Voice of The Upper Extremities

The focus of tonight’s class is our upper extremities.

The upper extremities include your fingers, hands, upper arms, forearm bones, shoulder joints and shoulder girdle. We will combine both linear and fluid arm and hand movement.

The intent tonight is to discover self-expression and direct energy through the arms, hands and fingers.

The Voice of The Upper Extremities - Body:
"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 you a way to create, build, plant seeds, and assist in birthing humanity. Use me and I will support you in bringing more joy and clarity into your life. Use me and discover the joy of play: throwing, grabbing, scooping, and pushing. I am alive and wanting you to play with me. Awaken to my endless possibilities."

Class begins at 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Shoulder Blades as Elegant Wings

The focus of tonight’s Combined Nia 5 Stages and Gentle Nia class is movement with the shoulder blades.

The shoulder blades are two thin, flat bones on the back of the body. You can visualize the shoulder blades as hands on the back of your body or like elegant wings expanding out the side of your body. One of the essential functions of the shoulder blades is to provide freedom and to give life to your hand and arm expression.

The movement of our hands has a direction impact on our shoulder blades. The simple reciprocal action of moving the palms up and down stimulates the back of the body (sensing nerves) and the front of the body (motor nerves). Moving the palms up, leading with the pinky finger, allows you to sense support from behind and underneath while opening the shoulder joint and allowing your shoulder blades to swing down and out. Moving with palms down, leading with the thumb, moves energy down and allows your shoulder blades to return to resting.

The entire shoulder girdle is meant to be mobile. We will work with various movements tonight to free the shoulder joint and allow for mobility and full range of expression.

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

Funky Friday in Fremont

It's Nia Fremont Friday! Time to get funky. We'll funk-ify our dance tonight to some fun tunes and I've added a groovy FreeDance song that we just might want to sing along with.

Class at 6pm at Delilah's Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

 

Dancing with Lines and Circles

The focus of tonight's class is dancing with lines and circles. We’ll work with horizontal and vertical movement and blend lines into circles to create spirals. The routine I’ve assembled is a lovely combination of Canta, Sexi, Opal and Butterfly. Join me at 6:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

The Dance of Yin and Yang

The focus of tonight’ routine in movement with the energies of “Yin and Yang.” The intent us to connect with these two sensations that balance and complement each other. Yin is the sensation of horizontal energy flow that connects to the front and to the back of the body. Yang is the sensation of a vertical energy flow that connects to the top and to the bottom of the body. Yin and Yang is the balance of the soft and explosive, mobility and stability, and the feminine and masculine.

Come play tonight at 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Movement of the Head and Neck

The focus of tonight’s Combined Nia 5 Stages and Gentle Nia class is on movement of the head and neck.

Everything we do, such as looking, listening, eating, smelling and taking affects what happens in the head and neck. Even our sleep position affects our head and neck.

Tonight we are going to work with the movement of the head and neck to help release tension, stimulate breathing and strengthen the muscles along the core of the body: pelvis, chest and head.

As infant's, the world around and the knowledge that one gains from the world around, is guided by the senses - not guided by an intelligence of “I’m looking to see something.” It’s about curiosity and moving in natural time, which happens from the eyes looking around and the head moving. That's what we are going to recreate the sensation of tonight.

Movement the head and neck also affects the alignment of the rest of the spine. One of the ways we integrate movement of the head in Nia is to use our eyes. We can follow the movement of our hands with our eyes to keep the neck relaxed and encourage movement of the head in a way that is more efficient than commanding the head to move up and down. We can also focus on our sense of sight, looking at specific things or simply out into life, to encourage movement of the head.

Our intent is to feel more relaxed and aligned. If we move something above (our head), and we move something below (our tail), the stuff in the middle gets to relax and find a new kind of alignment. The head moving up and out of the torso will create some flexibility in the thoracic spine. That additional space below is going to create freedom above, versus having the head packed down and being pulled down by gravity. Often the discomfort one feels in the shoulder girdle and between the shoulder blades is the head being packed down without enough extension up and out. The lengthening up, the extension up, helps to create what the body wants, which is space between the shoulders and ears.

Join me tonight for a conscious movement journey of the head and neck. Class is from 5pm-6pm at the Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood.

Kick It!

Nia Fremont Friday. Tonight. 6pm. Deliliah's Belly Dance Studio. Kick It!

See you tonight!

Steps and Stances

I am debuting the Nia routine Opal tonight. The class focus is on steps and stances.

We use steps as non-stop movement to develop mobility. In stepping one foot is always leaving the ground.

We use stances to develop stability. We stop after stepping, find stillness and stay in place.

This routine is wonderful for the nervous system as moving and stopping are vital to its conditioning.

This particular routine also gives me a sense of empowerment and it's not just because opal is my birth stone. I always feel strong and grounded after I dance to it. In fact, I feel like a ninja! I think you are going to love it.

Class is from 6:30pm – 7:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford. The studio is located directly behind Kabul restaurant on Corliss Ave N. off the corner of N. 45th St.

See you tonight!

Secret Recess

The following poem was written by my dear friend, soul sister, and fellow Nia white belt graduate, Amanda Coleman. Amanda wrote this poem only a few days after her birthday and on the same day that I held a Vision Board gathering at my home. She read this aloud at the gathering and we were all deeply touched and moved by these words. Her words resonated with me. She captured beautifully what makes Nia so special. I feel compelled to share this with everyone I know. 

Amanda is a bodyworker, healer, dancer, visionary, a compassionate and conscious thinker, a deeply sensitive soul and lover of the Earth and humanity. I feel blessed to know her and to dance through life with her.

For more about Amanda: http://www.somabodywork.org/practitioner/AmandaColeman.html 

Amanda Coleman, LMP, Nia White Belt

To Debbie and everyone at Nia,

To Nia teachers everywhere,

To every student who has dared to show up to class,

To every lover of Nia who has grabbed a friend and said, “you have to come with me.”

Thank you.

I have been loving and dancing Nia for 2 years now, and for the first time today did I take class in a gym setting. And there, in T-shirted bodies and New Year’s resolved,weight-loss focused , sweat-seeking  minds, a miracle happened.

Something happened there, in the least likely of places.

People began to untangle, to whoop, to smile, to close their eyes.

People began to hear something.

It was the song of the soul of creation as whispered to them through the voice of their own bodies.

I witnessed it.

I danced with them all in joy as the nervous middle-schoolers, for whom no look, no self could ever feel quite good enough, cracked and died, in her, in him, in me.

Thank you.

I feel a great wisdom is transmitted through this seemingly benign “aerobics class”. I grin from ear to ear as I feel so blessed to be able to receive the teachings, like subliminal messages.  I thank you for this vehicle you have designed to convey this vital information to the masses. The message says to me, “I am right here. Within you as I have always been. I am your body, your being, and I hold the map to that world you seek: the one you catch a glimpse of between night and waking, the one you wish for when you hope for your children’s children. I’m here, let me show you the way.”

And people everywhere are being woken up to it. I wish I could throw my arms around Debbie and Carlos and all the teachers whom they received from and all who are alongside them.

We, the human race, are on our way to becoming fully here, on this planet, in this now. 

Thank you for the care and intricacy that you took in encoding this message in such an elegant, complex and simple vehicle…that anyone can get, down at their local gym! Holy Cow! What is this world coming to!?!

All my heart,

Amanda

(White Belt, May 2010)

Celebrating MLK through Dance

"In a real sense all life is inter-related. All persons are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the inter-related structure of reality."

- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Class tonight at 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District. We are celebrating, through dance, the legacy of MLK, with a focus on interrelatedness.

See you tonight!

Energy of Aikido

Our class focus this morning is incorporating the energy of Aikido into our dance. In Aikido, we use spirals, circular movements, our breath, the hara (moving from our center), and we extend our energy into space with ease instead of force.

Aikido means; "Ai" to meet, "Ki" spirit, and "Do" the way. In other words, Aikido is the way of harmony. It is the way of the peaceful warrior.

Join me at 11am at Fresh Fitness and Dance as we dance our peaceful warrior/ess with harmonious spherical motion.

Seduced by the Music

It's Fremont Friday! The focus of tonight's class is allowing ourselves to be seduced by the music. We will be invited to let the various sounds of the music speak to and move our bodies. 

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

See you tonight!

Celebration in Wallingford!

Tonight I teach my first Nia class at the new studio Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford. The studio opened for business this Monday, January 10, 2011.

I will be teaching at this studio Thursday evenings from 6:30pm – 7:30pm and Saturdays from 11am – 12pm. My classes at Fresh Fitness and Dance are open to everyone. You may use and purchase one of my class cards and have the opportunity to take classes at all of my locations or you can become a Fresh member and take my classes along with other classes offered there.

Our class focus tonight is Celebration! I love to mark new beginnings with a celebratory spirit. Tonight is no exception. It’s the beginning of a new class at a new location for me and Fresh’s first week offering classes to the public!

Come and join me in celebrating our bodies, movement, dance, self-expression and new beginnings tonight at 6:30pm.

Eyes Initiate Systemic Movement

Our focus tonight will be using our eyes to initiate creative and systemic movement. We will direct the movement of our whole body simply by using the muscles of the eyes.

Class is from 5:30pm - 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District! See you tonight!

Movement with our Eyes and a "Fresh" Start

“The eyes are the window to the soul.” - Proverb

The focus of tonight’s combined Nia 5 Stages and Gentle Nia class is on the eyeballs.

The eye is a small circular organ stimulated by light and able to move in many directions to maximize our field of vision. Our eyes take in a wealth of information about the world we live and move in. They send information to our brain so that we know what is going on around us. The more we use our eyes, the more we experience and express ourselves in our world.

Tonight, we will take a little journey with our eyes to consciously explore the way we move through the world. We will notice that the eyes not only initiate movement of the head and neck but they also affect other joints as well. In initiating movement with our eyes, we create new and wondrous patterns of movement.

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

**Also tonight: As you know, I am quite excited that I will be teaching 2 new classes at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford on Thursday (6:30pm) and Saturday (11am) starting this week. My Nia class there will be open to both Fresh Fitness and Dance members and non-members alike.

Fresh Fitness and Dance is hosting their grand opening party tonight from 4:30pm – 7:30pm. The flier is below.

I will be heading to the grand opening party after my class tonight!

Dance Your Most Sensual Self

I am debuting the Nia routine Sexi tonight. I intentionally chose to debut Sexi at my new Friday evening space at Delilah’s Belly Dance Studio in Fremont. The beautiful studio exudes sensuality, as does this routine.

In honor of the essence of the space, the focus tonight will be an invitation to dance your most sensual self.

The simplest definition of sensual is the “devotion to producing physical pleasure.” That’s your task tonight and it’s easy. Are you up for the pleasure challenge?

Join me tonight from 6pm – 7pm at Deliliah's Belly Dance Studio at 4128 Fremont Ave N in Seattle.

For fun: Listen to the tunes of Sexi.

Nia Fremont Fridays - starting January 7, 2011

Yes, Nia is coming to Fremont on Friday nights! Tomorrow night, January 7th, I begin teaching Friday evening Nia in Fremont at one of the most beautiful studio’s in town, Deliliah’s Belly Dance Studio. The studio, located at 4128 Fremont Ave N, is absolutely gorgeous and I can hardly wait to dance with you there. 

Classes will be held Fridays from 6pm - 7pm. 

I'll tell you more about the routine I have up my sleeve tomorrow :)

Dreamwalker-Dancing Through Life

The focus of tonight’s routine is dreamwalker-dancing through life.

I am working with the same routine, Dreamwalker, and class focus that Jena Hennessey and I used for our joint New Years Eve class for those of you that were unable to join us.

A dreamwalker is someone who works with and within a dream to create, understand or heal. They can be in two places at once, the past, present and/or future.

Tonight we will take a little journey moving between who were in 2010, who we are now and who we hope to become in 2011. As always, we will move with joy and pleasure as our faithful companions and guides.

First Class of 2011: Creating Self

Laurie Bass, Nia 5 Stages and Nia Black Belt 

Join me for a very special combined Nia 5 Stages and Gentle/Restorative Nia class tonight. In celebration of our entry into 2011, the focus of tonight’s class is on “Creating Self.”

The New Year is typically a time when most people set goals or resolutions in order to create change in their lives. Our class tonight will focus on the conscious process of creating change in our bodies and lives through movement.

The creative process, or to be creative, involves an exchange of energy, always using energy to create something. We’ll focus on the process of creating changes and shifts within our bodies through the conscious and intentional energizing of our movements to create a pleasurable and healing environment in our bodies.

The Nia 5 Stages provides an environment for creating change through movement—both in each stage and in the movement between stages—and to witness the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual changes that occur. These 5 Stages remind us that we create ourselves each day with our thoughts, choices, and movements. We are going to focus on using the Nia 5 Stages to create change. We will specifically focus on the sensation of “you creating yourself.”

Following our Nia 5 Stages practice, we will experience a Gentle/Restorative Nia routine with the same focus.

I read recently in Anatomy and Physiology for Psychotherapists “everything that leaves physical traces in our bodies, that alters or adds to our shape in however small detail, can be said to embody a memory.” My desire for myself in 2011 is to create body memories that are joyful, loving, healing, expansive, and pleasurable. What are your desires for 2011?

I was inspired by the following article by Dr. Christiane Northrup titled "Flourishing in the New Year: Imagine your future and change your cells." It is a worthy read.

Join me tonight from 5pm – 6pm at the Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood for my first class of 2011.