When the Whole World is Empty: Gaga as a Modality for Kinesthetic Grief Processing

摘要

Loss is a universal experience yet private experience. From death and illness to injury and divorce, and each individual moves through the "vale of tears" in ways that are unique to their experience, their attachments to those who are lost, and the presence or absence of trauma. As a result, the experience of grief is shared but unique and modalities for grief processing should reflect this complex duality of both shared and private experiences. Traditional grief processing methods include talk therapy and grief counseling, while alternative practices include somatic and movement therapies. But Gaga, a movement language developed by Ohad Naharin, allows for healing grief that lives in the bereaved physical body in a simultaneously private and public non-verbal practice. Even though Gaga does not define itself as a form of therapy, it has the capacity to guide participants through tasks to amplify sensation and bring participants to a state of attunement where they are able to experience vulnerability, availability, multi-modal sensation, and letting go. This supports the goals of traditional grief healing practices using a democratic and kinesthetic mode that allows simultaneously for the somatic, cognitive and emotional processes necessary to heal from acute grief. Though Gaga has been used to heal physical injury, I posit that the practice of Gaga may also have the ability to transcend to emotional healing as well. A case for this will be made through historical background of Gaga, an examination of modern grief practices, and analysis of Gaga's democratic class structure with reflective considerations to grief researcher William Worden's Tasks of Mourning.