Going Gaga.

Guten Abend Lieber Menschen:)
This is just an in between for my mama:) So, Ich bin in Berlin! I'm here for a week to do 2 workshops, a Gagaworkshop and Batsheva Repertoire. I arrived on last sunday and actually don't know when I will leave yet. Because trains and busse are very expensive I looked on www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de and found a cheapass ride, in bright red ugly duck. Arjen, a very nice man who went to Berlin for his boyfriend, took Tobias, a German student who studies in Leeuwarden on a 9 hour ride to Berlin. When I arrived in Berlin, the first thing I saw was the metrostation and I felt superoncomfortable, so many weirdo's downunder. When I arrived at Irene's place, the girl that was so kind as to host me for this week, made me feel a bit better by welcoming me in her house. Since she had to leave herself I went out to check the area I was going to live in for the week, got to the DonerDeluxe, and went back home, ate my Doner, organized my life with some help from Dino and Irene and went to bed. What a night! I think I slept 2 hours, Darn. Got up at 7, tiptoed around the house to not wake up my hostess and took the metro to Tanzfabrik Berlin. As soon as I arrived there I was happy, a dancestudio, how can you not feel at home in a dance studio. After the first Gagaclass (9 o'clock sharp) I had 1,5 hours break and got to talk to Silvia, my Berlin BFF. She is from Italy and a beautiful, chilled out chica. We found out we have some connections through friends of us, also dancers, around the world and talked ourselves through the break. And then the Batsheva workshop, WAUW!! Gaga is fun and interesting but the Batsheva workshop is insane! We have learned different parts from different pieces. One of them is 'Minus 16' a piece which has been danced all over the world and which I had seen on video's very often. When I saw Noa Zuk (our teacher and ex-Batshevadancer) I was very pleased to say the least.It's a piece on a Hebrew song for Pesach. The song counts from 1 to 13 in Hebrew. Every number has it's own phrase of 4 seconds. Most of them are insanely fast and hard. So, you start at 1, which is a wave that goes from one end of the half circle to another.Then we stad up and sing with the song. After that their is prhase 2 and then from phrase 2 you go to 1 and then you stand up and sing, from phrase 3 you go to 2, to 1 ad then you sing, and so on. So it start sort of easy, not even that easy because it is fast and then you build up the phrases until you get to 13. At that moment you're dying. The funniest thing is, at 10 we start taking off our clothes. The first time we get to 10 we take of our jacket, which is kind of OK but still hard, then in 9 you throw it away (if it didn't get stuck to you hand or hair of course). The second 10 you take of shoes, the third your shirt and the last one, hilarious, your pants. The pants are so hard, you are tired, we never needed the ability to take of your pants in 4 seconds (at least I never did) and it gets stuck on butts, feet and hands. After this struggle you still have 9 phrases to go and then you can die. Imagine having to do the rest of this piece after. Breathe in, breathe out. The other piece is a piece on the sound of a metronome, really mechanical movements but we have to make it more than that, fill it up, use all our flesh and stretch it, I've learned a lot just because of the words she uses. The last thing we learned is the first solo from Mamootot, one of Ohad Naharins masterpieces. A solo which you can make nothing or everything, so we make it everything of course. This workshop has been killing but gives me so much energy, I really enjoy this work so I will look into workshops and try to find cheap tickets to Israel:) Then after the classes and rehearsals we went into the city. With we I mean, Silvia and me and sometimes others. I actually wanted to visit the Jewish Museum the 2nd day I was here but almost every day I have been walking around Berlin with Silvia, shopping in Colours, a secondhandshop where you pay per kilo, really:), finding souvenirs, watching people trying to make big bubbles:)