The 8-10 Pound Body Weight

The focus of tonight’s class is the head.

The intent of emphasizing and sensing movement from the head is to experience a release of tension in the upper back and neck, improve posture, to stimulate breathing and create the proper energy flow for more free and creative use of the upper body.

When we speak of head movement, we include the movement of the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, brain, teeth, as well as thinking and imagination. The most natural way to move your head and avoid tension is to use your eyes.

With 8 cranial bones, 14 facial bones and our brain, our heads weight anywhere between 8-10 pounds. That’s a lot of weight! We think hear, taste, smell, kiss and see from the head. It is a very busy place.

As infants, 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.

For more, check out this educational handout on the head from Nianow.com.

Join me tonight to experience the grace and power of initiating movement of our bodies from our head. Class is from 6:30pm – 7:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

*Excerpts from Nianow.com material.

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!