Four Lakes Dance Walk

 Four Lakes Dance Walk Video

10 Day #Gaga Challenge

Day 1

You’ve likely heard our teachers ask you to float in Gaga class. Remember the last time you floated in a pool or in the sea? When we float in the studio (or in our living room!), we connect to that same sensation and negate gravity on a molecular level.  

You may have also heard us asking you to collapse. Collapsing is related to gravity, so the direction of a collapse is always down. 

If we fully collapse, we are shaped by gravity. But in Gaga class, we often collapse or fall into movement. We yield to the force of gravity and then eliminate the falling time so we can move in any direction - left or right, forward or backwards, even up. 

Play today with floating, collapsing, and falling into movement. Want one more gravity-related challenge? Change the position of your body parts in relation to the vertical axis (fold your torso forward or sideways, lift your leg, or move your arm around), and sense the way gravity slices your body in different positions. 

Gravity will always be down, no matter where you are - but you may sense your weight and your effort differently as you move

Day 1 Video

Reflection

I thought it would be a good idea to share Gaga with my PHE class. I will not be sharing Gaga with my other PHE class. I don't think they get it. I don't think they are into it. I set it up in the theatre with the projection. There weren't any online links available and I didn't sign up for a class, so I didn't have a recording. I used one from YouTube. Some kids did pretty good at the start. They did the shoulders and the hip circles. They even sped it up a bit. Then they started to drift off into the theatre seats and onto their phones. This meant that I had to drift off and support them back onto the stage. We got in just over fifteen minutes. It wasn't too bad. However, it wasn't like my dance class last semester when we did a bunch of the online classes. So, that means I didn't get to focus a lot on the idea of gravity. I didn't get to enjoy the float or fall into the movement, because I was focused more on the kids. Tomorrow, I will not dance with the other class. I will dance in my spare. I will move and enjoy Day 2's focus on my own. 

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to fit this into my schedule. I am glad I am making time for it. I can dance for a half hour, for ten days. I look forward to these explorations. I am also looking forward to editing and creating ten videos. 

Day 2

There are lots of textures in the world, though in Gaga class we usually refer to thick and soft textures of our flesh, with all the gradations in between.  

Connect to thick texture by imitating a bodybuilder. Show your muscles while grabbing your bones for movement. Now let go, melt, and get softer. Can you mix thick and soft textures together? 

Texture can also travel, with different levels of thickness that can make their way through our flesh. To research traveling texture, make a thick fist in one hand. Now let that thick texture leave your hand and enter your forearm … and move to your upper arm … and to your shoulder … and to your chest … 

Here’s one more texture-related task: taste something good in your mouth (if you’re not in class, you can research this with something really delicious!). The pleasure of taste often connects to texture, and it transmits into how we experience movement. 

p.s. Heads up! On Sept. 28, Day 3, our 6pm TLV | 11am NYC class will be followed by a chat. We encourage you to register & join us live or view the recording. If you’ll be with us in real time, we welcome your questions from the 1st few days of the challenge.

Day 2 Video

Reflection

I danced in the studio today. I had the lights low and the back door open. I was struggling with the music/sound connecting to my computer. I restarted and tried different speakers but it still didn't work. I didn't have a lot of time to mess around, so I just used the computer speakers. I did not project or anything today. Note to self to take some real time and figure out what is going on with my laptop and sound. 

Today's class was lead by Ohad Fishof. It was from when I was sleeping and I had the link. He spoke and related a lot to texture. It made it easier to connect with the task and focus of the challenge. 

About half way, I went and turned the fan on. The sound was loud and drowned out some of my focus for Ohad's words, but the wind was enjoyable to play in. I moved closer to the computer and sound and away with what I thought were new tasks and ideas but took longer chunks of time turning my focus inwards and away from the instructions in between. 

Memorable words/ideas: 

• using the mouth and tasting something, then moving that feeling of movement to other parts of the body. 
• finding texture in each finger and moving up the forearms and into the shoulders
• Opening and closing the shoulders
• The floating after the strong muscle man postures/explorations

Day 3

Stretch. It’s a basic concept, and you may have encountered it in other workouts. But what are we actually doing when we stretch in a Gaga way? We grab our bones while letting go for movement, and we create oppositions. We continue to change the distance of our body parts, and we discover the elasticity of our flesh and skin. And we enjoy the pleasurable sensations we receive from our stretching, which is endless.

One way to connect to stretch is with a yawn. Imitate a yawn (or if you’re tired, just let it happen!). Notice how you stretch the skin and flesh of your face, while letting go in the joints of your jaws. Bring this quality into other parts of your body, and enjoy the pleasure of stretch with a sense of plenty of time (we don’t yawn quickly, now do we?).  

Here’s some homework: play with stretching while researching different textures. Do you need a certain amount of thick texture to find your stretch? 

Day 3 Video

Reflection

I danced with Courtney Scheu. I danced in the theatre with the projection big today. Ren joined me at the end during the fast and funky part. I knew she couldn't sit and do her work the whole half hour. I knew she would get up and groove with me. That made me happy. 

There was a lot of focus on stretch. Courtney kept returning to the focus, which made it easy to explore more deeply. I stretched through the fingers. I poked parts of my body and stretched them apart. I tried to separate my ribs into different chunks pulling them in different directions. I played around with the pelvis. I also got a little groovy and moved a little faster. We twisted our bodies and stretched our upper body behind us in both directions and then down and up and twisted. We stretched our toes - even in our shoes. Courtney use the words massage to talk about the feet and the floor. 

Day 4

“Let it go, let it go, don’t hold it back anymore…” No, we’re not talking about the Frozen kind of letting go. As with everything in Gaga, letting go is a physical action, of softening and releasing tension or excess force.  

Letting go is related to collapsing (hi, Gaga challenge day 1!). We cannot collapse without letting go. Try it - you’ll discover that you need to soften your flesh and around your joints.  

Besides collapsing, there are many actions and concepts that can help us find letting go. Shaking, small gestures, the delicacy of your skin and the movement of your joints, your soft seaweed spine … 

What helps you connect to the action and sensation of letting go?

Day 4 Video

Reflection

Today was a pro-d day. I danced after the workshop in the theatre again. The Gaga teacher's name was Hsin Yi Hsiang. I enjoyed her tasks and we were matching in greens. 

• arm swings
• spinning 
• circles with upper body small to big
• no arms and only lower body, holding arms tight to body
• eyes closed and then open
• child like - don't care
• free

Day 5

Speed. Here too we have a spectrum, between slow and fast, and we want to challenge (yes, challenge!) ourselves to increase our range and go over the top - especially when it comes to the fast end of our speed. Do you have a default speed when walking or dancing? Notice your habits, and try moving slower and faster than your regular pace.  

We can also play with moving faster than gravity. First, recognize the speed of gravity. Drop a small (non-breakable) household object and notice the speed with which it falls. Now try this with your right arm, your left shoulder, your chest, your pelvis. And now move faster than this speed. If you found a default speed before, this should help you find a new option.  

Even when we’re moving at high speed, we want to connect to a sense of plenty of time so that we’re not rushing. Yes, it’s possible! Exercise this by starting with a slow walk, or a slow dance, and sense that there’s plenty of time. Keep this sense alive as you rev up to a medium speed and as you ramp up to high speed. Once you’ve found this, it’s yours to use in daily life. Running late to an appointment? No sweat - move fast, but keep the sense of plenty of time.  

Day 5 Video

Reflection

Day 5 I did the dance walk around Four Lakes with a sore throat. I thought I would dance today, Sunday, but I am still feeling sick and really tired. I have decided that I don't have to rush through this challenge. I want to feel good when I am moving. I am still signing up for the classes and downloading the videos through the recording link. I will complete them all in my own time. No pressure. 

This morning I explored speed with Hsin again. I loved watching her move with her shadow dancing behind her. She has a beautiful smile and I find her an easy leader to follow and move with. I appreciated: 

• feather hand
• feather shoulders
• inside seaweed
• inside the telephone cord

Day 6

“I always thought of Gaga as an act of strengthening our engine. Life is heavy; carrying its weight is hard. By strengthening our engine, this weight becomes lighter, easier to lift. Instead of eliminating this weight, which is impossible most of the time, we learn to better deal with it.” 

- Ohad Naharin 

The metaphor of the engine in Ohad Naharin’s quote takes physical form in his movement language. Our engines are the hardware of our body. They always involve flesh and generally involve bones and joints. Whereas a car has just one engine, we have many - and we too can ignite them. The ignition of our engines connects to our nervous system and our readiness to move on a cellular level. Just like a car that is waiting at a red light but will accelerate once our foot hits the pedal, when our engines are ignited, we are ready to spring into action. 

When our movement requires great effort, we can spread the effort across many engines. Carrying a heavy bag? Use many engines in your arm, your chest, your back, your abdomen, even your legs. 

We can also connect to the idea that our engines are stronger and capable of more than what we are doing. Running and want to accelerate? Feel your engines are like those of a motorbike … and those of a bullet train … and those of a jumbo jet. 

When our bodily engines are stronger and more of them are engaged, we can indeed find that the weights in our life - physical and perhaps otherwise - are easier to lift.   

Day 6 Video

Reflection

Day 7

When we move, we’re often using our own forces, our own engines. We make decisions about the type of movement we make and its direction, as well as the amount of effort we exert. In Gaga, we also use other forces, which are real and imagined forces different from the forces we choose and create. Gravity is one example of an “other force;” so too are horizontal forces - the force of gravity translated into the horizontal direction. 

Some other forces - gravity, horizontal forces, and forces ignited by images like wind, waves, or a bumpy road on which we’re riding - are external forces, forces which act on our body from the outside. 

Other other forces (ha!) are internal forces, which act on our body from the inside. Think hiccups, an uncontrollable laugh, or a quake in our pelvis.  

When we mix our own forces, external forces, and internal forces, we can play with the volume of each element. Sometimes the other forces help us amplify our own force, while sometimes these forces work in opposite ways. We call this a happy conflict. Experiment with this happy conflict in your next classes - let it color your movement, making it more surprising, textured, and richer. 

Day 7 Video

Reflection

Day 8

Our skin is the largest organ in our body, and it is full of thousands of nerve receptors which receive information about heat, cold, pressure, and pain. We’d also like to think our skin can help us connect to our pleasure, especially when we tune in to its sensitivity and delicacy.  

In Gaga, we use our skin to connect to the sense of the whole. Imagine (or rather, sense!) that your skin is like a suit covering your entire body. Can you use it to connect to all of you?  We call this kuli, and this term, like other Gaga-specific phrases, offers a shortcut to attend to this inside a range of tasks. Try for yourself - bring curves everywhere, brush your skin against your clothes and the air, and enjoy the delicacy and sensation this brings to your entire body.  

With our skin, we also sense the distance of things, especially those things which are far away from our body. If this sounds abstract, make it real by going outside and sensing the heat of the sun on your skin. Wherever you take Gaga Online, try using your skin to sense the distance between your body parts themselves … between your body and the walls … and even beyond the walls to what you see outside. Can you receive from afar, and also send from your skin to far away places - perhaps even to your teacher and fellow Gaga movers?

Day 8 Video

Reflection

Day 9

Flow. This word has different meanings in a variety of contexts, from natural phenomena to physical practices, from psychological research to various work settings. In Gaga, we talk about a few interconnected but distinct types of flow, including the flow of energy and the flow of movement.

 

The flow of energy creates the difference between dead flesh and being alive, and it involves pulses of energy that travel through us in all directions. 

The flow of movement happens inside the body and requires us to change positions - that is, to move. Create waves through your arms, and up and down your spine; the wave should travel continuously, with a clear flow of movement.  

Whereas there is no flow of movement without moving, we can sense the flow of energy without moving. Try it for yourself: dance around your space for a minute. Now stop and sense the flow of energy inside your body. It’s as if our insides are like a moving body of water, rather than a still pond. Find this challenging? Connect more to letting go.

In Gaga class, we move all the time. We also revel in the pleasure of movement, which is nourished by the flow of energy.  

Even after this 10-day challenge is over (almost, but not yet!) keep moving. Keep sensing the flow of energy. Keep connecting to the pleasure of movement. We welcome you to continue to research with us in class and to research on your own, in your daily life. It’s endless.

P.S. On Oct. 5, Day 10, our 6pm TLV | 11am NYC class will be followed by a chat. We hope you can join us - ideally live - so we can reflect together in real time on our challenge journey!  

Day 9 Video

Reflection

Day 10

If you haven’t noticed, “available” is one of our favorite words in Gaga. But just what is availability?  

We can understand availability as a state of mind that opens up the scope of possibilities, a state of being in which we are available for anything. On a physical level, when we reference availability in class, we want to be available for the movement that we are not doing.  

Our availability connects us to the animal that we are and to a sense that we are ready to snap. Imagine a cat who is lounging around. In a split second, that cat can spring up and leap into action. 

Let’s be like this cat. Let’s be available. When you’re next sitting in a chair, or standing still, feel ready to move. And when you’re moving, be available to snap into a new direction, speed, size, texture - to move all the ways you’re not moving. 

Reminder: catch the conversation directly following the Gaga/metodika class at 6pm TLV | 11am NYC class. We hope you can join us - ideally live - so we can reflect together in real time on our challenge journey!  

Day 10 Video

Reflection