Xanthe van Opstal
Xanthe will teach a Gaga class. She is a former NDT and Batsheva dancer, born in 1992 in the Netherlands, and studied at Codarts, Rotterdam Dance Academy. She was a dancer with Netherlands Dance Theater (NDT), and worked with leading choreographers, amongst them are Marco Goecke, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot, Sol Leon, and others. She joined Batsheva in 2016. Xanthe is a certified Gaga teacher
Gaga is a new way of gaining knowledge and self-awareness through your body. Gaga provides a framework for discovering and strengthening your body and adding flexibility, stamina, and agility while lightening the senses and imagination. 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, and it allows for an experience of freedom and pleasure in a simple way, in a pleasant space, in comfortable clothes, accompanied by music, each person with himself and others.
“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
