Movement classes back in Washington Square Park
Naomi Goldberg Haas leads the series of exercises, including modified squats.
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Finally, the day has arrived – it’s been
14 and a-half months!
At the mini-stage across from the
Garibaldi statue in Washington Square
Park on June 1 at 9:30 a.m., smiles radiate
from the cluster, ready to be guided into
motion by Naomi Goldberg Haas, their
fearless teacher.
Most present are Movement Speaks™
regulars at Parks’ Dapolito Center, which
closed to classes because of the Pandemic
mid-March 2020. These classes, the core
program of Dances for a Variable Population
founded by Haas promote creative
movement, particularly for older adults of
all ages and abilities.
With a city on shutdown, Naomi barely
skipped a beat, immediately sequing her
classes onto Zoom – free, and fi ve days a
week.
But, under the trees, in open air, what
a difference!
In the park, using police barriers as
barres for balance, dancers fi rst warm
up their muscles with a series of exercises
and then shift onto the plaza allowing for
greater movement and improvisation.
Some participants became regulars,
like Gordana Rashovich, who years back
discovered these classes when walking
PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY
through the park. “Thank God for Naomi
Goldberg Haas!” says this lower Manhattan
resident. “She makes us feel alive. This is
A fitness class in progress.
sensational. And, it’s beautiful just to be
outdoors.”
Phyllis Cohl, age 84, has been with
Naomi since she taught at NYU, thirty
years ago. “I was the youngest student in
the class then,” she chuckles. Since a year
ago March, holed up in her Village apartment,
she religiously took the Zoom classes
from her home offi ce every morning.
In light fi ltered through the leaves on
this glorious spring day, she beams, “I feel
liberated. I can see the scenery, people
walking, and the children!” And further
kvelling, “I just like being outside, seeing
trees, dancing with others, and connecting
with people I haven’t seen in 14 months.”
Sandra Indig of the West Village also has
been attending these classes for decades.
Needing support for balance, she explains,
“I’m developing a way to move with a cane.”
When the one-hour class fi nished, dancers
extemporaneously opined: It’s divine,
inspiring, freeing, soaring, exhilarating.
And, without any prompting, others added:
I can breathe; it is gratifying; I feel joy!
Of her long-delayed park in-person
experience, guiding instructor Naomi
Goldberg Haas says, “I feel the presence
and their being. It is so exciting!” And,
since Naomi actually began teaching her
classes with older adults downtown, she is
seeing dancers she’s known for years. With
immense warmth she adds, “I feel like I am
coming home!”
Since September, Naomi also has been
teaching outdoors at Grants Tomb plaza
three days a week. And, as the city opens
up, Movement Speaks™ has expanded
its outdoor programming to 10 locations
around the city.
Naomi has taught in Washington Square
Park for many summers and Parks just
fi nally gave the okay for her program to begin
June 1, which will run until September.
For information about in-person and
continuing remote classes, and upcoming
performances (outdoors and on-line):
www.dvpnyc.org.
The morning begins with a series of stretches.
12 June 3, 2021 Schneps Media
/www.dvpnyc.org
/www.dvpnyc.org
