pass through so that there’s a constant circulation of energy rather than aggressive places in the body where there isn’t any movement,” he added. This groundbreaking approach helps dancers experience emotional release through physicality.
