GAGA & IMPROVISATION

with Tanja Saban

19.08. + 20.08.2023, 15:00–18:30

Workshop fee:
Marameo members: 20% discount on all workshops (early bird & regular fee!)
Non-members: 95€, Early Bird 80€ (until July 7th 2023)

Level Open

The workshop starts with a 60 min. Gaga/people class, moving into an improvisation session in which we playfully explore multidimensional relating with our dancing bodies – to space, time & sound, through a variety of scores, individually and with the group. We develop our compositional/ choreographic sense and the framework that allow us to experience the fullness of our dance.

What is Gaga?

Gaga/people classes offer a framework for users to connect to their bodies and imaginations, experience physical sensations, improve their flexibility and stamina, exercise their agility and explosive power, and enjoy the pleasure of movement in a welcoming, accepting atmosphere.

Throughout the class, participants are guided by a series of evocative instructions deployed to increase awareness of and further amplify sensation. Rather than turning from one prompt to another, information is layered, building into a multisensory, physically challenging experience. While many instructions are imbued with rich imagery, the research of Gaga is fundamentally physical, insisting on a specific process of embodiment. Inside this shared research, the improvisational nature of the exploration enables each participant’s deeply personal connection with Gaga.

What happens in the Improvisation session?

A creative process of embodying and connecting with sound and space – inner body / interpersonal space / collective space / universal space. In a playful way, we devise choreographic situations in which we explore how we move through the different layers of space. We build our compositional sense on the understanding that in our sensory experience, everything is relational, how dramatic tension lives in the principles of contrast, polarity & unity and how that allows our dancing bodies to inhabit and morph into a wide scope of states and expressions.

About Tanja Saban

Tanja Saban graduated from SEAD training program in 2007. She is a recipient of the conveyor scholarship from the Tanzquartier in Vienna, where she started her career as a freelance dancer and teacher. She collaborates with choreographers and artists of other disciplines on projects as well as creating her own work in Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Israel and New York City.
After taking her first Gaga classes in 2011 in New York, she moved to Tel Aviv one year later where Gaga became part of her daily practice. In 2018 she got certified to teach Gaga after completing the teachers’ course under the artistic direction of Bosmat Nossan. She has since taught Gaga in studios and for dance companies as well as co-taught workshops in Europe.
In 2008, besides dancing, she began to immerse herself more deeply into the practice and study of yoga with her teacher Sri Louise, under whose guidance she completed 400 hours of training in Vienna and Rishikesh, India. She was invited to assist Sri Louise in workshops and a 50-hour yoga teacher training for dancers at Impulstanz Festival in 2011, 2013 and 2018.