Dancing your Heart Chakra

“The power of love to change bodies is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience. Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around.... Throughout history, ‘tender loving care’ has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in healing.” - Larry Dossey

The focus of tonight’s class is to access and dance with the energy center of our heart. The heart chakra (energy center) is located in the center of the chest at the breastbone. It is considered the emotional center and gateway of love, compassion and joy. We will sense the beat of our heart and the love that originates and spirals out of this energy center to fill our entire body and our world.

The Institute of Heart Math, a nonprofit research center that has been studying the electromagnetic energy generated by emotions and the human heart for over a decade, recently found that:
“Compared to the electromagnetic field produced by the brain, the electrical component of the heart’s field is about 60 times greater in amplitude, and permeates every cell of the body. The magnetic component is approximately 5,000 times stronger than the brain’s magnetic field and can be detected several feet away from the body with sensitive magentometers.”

Come dance your heart energy tonight from 5:30pm – 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Sensing and Presence

The focus of tonight’s Gentle Nia and Nia 5 Stages class is cultivating presence through tracking the sensations of pleasure and pain in the body. The simple definition of presence is the state of being present. We’ll be using our breath and the art of sensing to cultivate presence with our bodies. And with this spirit of attention, to make any necessary modifications in our movements to move towards pleasure. Class is from 5pm - 6pm at the Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood.

Triple P

"Dancers aren't made of their technique, but their passion." - Source Unknown

The focus of this morning’s Nia class is dancing your passion to the routine Passion using pleasure as your guide. Triple P!

There are two definitions of passion that I invite you to work with today:

- Passion as a powerful or compelling emotion or feeling. For Nia, I invite you to choose love.

- Passion as boundless enthusiasm.

Join me this morning in infusing our movements with pleasure, emotion, feeling and boundless enthusiasm for the dance. Class at 11am at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

Appreciation as an Act of Love

“When you look at love, you're looking into the face of appreciation.” - Unknown

One of the last things Anna Halprin said to us this weekend was something like “do one thing to honor and show reverence for your body every single day. Your body is all you have.” This reminded me of a quote I saw yesterday on the IDEA Facebook page: “Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live. - Jim Rohn.”

I show reverence for my body through conscious and loving movement. I dance with pleasure and joy as my faithful guides. I spend at least five minutes per day practicing the Nia 5 Stages. It is my morning ritual. With this practice, I lovingly allow for my body to return to alignment every morning. How do you show your body appreciation?

The focus of tonight’s class is appreciating our bodies as an act of love. Tonight we will show appreciation through movement the Nia way - with love, pleasure and Joy.

Join me for class from 6pm – 7pm at Delilah’s Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

Exploring Relationships

I had a profoundly moving experience at the Anna Halprin workshop this past weekend. The experience has inspired me to return to movement and dance with new levels of awareness and depth. I will write more extensively about my experience later on.

"Articulating the body as a fine instrument is just step one. When you motivate the use of a particular area of the body, it begins to stimulate feelings, which begin to stimulate images, which begin to connect with your own personal experiences within your life theme. In this way it becomes a total education. I call [what I teach] ‘integrative movement,’ by which I mean movement that integrates all the parts." – Anna Halprin

We did a lot of work with partners at the workshop, often working in pairs but sometimes in larger groups. We also spent a lot of time exploring polarities with movement and sensation such as front-back, left-right, up-down, gravity-levity, and tight-loose. I had a keen awareness of the relationship between my body parts, body sensations, my sense of self in the space, and interaction with my partners. I also received insight into the stories my body tells as I move.

I noticed, with wonder and awe, how initiating an upward movement from my hand created length in my waist whereas initiating the same upward movement with my elbow created length in my ribcage. I noticed how this sensation deepened my breath and brought with it feelings of love and expansion.

Don't worry, we won't be trying this move in class :)

It is still February and thus all of my classes will focus on an aspect of Love. Most people associate love with being in relationship whether that is to ones self or another.

Tonight, our class focus will be on exploring relationships with our bodies. This could be as simple as exploring how a movement in one body part affects another part or it could be as deep as how our movements affect our emotional lives.

I invite you to join me exploring the many levels of relationships tonight. Class is from 6:30pm – 7:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

On a Movement Adventure

“Through art and dance we reclaim our primal heritage and move towards a more embodied future.” - Anna Halprin

I am headed on a movement adventure. This weekend I will be participating in a special weekend workshop with Anna Halprin. The focus of the workshop is on the intelligence of the body and our ability to create personal and collective dances that have meaning. The weekend will include movement rituals and other somatic experiences beneath the beautiful redwood trees in Marin. I have been looking forward to this weekend for months and hope it will make me a better person, teacher and student of movement as a healing art.

More about Anna Halprin:

Elise Tissot-Storey

Elise Tissot-Storey will be teaching the routine "Butterfly" tonight and tomorrow. I have not taught this routine yet but I can tell you that Elise teaches it so beautifully! She teaches with such grace and heart. I thoroughly enjoy dancing with Elise. She has inspired me to learn this routine. Come dance Butterfly with her while I am in San Francisco!

Classes are canceled on Sunday, February 20th and Monday, February 21st.

I return to Seattle next week and am looking forward to resuming my regular teaching schedule on Thursday, February 24th!

Effortless Passion

Tonight I am debuting the routine “Passion.” The focus of this routine is dancing your body from a place of effortlessness and love.

There is a lot of repetition in this routine and an opportunity to ease into each movement.

Effortlessness is a conscious choice to take the path of least resistance. It’s the sensation of allowing, gliding and riding the energy of our movements.

Love is energy. When you infuse your dance with love, movement can become effortless.

I encourage you to find the effortlessness in moving your body with joy and love. After all, dancing, fun, joy and love should be and can be effortless when we consciously choose it.

Join me for an effortless class tonight from 6:30pm – 7:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

Feb Schedule and Playshop Info

Hello everyone,

A reminder of my schedule over the next week:

Thursday, February 17, 2011 – I am debuting the routine “Passion” at 6:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford. The focus of this routine will be dancing your body from a place of effortlessness and love.

Elise Tissot-Storey is the lovely little lady in red.

Elise Tissot-Storey will be covering my classes on:
Friday, February 18, 2011 at 6pm at Delilah’s Belly Dance Studio in Fremont, and
Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 11am at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

Elise will be teaching the routine "Butterfly". I have not taught this routine yet but I can tell you that Elise teaches it so beautifully! She teaches with such grace and heart. I thoroughly enjoy dancing with Elise. She has inspired me to learn this routine. Come dance Butterfly with her while I am in San Francisco!

Classes are canceled on Sunday, February 20th and Monday, February 21st.

I return to Seattle next week and am looking forward to resuming my regular teaching schedule on Thursday, February 24th!

“Through art and dance we reclaim our primal heritage and move towards a more embodied future.”  - Anna Halprin

I have shared with many of you where I am going this weekend. I am headed to San Francisco to participate in a special weekend workshop with Anna Halprin. From what I understand, the workshop is on the powerful intelligence of the body and to create personal and collective dances that have meaning and includes movement rituals and other somatic experiences beneath the beautiful redwood trees in Marin. I have been looking forward to this weekend for months and hope it will make me a better person, teacher and student of movement as a healing art.

One last thing. There has been a slight change to the start and end time for the three Nia 5 Stages Playshops I am working on. Take note of the new times:

3 Saturdays:
March 12, 2011: The Base of the Body
April 16, 2011: The Core of the Body
May 14, 2011: The Upper Extremities

Time: 1:30pm-3:30pm
Where: Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood
Cost: $17 per class or $45 for all 3

For more about the playshops: http://everybodyloveyourbody.blogspot.com/p/events.html

To register for any or all of the playshops email me directly at jennifer@everybodyloveyourbody.com.

With love in my heart and gratitude for being your friend, teacher and student,

Jennifer

Valentine's Day Dance

"Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth." 

- Mark Twain

The focus of tonight's class is the celebration of love through dance. What better way to love your body than to move it joyfully?

Guided by the sensation of pleasure and joy, we'll be dancing to some songs from the Nia routine Passion and a few other goodies!

Join me from 5:30pm - 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Tonight: Celebrating Love Through Nia (Class by donation)

I want to dance with you!

Join me tonight for a special hour of dancing to songs of love. The focus of tonight's class is celebrating our bodies, our lives, friendship, community and Universal love. Come dance your heart out.

Celebrating Love Through Nia

Class fee: Pay what you can

When: Sunday, February 13, 2011

Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm

Location: Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood, 124 N 103rd St (between N 1st Ave and N Greenwood Ave), Seattle 98133

New to Nia? Come check it out!

Learn more about Nia here.

Come with a playful Spirit and an Open Heart.

And...

Donate Your Toiletries!

For the month of February, my Nia colleague and dear friend, Gretchen Musgrove, is collecting donations of travel-size toiletries for Noel House, a loving refuge for homeless women in downtown Seattle. Please bring whatever you can to the Civetta Dance Space tonight and I will bring your donations to Gretchen.

Listening to Your Body as an Act of Love

The focus of this morning’s Nia class is on listening to our bodies as an act of love. Mindfully, openly and loving listening to another is one of the greatest gifts of love. In fact, listening is key to any human relationship.

We can do the same for ourselves and especially for our bodies.

Today, during class, I invite you to listen to the voice of your body with an open heart.

Listen to what your body wants and needs. What story is she/he sharing? What story does she/he want to create?

If you feel pain, acknowledge the pain and tweak your movements in the direction of pleasure.

If you feel pleasure, acknowledge the pleasure and sustain or increase the sensation of pleasure.

The more you learn to listen to and practice listening to your body, the better you can communicate with and respond to her/his needs, the more you can sense how your body wants and needs to move and find your own unique authentic dance.

Join me this morning from 11am – 12pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford!

Expression of Love through the Upper Extremities

The focus of tonight’s class is exploring the expression of love through our upper extremities.

The upper extremities include your fingers, hands, upper arms, forearm bones, shoulder joints and shoulder girdle. These extremities not only allow you to hug and hold yourself, they also energetically and emotionally articulate what you feel inside and what you feel for others.

The Voice of The Arms, Hands and Fingers:

"To the physical part of you I offer a way to touch, hug, and love. I am to you, like the branches of a tree. When you desire, I reach out to fulfill your wishes and wantings. When you are scared, I hold you tenderly. When you need love, I openly touch and caress you.

I offer visual aids for expressing what you feel. As you open to what is moving inside of you, I will respond without needing any thought. I act as you feel. I respond as you feel. I gesture and speak without words as you feel. I follow your feelings and create by design symbols of body gesture. My divine essence allows you to hold space for yourself and for others through the magic of touch.

Use me and I will support you in bringing more joy and clarity into your life. Use me and discover the joy of play. Awaken to my endless possibilities."

Adapted from Nia Technique Book.

Join me tonight in dancing love through your arms, hands and fingers tonight from 6pm – 7pm at Delilah’s Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

Grab Your Imaginary Scarf

The focus of tonight’s class is using the energy of Duncan Dance to move in free-spirited ways that integrates honest, authentic, graceful and beautiful full-body joyful expression.

Duncan Dance is movement from the Soul. It is childlike, playful, spontaneous, natural, harmonious and filled with curiosity and magic.

I mentioned earlier this week that all of my February classes would focus on Love. In that Spirit, tonight we will be invited to move with spontaneity in our hearts.

Grab your imaginary scarf and join me on the dance floor.

Class from 6:30pm - 7:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

Celebrating Love Through Nia (Class by donation)

I want to dance with you!

Join me for a special hour of dancing to songs of love. We'll be celebrating our bodies, our lives, friendship, community and Universal love.

Celebrating Love Through Nia
Class fee: Pay what you can
When: Sunday, February 13, 2011
Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood, 124 N 103rd St (between N 1st Ave and N Greenwood Ave), Seattle 98133

New to Nia? Come check it out!

Come with a playful Spirit and an Open Heart.

Dancing Love Through the Chest

Kristin Gasser, Nia Brown Belt, Austria

The focus for all of my February classes, starting this week, is Love.

For tonight's class, I lovingly selected songs from a number of different routines (Sexi, Velvet, Butterfly, Passion and Dreamwalker) that have to do with love and provide a varied movement experience that focuses on opening the chest.

Join me tonight in dancing Love through movement from your chest with the intent of opening the heart.

Class is from 5:30pm – 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

The Voice of the Chest

I am the voice of your chest – the birdcage of your heartbeat. 

I include your ribs, thoracic cavity, sternum or your breastbone, cartilage and twelve thoracic vertebrae. 

I govern the space where love and heart power grow. 

By design, I am open to the light, yet, like a birdcage, I protect something sacred and precious, your heart and lungs, the internal organs that make you human. 

I also support your shoulder girdle, giving freedom to your winged arms and hands. 

You keep me healthy by breathing, moving your lungs inside me. 

Through my openings, pulses the sound of life heard as a beat, the eternal rhythm of life.

I provide a path to your heart, a home for feelings of love, sadness, grief and joy, and an awakening of your most expressive self.

When Dancing Through Life sense life inside your chest. 

Inhale and smell the moment, sensing movement from the inside, out. 

On the hour, every hour, pause and sense the movement of breath expanding your lungs and gently encouraging movement of the birdcage of your chest.

Adapted from Nia Technique Book and Nia 5 Stages module on the Chest.

Sunday Night Nia! Superbowl Alternative.

Sunday Night Nia! A great Superbowl alternative.

The focus of tonight’s Gentle/Restorative Nia class is Stability with the intent to find peace and relaxation while dancing to the music.

Every aspect of the choreography of tonight’s routine, Aya, is designed to stimulate the sensation of Stability. Stability grows from the ground up and is sensed as calmness in the entire body. As you dance, you are invited to sense your muscles and joints moving in harmony. Make sure both of your feet move with ease, creating the Stability needed for the rest of your body to dance with grace and peace. And stay attentive to your breath; always seek relaxed breathing, even when exerting your body.

Join me for a new format to this class. We will dance for the first 45 minutes at a level 1 and then end the class on the floor using the Nia 5 Stages for our Floor Play practice.

Class tonight from 5pm - 6pm at the Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood.

I will be doing a special series on the Nia 5 Stages starting in March. Save the dates!
When: Saturdays - March 12th, April 16th and May 14th
Time: 2:15pm-3:45pm
Where: Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood
Cost: $17 per class or $45 for all 3

Music, Movement and Magic

The focus of our class this morning is the sweet seduction of Music, Movement and Magic.

In Nia, Music is used for inspiration as an energy you learn to sink into, ride on, and flow with. The sound of music is one of the most powerful underlying creative forces in our universe.

Movement is used to integrate your body, mind, emotions and spirit. In Nia, your movement is guided by pleasure and joy.

The Magic is You. It is how you do what you do, how you interact and connect, and how you create. It is you dancing your joy.

I invite you to allow yourself to be moved by music and to co-create Magic with me this morning!

Class is from 11am - 12pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

Somatic Harmony

In sticking with the theme of celebrating the Year of Rabbit in the Chinese New Year, tonight our class focus is to create somatic harmony through our dance.

I read the following definition of somatic harmony in a textbook titled "Physical education: by muscular exercise" by Luther Halsey Gulick:

"Bodily symmetry is not so desirable as bodily harmony...Harmony exists when the different parts (of our bodies) are so related to one another as to produce a whole in which each part is exactly adapted to perfect co-operation with every other part. This is the highest ideal."

Join me tonight as we move with the intention to cultivate harmony within and/or harmonious movement with our physical bodies.

Class is from 6pm - 7pm at Delilah's Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

Rabbit Dance

http://www.faqs.org/photo-dict/phrase/139/rabbit.html

Join me in celebrating the Chinese New Year tonight at 6:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford!

It is the Year of the Rabbit - my year! The rabbit is year is associated with home and family, affection, artistic pursuits, diplomacy and keeping the peace.

We'll be dancing to the focus of celebrating a fresh start through the joy of movement.

Come with a beginners mind.

February Update (Newsletter)

Susan Tate's debut of the new Nia Routine R1. January 1, 2011.

Hello everyone,

Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is off to a great start for you. The last month has been quite wonderful. I began, quite joyously, teaching five classes per week in January and introduced two new routines: Opal and Sexi. In February, I will be working with theme "love" and introducing the Nia routine Passion mid-month. I use "love" in the broadest sense to include love of self, other, nature, humanity and of course, the love of our bodies and movement :).

Class Schedule

My current class schedule is listed below and can also be found on my website:

Mondays: 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District
Thursdays: 6:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford
Fridays: 6:00pm at Delilah's Belly Dance Studio in Fremont
Saturdays: 11:00am at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford
Sundays: 5:00pm (Gentle Nia/Nia 5 Stages) at the Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood

Sunday Class Changes:

I am changing the structure Combined Nia 5 Stages and Gentle/Restorative Nia class on Sunday evenings. Starting in February, we will begin the class with a 40-45 minute Gentle Nia class (level 1) and end with about 10 minutes of the Nia 5 Stages. I have ordered new knee pads from Nia headquarters and hope they arrive within six weeks.

February Holiday Schedule:

No classes on Friday, February 18th, Sunday, February 20th and Monday, February 21st.

*I will be out of town for the holiday weekend.

Class is ON for Saturday, February 19th:

Elise Tissot-Storey, my Nia colleague and friend, also teaches at Fresh Fitness and Dance. Elise's classes are held on Monday mornings at 9:45am and Wednesday mornings at 10:45am. Elise, who I can only describe as an absolute love, will be covering my Saturday, February 19th class when I am out of town. Please come and dance with Elise! 

Upcoming Nia Mini-Playshops:

Playshops are what Nia folk call workshops. I am currently planning three Nia 5 Stages playshops for Spring. These playshops will provide you with a more in depth practice of the 5 stages.

The Nia 5 Stages is an integrative practice based on the five stages of human development: embryonic, creeping, crawling, standing and walking. When the body moves through the Nia 5 Stages, the body, mind, emotions, and spirit naturally realign, unify and integrate, leaving a greater sense of wholeness, health and well-being. Developed as a practice, these stages lead to changes that improve one's physical comfort, ability to move efficiently, and improvement in whole body functioning and posture. 

In each 90-minute playshop, you will be guided through the 5 Stages practice followed by short Nia class.

More information about the 5 Stages Mini-Playshops coming soon! In the meantime, save the dates:

Saturdays: March 12th, April 16th and May 14th

When: 2:15pm-3:45pm

Where: Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood

Cost: $17 per class or $45 for all 3

Stay in touch:

A reminder that I usually post the class focus (and more) on my blog. You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter. 

That's all for now. I am looking forward to dancing with you soon and throughout the year.

With warmth and gratitude for being your teacher, student and dance playmate,

Jennifer