Honoring Michael Jackson

The focus of tonight’s class is the celebration of music and movement. I have included two Michael Jackson songs in tonight’s routine in honor of his birthday. While his life was not without controversy, he invited the world to celebrate music and dance. I once heard that the word “celebrate” means to “have an uninhibited good time.” Let’s do that tonight!

Join me for class tonight from 5pm - 6pm at NW Community Yoga: 701 NW 70th St., Seattle, WA 98117

Life as Art

The focus on tonight’s class is cultivating awareness so that we perceive life as art. This practice is about being open and receptive to receiving inspiration, from everyday life. It begins with awareness of physical sensation, which is the starting point of all action and movement. There is nothing mystical about awareness; it is simply the act of knowing what is going on around and within you at any given moment. It takes practice and commitment. We do this by consciously slowing down and experiencing each sensory experience through the lens of wonder and admiration.

One definition of art is “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.” Perceiving life as art, through awareness and movement, is about being inspired with all of your senses. The Latin root for the word “inspire” means “to inhale.” When you learn how to inhale the beauty within and around you and perceive your entire body and the world around you as art, you will feel inspiration from the art flow into you. You’ll feel it as a physical sensation through your five senses, bones, muscles, and the 75 trillion cells in your body. You’ll become the art and the artist of your life.

Tonight we will be inspired by our sensory experience and move as if we are art. We are all extraordinary. We are all masterpieces. Let's dance.

Class begins at 6:45pm at the Crown Hill School, room 4. Address: 9250 14th NW, Seattle, WA 98117

Sensation of Stability

The focus for tonight’s class is the sensation of stability. The routine I will be facilitating is filled with fun steps, stances, lateral travel, kicks, blocks, punches, strikes, and other movements that will allow us to recognize the unique physical qualities and sensation of how we each experience stability.

Stability is:

• Sensed as energy moving out in all directions from the center.
• Sensed as a calmness in the muscles, combined with readiness for action.
• Maintained by equalizing muscular contraction and relaxation.
• Sensed as a harmony between the muscles and joints.

We maintain and nurture stability by seeking balance in movement, postural integration and correct alignment of our body, equalizing muscle contractions and relaxation, and finding ways to rest in momentary or sustained periods of movement and non-movement.

Examples of how the sensation of full stability may feel in your body. Your:

• Ankle joint can support you in rising up and down on your toes, without wobbling in or out to the sides.
• Knee joint can support you in moving and stopping without locking or tensing.
• Hip joint can fully support you in balancing, walking, sinking, and rising.
• Wrist can support you in starting and stopping motions and in holding, balancing, and bearing body weight.
• Elbow joint can suddenly stop any hand and arm motion and can also support body weight.
• Shoulder joint can support your hands and arms in starting and stopping motions and in supporting body weight.
• Spine can support you from the inside out to lift, lower, bend, twist, push, and pull.

Through the movements in this routine we will focus on discovering, tweaking and sustaining the sensation of stability with dynamic ease. Dynamic stability, the perfect balanced of opposites, is sensed as powerful peace.

Join me tonight in exploring the sensation of stability and the firm foundation it provides for us to move, reach out in all directions, to find balance and ease into powerful peace. All to a fun soundtrack that includes Thievery Corporation, Tears for Fears and Michael Franti and Spearhead. Get ready to shake it.

Class begins at 6:45pm at the Crown Hill School, room 4. Address: 9250 14th NW, Seattle, WA 98117

Reference: Rosas, Debbie and Carlos, The Nia Technique (New York: Broadway, 2004) 102-107.

Feet: The Hands that Touch the Earth

The focus for tonight's class is our feet. In Nia, the feet are referred to as "the hands that touch the Earth". Our feet are our direction connection to the Earth and where balance in our whole body begins. Each foot has 26 bones, 3 arches, 11 muscles, and 7,000 nerve endings that communicate to us through sensation. That's a whole lot of exploration. Let's play.

Class is tonight, Sunday, at 5pm, at NW Community Yoga: 701 NW 70th St., Seattle, WA 98117

Friggatriskaidekaphobia

Uh oh, it’s Friday the 13th! According to Wikipedia, the fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia. Now I can’t even say the word but it’s already a favorite. The native New Yorker in me loves the “frigga” part. The focus of today's routine is “traveling in directions.” We’re not going to pretend we’re in a horror flick running away from a masked crazed person. Nope, that doesn’t sound fun at all. Instead, we’re going to use our magnificent feet, knees, and legs to confidently and playfully explore the space around us while using our trusty sensation of pleasure as a guide.

As we travel in directions, imagine stepping through many doorways, learning to consciously anticipate change of direction, and moving with the intent to respond to change with grace and ease. Prepare to feel powerful, strong, and agile in your whole body. We may also just have to try sounding out friggatriskaidekaphobia while we dance. Are you up for it? Join me tonight at 6:45pm at the Crown Hill School, room 4.

Dynamic Ease

Today, as with Friday evening, the focus of my Nia class is dynamic ease. This routine invites each person to connect to these two sensations. The sensation of dynamic is how we each power or infuse a movement with energy. When we are learning a new movement, we may put more energy into it and less as it becomes more familiar. Ease, as a sensation, can be experienced as relaxation. Ease is not the sensation of collapsing into a movement but rather a resting into it.

Modulating these sensations and finding your perfect balance can be achieved with practice and most of all with awareness. Sense into your body and listen for the prompts. When we play with the balance between energizing a movement, dynamic, and resting into it, ease, the body can become physically strong and flexible. And on an energetic level, it can become more harmonious and balanced. Nia reminds us that the “body thrives on dynamic ease,” which is ultimately the ability to perform any movement with maximum efficiency and minimal effort. This sensation allows you do various movements without thinking too hard about it.

To get a feel for dynamic ease, think back to a time when you learned a challenging physical task, such as riding a bike or learning to ski. At first, you may have felt weak, clumsy, intimidated, and frustrated. But you persevered until one day, suddenly: Bingo! Dynamic ease!*

Below is a photo of my first class. This fabulous group of seven masterfully played with dynamic ease in their own unique way. You should have seen them. They blew me away.

I invite you to come join me in playing with these sensations and experience the effortless power, elegance and grace of dynamic ease. Class is tonight, Sunday, at 5pm, at NW Community Yoga: 701 NW 70th St., Seattle, WA 98117

*Rosas, Debbie and Carlos, The Nia Technique (New York: Broadway, 2004), 31.

Teaching my first class

Today, I begin my journey as a Nia teacher, adding to my ongoing practice as a student. There is a nation of butterflies dancing away in my belly. They are dancing to the tune of both anxiety and excitement. I trust that when 6:45pm arrives, I will allow these butterflies to dance me through teaching!

As this is my first blog post on Everybody, Love your Body, I would like to share a little bit of my story with you. When people ask me, “what is Nia?” I usually respond with great enthusiasm “it’s the most fun I’ve ever had! It is a holistic fitness practice that is a blend of dance, martial arts and yoga. And I always wear a full body smile from the beginning of class straight through to the very end.” That’s a simplistic response but my energy and delivery are typically met with “wow, I would like to try it someday!” It’s not easy to explain the Nia technique using words; it’s something that must be experienced.

I prefer to share why I love Nia. It’s the only movement practice I have found that encourages me, or rather demands, that I truly be myself and “move” my own way. This works perfectly for someone like me who thrives on freedom and individuality. The practice also feeds that insatiable part of me that craves constant movement, exploration, and variety. And I learn something new about my body and the way it moves and has the potential to move every single day so that I can reach my own optimum health.

There is a concept in Nia called “The Body’s Way.” It essentially means we use the body in accord with its design, function and structure. There is another concept called “Your Body’s Way.” This is my body’s current design and way of moving. In time, with the Nia practice, a synthesis occurs between the two. It is an ongoing practice as I become more flexible, mobile, stronger, stable and agile.

These concepts are carried out in the Nia practice and provide me with a solid structure (the Body’s Way) and tremendous freedom (my Body’s Way). It is also systemic; there isn’t a single part of my body, mind, heart, or soul that isn’t moved in this practice. This practice respects and embraces my individuality, my own unique way of moving and self-expression. What more can I ask for?

Ok, maybe there is one more thing I can ask for that Nia delivers. The practice is guided by pleasure. Imagine that? No pain in fitness. In Nia, we are instructed to move in a way that feels good and invigorating and to avoid anything that hurts or is exhausting. And so I am now in the greatest shape of my life, from the inside out, and it’s all been guided by pleasure, being true to myself, and moving my own way. That, in a nutshell, is why I love Nia.

With that, here I go to share this incredible practice with others! Ready! Set! Go!