Showing posts with label Nia Fremont Fridays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nia Fremont Fridays. Show all posts

Friday, April 29, 2011

Simple Movements Infused with Creative Expression

The focus of tonight’s class is steps and stances. The intent is to connect with simple movements and infuse them with your own unique creative expression.

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 and a strong foundation. We stop after stepping, find stillness and stay in place.

The routine I have assembled for tonight is wonderful for the nervous system as moving and stopping are vital to its conditioning. And it’s fun!

This is my last Friday evening class in Fremont. Starting next week on Friday, May 6, 2011 I will teach weekly Friday evening classes from 5:30pm – 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Starting this Sunday, May 1, 2011, I will teach weekly Sunday morning classes from 10:30am – 11:30am Delilah’s Belly Dance studio in Fremont.

Join me tonight from 6pm - 7pm at Delilah's Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Celebrating and Honoring the Earth on Earth Day 2011

The focus of this tonight's class is celebrating the energy of Earth on Earth Day. The intent is to honor and express gratitude, through dance, for our Earth Mother.

Image from americanmeditation.org

I found the following Native American prayer giving thanks to the Earth from the book “Partnering with Nature: The Wild Path to Reconnecting with the Earth” by Catriona MacGregor:

“Great and Eternal Mystery of Life, Creator of All Things,
I give thanks for the beauty You put in every single one of
Your creations.
I am grateful that You did not fail in making every 
stone, plant, creature, and human being 
a perfect and whole part of 
the Sacred Hoop.
I am grateful that You have allowed me to see 
the strength and beauty 
of All My Relations.
My humble request is that all the Children of Earth 
will learn to see the same perfection 
in themselves.
May none of Your human children doubt or question 
Your wisdom, grace, and sense of wholeness 
in giving all of Creation 
a right to be living extensions of 
Your perfect love.”

Join me for an hour of devotional dance expressing our thanks to the Earth. Class tonight, Friday, April 22nd, Earth Day, from 6pm – 7pm at Delilah’s Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

Friday, April 15, 2011

It's Friday! Wiggle It!

It's Friday night. Time to wiggle it! Yes, that's right, the focus of tonight's class is wiggling. The intent is to have fun. Enough said.

We'll be working with one my absolute favorite Nia routines: Sexi.

Here is one of my favorite songs from the routine and the one where we wiggle our bodies and get down and funky:



Join me for dancing for the pure fun and JOY of it tonight from 6pm - 7pm at Delilah's Belly Dance studio in Fremont.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Good Vibrations

The focus of tonight’s class is physical vibration.

The intent is to experience whole-body relaxation.

We sense relaxation through through the art of practicing different types of movements that vibrate the physical body: quivering, shimmying, shaking, pulsing, rumbling, and sounding.

Let’s shake it up on Friday night!

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

Friday, April 1, 2011

Unleash Your Inner Fool

The focus of tonight’s class is celebrating foolishness. That’s right! It’s April Fools’ Day.

The intent is to relax and not take thing so seriously. It’s time to unleash your most playful, foolish and mischievous self.

It’s Friday night. It’s the end of the workweek or school week for most people. It’s April 1st. Feel free to come to class in a wig, funky glasses, pom poms..Let’s play!

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

Friday, March 25, 2011

The Voice of Flexibility

The focus of tonight’s class is to experience the sensation of flexibility with the intent to notice and experience expansion in the body.

Flexibility is sensed as energy moving out. For example, opening your fingers and sensing rays of light coming out from the wrist all the way out from the tips of your fingers.

Flexibility provides you the freedom to expand, radiate outward, and extend in all directions. It also creates spaciousness within and connects you to the world around you.

When you sense flexibility, you can sustain whole-body movement while your body says, “I feel more space; I am getting more flexible."

The Voice of Flexibility

I am the voice of Flexibility. I give you the freedom to expand in your life. You sense me as energy radiating outward like the sun radiates heat, like a rubber band expanding and extending in all directions. You know me through the first stretch of waking. I am the yawn of your body. Feline, I love to extend, to know my own fullness down to my toes and out my tail - into my claws and the spaces between. My pliability creates space within you and connects your edges to the world beyond. To your emotional body, I am the product of yearning and desire; contentment and satiation; security and curiosity. Connect to me through desire and in your longing, open up to expose your deepest self. Through me, find trust, expansion; discover your full potential. I am your potential. Let me in by letting yourself out.

*Excerpt from Nia handout on the Five Sensations.

Join me tonight for an expansive journey into exploring your unique sensation of flexibility. Class from 6pm – 7pm at Delilah’s Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

Friday, March 18, 2011

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.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Give Your Joints Some Love

Last night I had an interesting conversation with a fitness instructor, specifically a Zumba teacher. We were talking about the joys of teaching and she mentioned that she had to reduce the number of classes she teaches due to joint and body pain. I realized in that moment that in the 8 years I’ve been doing Nia and the 7 months I have been teaching I have not experience any joint pain at all. I attribute this to the emphasis of Nia on moving with pleasure, joy and body awareness.

I feel very fortunate to have a loving relationship with my body. I dance for pleasure, I know when and how to tweak my movements and listen deeply to the voice of my body. I stop or ease up when needed and I do not need my body to scream at me. I hear her whispers and have learned to anticipate her needs.

The 13 joints are the ankle, knee, hip, wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints on the right and left sides of the body, and the spine. We will explore moving our 13 joints so that we each find a pace, depth and way of moving that is most pleasurable for us individually. We explore the sensation of pleasure in every joint as we become familiar with every joint’s range of motion and discover our unique style and expressive self, the choreography of our own dance.

Here is a free student handout on a 13 joint exercise from Nianow.com: 13 Joints Exercise PDF Download

The focus of tonight’s class is dancing the 13 main joints of the body. The intent is to find your own internal rhythm. Move at a pace and depth that feels right to you and take the opportunity to make each movement yours completely.

Join me from 6pm - 7pm at Delilah's Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

Friday, March 4, 2011

A Kickin' Class

The focus of tonight’s class is Nia Kicks: front, side, back and knee sweep kicks. The intent is to strengthen the whole body while having fun.

Kicks build strength by toning the legs, buttocks and abdominal muscles.

Kicks teach you to develop a connection to your base, your feet (connection to the Earth) and to center, prepare and deliver powerful bursts of energy using your entire body.

Tonight we’ll learn to plant and root our feet before delivering a kick. We’ll learn how to use our whole body to support the kick rather than just our leg or back. And we will learn how to protect our joints and spine by using our breath, imagery and proper form.

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

Friday, February 25, 2011

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.

Friday, February 11, 2011

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.

Friday, February 4, 2011

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.

Friday, January 28, 2011

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.


 

Friday, January 21, 2011

Kick It!

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


See you tonight!

Friday, January 14, 2011

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!