ShaGa: Community Class
In ShaGa, we move from our body, the ultimate refuge. We allow our bodies to become our teacher and our healer.
ShaGa is a movement practice of self-discovery, healing, and awakening to our deeper resources. It opens us up to the capacity to experience movement as a source of healing and vitality. We discover that by inhabiting our bodies more fully, we are able to more fully inhabit our lives.
ShaGa is about Healing. We give ourselves permission to find deeper resources that expand our movement potential, reduce tension and atrophy in the body, and illuminate paths towards personal transformation. We take time to listen to our pain on a molecular level and discover layers of guidance. We discover the healing power of working at a very low volume of effort, so we can go places where pleasure in the movement is awakened.
ShaGa is about Permission. We take time to be curious and to listen to the body. We practice giving ourselves permission to follow our own, unique guidance rather than telling it what to do. As we encourage our innate, inner rhythms, we experience freedom inside our movement and inside our minds while connecting our bodies to our imaginations. We give ourselves a physical pathway to experience and re-experience ourselves. We welcome whatever arises as a guide. We refuse nothing and discover we can enjoy everything.
SPRING 2020
Virtual ShaGa at Global Breath Studios: Fourth Friday of each month from 6-7pm beginning January 24th – June 26th, 2020. Register here.
Virtual ShaGa at Ninth Street Dance: Every Wednesday from 12-1pm beginning January 8th – March 11th, 2020. Register here.
Virtual ShaGa: Community Classes. Classes are entirely donation based and open to anyone. Register here.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 3PM (Eastern Standard Time)
Sundays and Wednesdays at 6PM (Eastern Standard Time)
Mondays and Thursdays at 8PM (Eastern Standard Time)
Currently, we are teaching all classes on Zoom, a free application accessible from your phone, tablet or computer. Zoom does not require participants to have individual accounts in order to join a meeting. Just simply register at the link for each class, and you will get access! Please register ahead of time. Zoom meeting links are emailed to you after you register.
ShaGa: Movement into Creation
This is a contemporary composition class designed for movers with some experience. Class begins slowly with a ShaGa warm up and builds in intensity, providing an enjoyable workout for both body and soul. The second half of the class offers an exploration of ShaGa concepts though composition and choreography.
SPRING 2020
Virtual ShaGa: Movement into Creation: Saturdays at 1PM beginning May 9th – 30th, 2020. Classes are entirely donation based and open to anyone. Register here.
This class is being offered on Zoom, a free application accessible from your phone, tablet or computer. Zoom does not require participants to have individual accounts in order to join a meeting. Just simply register at the link for each class, and you will get access! Please register ahead of time. Zoom meeting links are emailed to you after you register.
ShaLeigh Dance Works’ Repertory and Performance
Join the company experience in this workshop while learning excerpts of SDW’s repertory. This workshop will share methods employed by the company while creating several of their dance-theatre works. Artistic Director, ShaLeigh Comerford will offer a sampling of how the company blends ballet, release technique, physical-theatre, contemporary partnering and Shaga to compose and execute dynamic movement phrases. Participants will also enjoy discovering their own solo movement through the use of improvisational scores designed for the original creation process. Open to all skill levels; a dance or theatre background is not required.
WINTER 2020
SDW Repertory Workshop at Ninth Street Dance on Saturday, February 29th, from 2:30-4:30pm. More Information
Movement Research Lab
A series of two-hour sessions offering a somatic approach to movement research and providing an opportunity for a substantive peer exchange in a lab-type setting. The sessions are facilitated by ShaLeigh Comerford and grow out of ShaGa- her form of Somatic Movement Research, combining knowledge from her direct studies with Ohad Naharin (Gaga) and Gina Gibney (Community Action) while building on her Power of Identity through Movement thesis curriculum. These sessions will explore the embodiment of motion through guided exercises, improvisations and repetitive sequences that enable us to close the gap between thought and action. It is open to professional dancers, performers, actors, yogis and all who are interested developing a personal practice of expanding range potential and inhabitance. Each participant will create their own personal toolbox for application to their respective practices.
Physical Inquiry of Balletic Forms
A series based in a variety of modalities and body practices, designed to expand one’s understanding and efficient use of the body through classical and neo classical forms. Classes are suitable for professional dancers and all who are curious for new ways to unlock their natural technique. The work in class engages us in a process that facilitates changes in the way we experience and relate to our bodies moving through an awareness of our form in space. We work with deep connections in the pelvis, freeing the upper body and spine to move with ease and expression while developing clear relationships of our body to the space around us. Modalities we will cover include applications from Eric Franklin, Lisa Harris, Irene Dowd, Anouk van Dijk, Christine Wright, William Forsythe and Andrea Olsen. Contemporary Ballet with ShaLeigh Comerford This class is designed to expand each dancer’s understanding and efficient use of the body through classical and neo classical forms. This is a practical, technical class that employs classical ballet technique with the tools of improvisation, weight, shape, space, rhythm and time. We work from the foundations of William Forsythe’s Improvisation Technologies to remove artificial affectations leaving the core technique and pure physical architecture of the body. The ultimate goal of this study is to allow greater range of movement in the upper body while utilizing the lines and forms of classical ballet. The first hour of class will focus on learning the functionality of form and how to carry this knowledge into application through the second hour of class which is dedicated to phrase work and contemporary repertory. Repertory may be done on pointe.
For booking information please send us a message via our Contact page.