Voice of the Physical Body

The focus of tonight’s class is the celebration of our physical body with the intent of deepening the love you feel for this beautiful body you inhabit.

Class from 6pm – 7pm at Delilah’s Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

The excerpt below was written by Nia co-founder Debbie Rosas. I keep a copy of this passage in my journal and read it often. It reminds me that my Spirit thrives in this amazing, intelligent, wise, beautiful and sacred body. I fall in love with her more deeply every single day. She’s magical and I thank her for gracing me with such a safe and nurturing home to live in by allowing her to express herself through my dance. How do you thank your body?

Voice of the Physical Body

I am sacred. I connect you to the physical realm and offer you a language of symbols called gesture and expression. I am kept alive by a flow of energy through my matter called life-force. I am oneness—the flow, the flower, the observer and the observed. I am physical, chemical, ethereal and organic. My health and wellbeing are maintained through love and through becoming; I am in constant movement, reproducing myself in better and better ways; in ways that support my continual transformation. My transmissions—communication you receive as sensation—are energy that touches and connects you to yourself and to the world. My physical energy is a body language that flows through you. When you dance, you awaken my intelligence: your thinking body.

As an energy and life-force, I live within every cell. The energy in and behind every word you speak, every image you create, and every experience you have, is my way of speaking to you. If you listen, sensing me, I will send you specific information you can recognize as body consciousness, a state of wisdom and body awareness, the awake and alert state of being connected to your inner self, the inner one who speaks to you with a voice. You can listen to me and I can listen to you, and together we can use our information to help you get strong, to help you heal, to add meaning to your life.

I have many parts that make up your whole - and I am always changing, moving and becoming new. I am present for you, helping you discover the mystery and magic found in touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing and love. Feel me breathe within you. Let me awaken you to the natural, organic intelligence and wisdom that is triggered as I move. Every part of me is a doorway you can open to receive energy and intelligence, for I am a vast resource waiting to be discovered. Fall into me, in love with me, and I will guide you to become all you desire.

My feet are yours to stand in, to feel and connect to the earth with. My hands are yours to hold, to create with, touching, nourishing and healing yourself and others. My legs are instruments of movement that elegantly give you the freedom to travel, dance, jump and play—with me. My arms are like wings, which make the sacred gift of reaching out to give and drawing in to receive a dance of human grace. My eyes are yours to use, to see the beauty within yourself and others. My ears are yours to listen with, to hear the song of the universe. My heart is yours to open and explore, to feel the depth of emotion that helps humanity transform, evolve and heal. My nose is yours with which to smell the fragrance of love, always choosing it as your guide. My mouth is yours with which to taste the nectar of life, to nourish me with out of love and respect, honor and trust. I am yours to fall in love with, to become wise through, and to become one with in spiritual divinity. I show you the way out, where the physical transcends form and turns into pure light and energy. Feel me, for I feel you.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.