Rachael Osborne
Born in Australia 1980, trained at the National Capital Ballet School under Janet Karin OAM. She completed an Associate Degree in Dance at QUT in 1999 and participated in various dance projects around Brisbane before joining Ensemble Batsheva in 2001 and subsequently the Batsheva Dance Company in 2003. Rachael continued to dance with Batsheva until 2017.

Rachael was Assistant to the Rehearsal Director at Batsheva between 2008-2010 and during this time was the Batsheva recipient of the Yair Shapira Prize. She has taught Gaga since 2008 and Ohad’s repertory for over a decade in Israel, Europe, Australia, Japan and North America.

Since 2011 Rachael has assisted Ohad setting his works Bo/ero, Yag, Decadance, Minus 1, Minus 16 and Passo on independents and companies in the U.S.A, Canada, Europe, Australia, Russia and the U.K. She also danced with LEV from 2012-2014 and while there assisted Sharon Eyal in her creation Untitled Black for the Gothenburg Opera Ballet.

Gaga is the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin throughout many years, parallel to his work as a choreographer and the artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company. Gaga originated from Naharin’s need to communicate with his dancers and his curiosity in the ongoing research of movement. Gaga/dancers classes are predicated on a deep listening to the body and to physical sensations. The instructions are deployed to increase awareness of and further amplify sensation, and 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. Gaga/dancers provides a framework for discovering and strengthening the body and adding flexibility, stamina, agility, and skills including coordination and efficiency while stimulating the senses and imagination. The classes offer a workout that investigates form, speed, and effort while traversing additional spectrums such as those between soft and thick textures, delicacy and explosive power, and understatement and exaggeration. Participants awaken numb areas, increase their awareness of habits, and improve their efficiency of movement inside multilayered tasks, and they are encouraged to connect to pleasure inside moments of effort. The language of Gaga/dancers is in a continual process of evolution, and the classes vary and develop accordingly.

 “We become more aware of our form. We connect to the sense of the endlessness of possibilities. We explore multi-dimensional movement; we enjoy the burning sensation in our muscles, we are ready to snap, we are aware of our explosive power and sometimes we use it. We change our movement habits by finding new ones. We go beyond our familiar limits. We can be calm and alert at once.” – Ohad Naharin
Photo by Ian Robinson (headshot) & photo by Gadi Dagon (full length)