On a Tuesday evening in Atwater Village, Teresa “Toogie” Barcelo is making a portal. Together with her arms stretched out, she beckons the members of her motion workshop, Wiggle Room, to hitch her on the opposite aspect, the place they may meet a renewed model of themselves.
“Walk into the next iteration of yourself,” she instructions. The members, who’ve spent the final hour squirming, shaking and buzzing, cross the invisible threshold. Their limbs swing loosely, their smiling faces sticky with sweat.
Teresa “Toogie” Barcelo makes use of a wave drum throughout a Wiggle Room class at G-Son Studios.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Occasions)
Barcelo has been main the L.A.-based motion class for nearly a decade. As an achieved choreographer and motion director, she has labored with pop stars equivalent to Sabrina Carpenter, Harry Types, St. Vincent, Troye Sivan and Dua Lipa — most notably choreographing Dua Lipa’s hit music video “New Rules.”
Barcelo’s success might be credited to her distinctive method, which facilities on well-being and embodiment. “People call me the energy coordinator,” she jokes. “I’m kind of an enigma in the commercial industry.”
Rising up in Miami, Barcelo felt disillusioned whereas pursuing a dance profession in Los Angeles. Her early profession was riddled with “cattle-call auditions, getting an agent and sexy headshots. All the surface level things that you get told that you need to do in L.A. to be successful as a dancer.”
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Barcelo discovered freedom — and escape — in improvisation and freestyle dance. “I saw an opportunity there. I want to teach improvisation in L.A. That’s what I can give to this community,” she says.
From there, Wiggle Room was born. What started as a sanctuary for dancers to discover improvisation developed into one thing deeper. “I started realizing that the class was really a healing space for a lot of people,” Barcelo says. “There was really nowhere they could go to explore themselves as movers.”
Quickly, Barcelo turned her consideration to meditative practices, which she infused into her work as a choreographer and dancer. “I got certified as a breath coach. I started leaning more into embodied practices, body connection and somatic therapy tools.” Wiggle Room is a symbiotic marriage of dance and meditation. The result’s a messy and gorgeous interplay of our bodies. “We breathe. We move and we wiggle. We have meditative moments. It’s a big swirl of play.”
Wiggle Room is accompanied by a dwell rating carried out by Joe Berry, a member of the Grammy-nominated digital group M83 and Barcelo’s longtime associate. Barcelo invited Berry to collaborate on Wiggle Room early of their courtship. “I grew up in dance classes with live accompaniment,” says Barcelo. “When we started dating, that was one of the first things that I asked Joe.”
M83 musician Joe Berry performs makes use of a mix of devices, together with synthesizers and sound bowls, to accompany the category.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Occasions)
Berry makes use of a mix of devices — together with saxophones, synthesizers and sound bowls — to craft the otherworldly, moody rating. In school, a saxophone solo elicits cheers from the category. “Instruments are taking instructions the same way the dancers are,” he explains. A classically skilled musician versed in jazz, classical and electronica, Berry describes his function as “composing for people’s emotions.”
Berry’s rating is integral to the category’ meditative atmosphere. “The live soundscapes that he was accidentally creating were these beautiful sound baths with ambient textures,” says Barcelo.
Earlier this yr, Barcelo and Berry relocated to Joshua Tree. Nonetheless, Barcelo hosts Wiggle Room as soon as a month in revolving venues in L.A. Most just lately, she hosted the workshop at G-Son Studios in Atwater Village, a former rehearsal house and recording studio for the Beastie Boys.
The category is inclusive to everybody, no matter prior dance expertise. “There are people who are visual artists — people who are not dancers and have no movement experience,” says Barcelo. In Wiggle Room, the excellence between dancers and non-dancers dissolves and the internal baby guides the best way — intuition trumps approach.
Wiggle Room members chill out and wind down.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Occasions)
To start out the workshop, Barcelo emphasizes the significance of listening to the physique. “Do what feels right,” she encourages. “Allow your body to eat up all the space.” In a high-pressure, frenetic society, Barcelo explains that shifting the physique acts as a launch valve for trapped emotion.
“All of those moments are stored in the body as energy. When we wiggle, shake or move, we actually get that energy moving so that we can transmute, optimize it and transform it into creativity and beauty,” she notes.
Barcelo hopes that the hour spent collectively highlights the significance of neighborhood. “Moving with other bodies that are also going through emotionally complex lives — that shared experience is really healing.”
In 2023, Barcelo distilled the magical encounter of her class right into a digital app, “toogie.” She calls it a digital toolbox full of guided breath, meditation, somatic motion and visualization practices. “It’s like having me in your pocket whenever you need a grounding friend,” Barcelo says.
All through the category, Barcelo offers mischievous path and lighthearted cues. At one second, she asks: “What does it feel like to add a sprinkle of whimsy?” At different moments, her recommendation is commonly mystical and ethereal as she paces the house with a smile. She factors out the continued Jupiter retrograde and urges members to “let the parts that are inquisitive drive you.”
Felicia St. Cyr, 29, left, and Hunter Wayne Foster, 30, embrace throughout a Wiggle Room class.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Occasions)
Participant {and professional} dancer Brandon Galvan describes the category as transformative. “Everything stops for a moment and brings you back to your home, which is your body. Being able to dive deep into that really takes you places — time lapses,” Galvan says. “I saw flashes of beautiful things.”
As the category winds down, Barcelo defines a phrase — pronoia, the idea that the universe is conspiring to your profit. It’s a straightforward perspective to undertake in her presence. In response to Barcelo, “Witnessing each other in a shared moment is healing.”
