The Five Elements

The focus of tonight's class is integrating the energies of the five elements into our dance: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Ether (Spirit). The intent is to stimulate creative movement while moving with the quality of these energies.

Photo from http://www.cinnabaracupuncture.com

Earth - Grounding energy, rooted, body folding or touching the Earth, feet, stability, low plane and palms to the Earth.

Air - Uplifting, raising energy up, imagination, imagery, light, eyes looking up, flexibility, high plane and palms up.


Fire - Passionate, dynamic, energy moving out, poking, sharp, strength, all planes and palms changing direction.


Water - Fluidity, undulating, mobility, soft, emotions, eyes follow hands, wrists and palm, and middle plane.


Ether/Spirit - Breathe, ever-present, fullness, mysterious, agility, all planes, and your unique essence/dance.

Join me tonight from 5:30pm - 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District as we transform the energy of the Nia routine, Butterfly, with these five elements.

The Five Sensations and the Art of Sensing

The focus of tonight's class is the Five Sensations and the Art of Sensing. The intent is to use sensation to learn about your body as it moves and become your own somatic teacher.

The Five Sensations, also knows as FAMSS, are:

Flexibility is the sensation of energy moving outward. It is free, open, elastic and expansive. It is the physical feeling of releasing power and is nurtured by opening your joints.

Agility is the sensation of starting and stopping the movement of energy. It is playful, stimulating and quick. It is cultivated and maintained by quickly starting and stopping a variety of movements.

Mobility is the sensation of energy in constant motion. It is fluid, constant, continuous, alive and free. Mobility is sensed as energy flowing in all directions using a variety of ranges of motion. It is cultivated and nurtured by opening and closing joints in a variety of ways without stopping.

Strength is the sensation of energy moving inward. It is concentrated, powerful, intense, internal and gripping. It is the sensation of containing and sustaining power.
Strength is sensed as a squeezing in or the packing of energy towards the bones.

Stability is the sensation of energy moving from center out all directions simultaneously. It is grounded, solid, calm, rooted, and connected to the earth. It is sensed as readiness for action - a relaxed and dynamic tension of harmony. Stability is nurtured by resting into stillness while seeking balance. It relies on relaxation, postural integration, and optimal alignment of the body.

Tonight we will activate each of the Five Sensations and attuning to the unique sensation of each we will learn to tweak our movements to heighten and sustain the sensations of pleasure and Joy.

Join me for class at 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Form and Freedom: Move it Your Way

The focus of tonight’s class is the exploration of Form and Freedom.

Form is provided by the steps, stances and the short sequences called katas (songs) in the routine. Freedom is the invitation for your unique spirit to inform and stimulate each step and stance you take. In Nia, spirit is defined as your unique self.

I will provide a structure (an option) and you bring your unique spirit to the dance. Class at 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

You are the Creative Source

Nia on Monday eve's at Open Flight Studio is back after a two-week interruption!

The focus of tonight's class is stage 4 of FreeDance (principle 4): The Creative Source - The Real You.

In essence, we are invited to work with our most powerful resource, our internal energy, to initiate and cultivate our movement.

The intent is to recognize that you are your greatest source of movement creativity. This stage asks us to be real with our feelings and simply allow our emotions to guide our movements. We are invited to allow every emotion we are experiencing to fill our form and design our gestures. These gestures become our dance.

Join me tonight at 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Birthday's and Beginning's for a Community Member

Tonight we are celebrating a milestone birthday for one of our community members. She celebrates her 60th birthday on Wednesday but I am not convinced that she is turning 60. She is a beautiful and youthful human being. She has requested the most requested Nia song in my history of teaching: Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Thievery Corporation. We'll be moving and grooving to this tune as we board the spaceship at tonight's class!

According to dictionary.com, a birthday is "a day marking or commemorating the origin, founding, or beginning of something."

In the spirit of birthday's, the focus of tonight's class is the celebration of beginnings. The intent is to be attentive to the beginning of each movement and follow it through in a joyful and celebratory style.

See you tonight - 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Savoring the Sweetness, Dancing my Fullness

In Brooklyn

I am back and ready to dance!

While on vacation visiting family in NYC I had high hopes to dance and learn some new songs and moves. I was able to dance only twice with NY Nia colleagues Jason Alan Griffin and Rachel Duvall. Instead, I spent nearly every day eating, walking, eating some more (including large daily doses of dessert) and walking some more and chasing after my little nephews.

I would not have traded this experience for the world. I had a stimulating and restful (yes, both) vacation with my husband. My one word to summarize this vacation: Sweetness.

We came home late last night and are enjoying easing back into our life in Seattle.

I have been looking forward to teaching tonight for days! In the spirit of coming home, the focus of tonight’s class is dancing your fullness. I am at home. I am happy. I feel full of life, sweetness and joy.

Tonight I invite you to find whatever fills you up and dance from that place. We will pick up where we left off working from music and moves from the latin-inspired routine, Aya.

Bring your bare feet and playful spirit to class tonight from 5:30pm – 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

*A special thank you to my Nia Seattle colleagues Gretchen Musgrove, Jill Pagano and Jackie Thai for covering some of my classes while I was away. I only wish I had been there to dance with you!

Joy of Movement and Dancing Together in Community

The focus of tonight's class is the Joy of movement and dancing together in community.

This will be my last class before I leave for vacation to NYC. Come dance your joyful self with me!

Class tonight Monday June 6 at 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

*I will be back in Seattle with my regular teaching schedule on Monday, June 20th!

The Dance of the Forearms

The focus of tonight's class is movement of the forearm bones. The intent is to sense the spiraling action of these bones and how they add to the unique expression and conditioning of your upper extremities.

The Forearm Bones

I am the voice of your forearm bones – the spiral twins. I exist between your elbow and wrist. By name, I am radius and ulna. Follow your thumb and you ride along my radius. Follow the line of your little finger and you find my ulna. My bones are the only two bones in your body that can spiral around each other. My main function is to rotate your palm. I make it possible for you to push and pull with great power and little effort while protecting the shallow and delicate shoulder joint. You keep me healthy by turning your palms up, down, in and out.

- From the Nia Technique

Here is a student download on the forearms: http://nianow.com/sites/nianow.com/files/downloads/NiaEH_Forearms.pdf?download=1

We will explore palm directions, movements from the wrists, blocks, punches and painting the space with our arms, hands and fingers.

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

Upper Extremities and FAMMS

The focus of this morning’s class is consciously integrating the five sensations into the dance of our upper extremities. The five sensations are flexibility, agility, mobility, strength and stability or FAMSS. The intent is to experience the benefits of balanced movement in your body, which can be sensed as harmony.

Flexibility is the sensation of energy moving outward. It is free, open, elastic and expansive. It is the physical feeling of releasing power and is nurtured by opening your joints.

Agility is the sensation of starting and stopping the movement of energy. It is playful, stimulating and quick. It is cultivated and maintained by quickly starting and stopping a variety of movements.

Mobility is the sensation of energy in constant motion. It is fluid, constant, continuous, alive and free. Mobility is sensed as energy flowing in all directions using a variety of ranges of motion. It is cultivated and nurtured by opening and closing joints in a variety of ways without stopping.

Strength is the sensation of energy moving inward. It is concentrated, powerful, intense, internal and gripping. It is the sensation of containing and sustaining power.
Strength is sensed as a squeezing in or the packing of energy towards the bones.

Stability is the sensation of energy moving from center out all directions simultaneously. It is grounded, solid, calm, rooted, and connected to the earth. It is sensed as readiness for action - a relaxed and dynamic tension of harmony. Stability is nurtured by resting into stillness while seeking balance. It relies on relaxation, postural integration, and optimal alignment of the body.

Join me this morning for my last Saturday morning class at Open Flight Studio. Class from 10:30am – 11:30am. Come early to navigate around the University District Street Fair traffic!

*Next week, I begin my new classes at Community Fitness Roosevelt Studio - Saturday May 28th at 1pm.

The Joy of Movement and Sunshine!

The beautiful Sandra Caldwell, Nia Tacoma

It’s Friday and the forecast calls for abundant sunshine and a high of 72 degrees.

What could be a better class focus than the Joy of Movement?

Joy is the heart, source and inspiration of Nia.

The Joy of Movement is the very first principle of the white belt and the foundation of Nia.

“Joy is different than enjoyment. It is a quality of aliveness. It is an attitude that stops resisting and embraces the reality of the body as it is, and move with the body in such a way to create further joy and pleasure. When you allow this seed of light to sprout in you…you have a context in which to place the dance of your life. Joy is not a technique or choreographic method. It is an attitude toward the body and toward life. It is a reflection of honesty, truth, and health.” 

 From The Nia Technique

Join me tonight in joyfully expressing your aliveness through your dance. Class at 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Free-Spirited Harmonious Movement

The focus of tonight’s class is infusing the movement of our upper extremities with the energies of Aikido and Duncan Dance. Combined, these become free-spirited harmonious movement.

The energy of Aikido is the dance of harmony and elegance.
The energy of Duncan Dance is free-spirited and graceful.

When the two merge, we have the dance of harmonious, elegant, graceful, free-spirited, playful, uninhibited and honest full-body expression.

We play with circles, spirals, and spontaneous movement.  We not only blend with the space but we converse with it using our bodies.

What these two movements forms have in common is harmony. We allow our hands, finger, wrist, arm, shoulder, and chest movements to originate from this place of harmony and joy.

Open your imagination and join me for class tonight from 5:30pm – 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Healing and Dancing with the Upper Extremities

TODAY: Nia 5 Stages Playshop: Upper Extremities 

Saturday, May 14, 2011 – 9:30am - 11:30am at Open Flight Studio in the University District

(regular scheduled Nia class begins at 10:30am and is open to everyone! You do not need to come to the first hour on the Nia 5 Stages to attend regular class but you are certainly invited to do so.)

Please give yourself plenty of time to get to class and do not park on University Way due to the University District Street Fair festivities. 

The focus of today's playshop is the upper extremities. The intent is to explore healing sensations and the range of movements possible with our upper extremities. In Nia, healing is not about curing but about tweaking our movements until we find comfort, pleasure and ease. 

The Nia 5 Stages of self-healing is an integrative practice based on the five stages of human development: embryonic, creeping, crawling, standing and walking. This workshop is dedicated to self-healing and to the using these five movements as stimulation to feel better in your body.

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.

The upper extremities of the body include the fingers, hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, upper arms, shoulder joints, collarbones, and shoulder blade.

During this 120-minute playshop, we will explore how the upper extremities of the body are supported and activated in each of the five stages through the sensations of flexibility, agility, mobility, strength and stability. 

We will then experience an hour-long Nia routine that focuses on the movements from the upper extremities. The routine we will be working with is Velvet. Listen to the music of Velvet. 

Relaxed, Alert and Waiting (RAW)

Embryonic

Creeping

Crawling

Standing

Walking

Jazz'n it up on Friday the 13th

The focus of tonight's class is infusing the dance of upper extremities with the energy of Jazz. The intent is connect with our inner showman/showgirl. Liven up your arm, hand and finger moves with a little snap, crackle and pop!

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

Directing Energy from Upper Extremities

The focus of tonight’s class is directing energy from the upper extremities. The intent is to keep our arms and hands alive and thoroughly engaged as we move.

An example is to direct your energy and movement from your elbow. Sense your elbow, initiate movement from your elbow and feel the energy movement out from the elbow.

We will use our arms and hands to direct energy away from the body, into the body, down to the earth, up to the sky and to explore the space around us. We will keep our movement steady and flowing by using intention, emotion and imagery.

I am currently working with various songs from the routine Velvet and have included songs from other routines that engage the arms, hands, fingers, wrists and shoulders.

Join me tonight for a meaningful and energetic dance of your upper extremities. Class is from 5:30pm – 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Finger Expression

The focus of this morning’s class is our fingers. The intent is to connect with the unique energy of each finger.

Our fingers move and direct energy of the arms. They also wake up the intrinsic muscles inside the hands and arms.

I love this excerpt from the Nia Technique book: “Your fingers, like wands, are magical tools.” I love to call my fingers magical wands.

Each finger represents a unique expression:

Thumb – Nurture
Index – Desire
Middle – Balance
Ring – Commitment
Pinky – Boundaries









Join me for a dance of your fingers. Class from 10:30am – 11:30am at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Give yourself plenty of time to get to class today due to the Windermere Cup traffic.

Palm Directions

The focus of tonight’s class is palm directions. The intent is to work the arms by initiating simple movements with the palms of our hands.

When we rotate the palm in different directions it works the wrist joint, forearm, elbow joint, upper arm bone, shoulder joint and chest. The creative movement possibilities are endless!

The directions of our palms also affects our breath (via the shoulder joints opening or closing). Try this at home:
Take a breath in with your palms up.
Pause.
Then take a breath in with your palms down.
Did you notice a difference?
Was your breathing deeper with palms up or down.

I invite you to join me tonight *high five* in dancing with your palms. Class is from 5:30pm - 6:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Nia 5 Stages Playshop: Upper Extremities

Playshop Flyer

Nia 5 Stages Playshop: Upper Extremities

Saturday, May 14, 2011 – 9:30am - 11:30am

(regular scheduled Nia class begins at 10:30am and is open to everyone)

Location: Open Flight Studio, 4205 University Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98105

Cost: $17 for the 2-hour workshop

Download and share the playshop flyer to the right.

To register, please email me at jennifer@everybodyloveyourbody.com

The Nia 5 Stages of self-healing is an integrative practice based on the five stages of human development: embryonic, creeping, crawling, standing and walking. This workshop is dedicated to self-healing and to the using these five movements as stimulation to feel better in your body.

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.

The upper extremities of the body include the fingers, hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, upper arms, shoulder joints, collarbones, and shoulder blade.

During this 120-minute playshop, we will explore how the upper extremities of the body are supported and activated in each of the five stages through the sensations of flexibility, agility, mobility, strength and stability. We will then experience an hour-long Nia routine that focuses on the movements from the upper extremities.

Relaxed, Alert and Waiting (RAW)

Embryonic

Creeping

Crawling

Standing

Walking

The Sensation of our Upper Extremities

The focus of tonight’s class is the sensation of all of our upper extremities. The intent is to explore how we express ourselves with our fingers, hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, upper arms, shoulder joints, collarbones, and shoulder blade.

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.

To the mental part of you I offer a way to outwardly express what you are thinking and imagining. When your thoughts are free, I am open and relaxed, available to sensations of life. When your thoughts are rigid and fearful I become tight and bound, locked into a solid form. When your thoughts are free to move, to expand, and to dream, I am agile, strong, and powerfully available to help you create.

To the emotional part of 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 energy is magic and fills you either with the power of lightning to become strong, or liquid to become full and soft. 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.

In tonight’s class we will broadly explore our unique sensation of our upper extremities. Over the next four weeks we will explore each of the upper extremities and associated Nia movements in more depth. Tonight we will play with a variety of songs from different routines and I will be introducing three new songs from the routine, Velvet.

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

Dance Your Light, Express Your Radiance

"In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,

where no one sees you,

but sometimes I do,

and that sight becomes this art."

- Rumi

The focus of this morning's class is dancing your light. 

The intent is to connect with and express your radiance. 

Join me this morning in the beautiful natural light filled space at 

Open Flight Studio in the University District.

Sensation of Strength

The focus of tonight’s class is the sensation of strength.

We sense strength as muscle packing in closer to or against the bone, positive tension in the muscles, and as energy moving inward. To experience this for yourself, make a claw with your hands.

The intent if tonight's class is to experience a balance of power and grace in our bodies, which is relaxed not tense.

I have put together a playlist of songs from different Nia routines that evoke strength and grace through both the energy of the song and the movements. We’ll work with the fluid strength and grace of dance and the precision and power of the martial arts. And we will work with imagery and sound.

Through putting this routine together, I was careful to select songs that evoked, within me, a sense of inner strength, empowerment and playfulness. The songs selected are from the following classic Nia routines: Velvet, Aya, Opal, Passion, Canta and AO.

I invite you to join me tonight in exploring the sensation of strength in our dance.

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