No Thinking Allowed, Just Dance and Change!

The focus of this morning’s class is Stage 5 of FreeDance -Authentic Movement: Change! The intent is to identify our movement tendencies and experiment with new ways of moving.

In this stage we are invited to try new ways of moving by changing our movement radically during a song. We will explore allowing new movement to originate or organically arise from our body and sensation, not from our mind/thought or imagination.

This stage and process is entirely about sensation. We will know our movement has changed when we sense different sensations. No thinking allowed. Just move to the music, sense your body and change!

Let’s play – 10:30am at Delilah’s Belly Dance Studio in Fremont. Oh and check out my banner at the studio :)

Composing Bliss with the Body

The focus of tonight’s class is composing bliss with your body. The intent is to connect with the sensation of pleasure throughout your dance so that you experience bliss through movement.

I was inspired to use this as tonight’s class focus by today’s posting at DailyOm.com. The post is titled “Composing Bliss: Poetry as Meditation” and it spoke to me.

Here is an excerpt: “Sculpting your thoughts into a poem can take you on a journey where your conscious mind is momentarily cast adrift.”
Read the post here.

I believe we can create poetry with our bodies through our dance. Nia can be a powerful catalyst for creativity in movement and opening to bliss!

We will continue working with the routine Aya but shift the sensation from the hips to body bliss.

Leave your mind behind and join me tonight to discover somatic bliss. Class at 6:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

Dancing to Velvet

Last Thursday we explored using our hands as sensory messengers.

The focus of tonight’s class is to continue this exploration and to begin using the hands to direct energy. We'll do this through engaging in movement of:

• the fingers through finger extensions, finger flicks, creepy crawlers, and catching flies,
• the hands through palm directions, webbed spaces, chops and touch, and
• the arms through blocks and strikes.

The intent is to teach you to use your hands to connect your upper body with your lower body, conditioning your upper body, protecting your joints, engaging your core and increasing awareness of using your hands in choreography.

We'll use imagery, sound, and the sensation of touch to dance with our hands.

We will be exploring movement with the Nia routine Velvet. The music from this routine is melodic, rhythmic, stimulating, playful and sensuous.

Listen to the music of Velvet.

Join me in bringing movement to life through your hands.

Class is from 6:30pm – 7:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

Hands as Sensory Messengers

The focus of tonight’s class is our hands. The intent is to consciously direct the flow of energy through our bodies and our dance.

We use our hands to sense, touch, feel, explore the space around us, to express emotion, and direct energy throughout our bodies.

By intentionally and energetically using our hands in Nia, we engage more of our arms and upper body thus gaining greater muscle definition, flexibility, and strength without the use of weights.

I love to dance with my hands. I enjoy the sensation of wiggling my fingers, playing with palms directions, rotating and flexing my wrists and fingers and making spirals with my arms using my hands. Most of all I adore the sensation of touch. I am grateful that my hands allow me to experience the delicious sensation of soft fabrics, a warm clean smooth floor, water, leaves, skin, a soft teddy bear, a piece of fruit, a cotton ball, etc. I could go on and on.

Below is an excerpt from the Nia student handout on the hands:
http://nianow.com/sites/nianow.com/files/downloads/NiaEH_Hands.pdf?download=1

“Like the feet, your hands are the only other body parts that are constantly and physically in touch with the world around you. As sensory messengers, your hands are a great resource for connecting and conditioning your whole body. The hands, which include ten fingers, palms, and inner and outer arches, together with the joints of your wrists, two forearms, elbow joints, and upper arm bones, are all a part of the upper extremities you use to creatively express yourself.

Unique to the hand is a thumb, which makes it possible for you to grab, hold, catch, grasp, throw, push, pull, tear, caress, wipe, juggle, toss, plant, build things, and make love. You keep the hands healthy by using them based on their design.

A fanlike structure, the palms of your hands are designed to fully open and close, moving with mobility and flexibility in strong, stable and agile ways. Tentaclelike, your fingers are designed to wiggle, bend and extend. When used individually, fingers can direct energy to increase flexibility, strength, and balance. Each finger connects you to a specific emotional energy. By integrating the hands into your movement, you greatly reduce the build up of stress that can occur in the neck and shoulders when the hands are allowed to dangle and be carried by the trunk.

Integrate your hands in everything you do to sense dynamic ease, moving from the core and balancing the top, bottom, left and right sides of your body.”

Join me tonight for an energetic exploration with our hands. Class from 6:30pm - 7:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

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.

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.

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.

Sensation of Conditioning

The focus of tonight’s class is the sensation of conditioning. The intent is to experience fitness via joy in the body in a sustainable and pleasurable way.

One of my favorite Nia quotes is:

“It is through love and pleasure that you find the most sustainable fitness, growth, health and transformation.”

In Nia, we experience whole body conditioning not by the philosophy of “no pain, no gain” but rather from the sensation of pleasure. There is no need to feel sore and be dripping in sweat to feel the sensation of conditioning in the body. We invite our body to move in a way that feels harmonious and monitor our body sensations and tweak to increase pleasure and decrease pain or discomfort.

This wonderful short video by Nia co-founders Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas explains 7 ways you can learn how to track the sensation of conditioning in your body:



Join me for an exploration of the sensation of whole body conditioning tonight from 6:30pm – 7:30pm at Fresh Fitness and Dance in Wallingford.

Hands that Touch the Earth

The focus for tonight's Gentle Nia and Nia 5 Stages class is our feet. In Nia, the feet are referred to as "the hands that touch the Earth". Our feet are our direction connection to the Earth and where both balance and movement in our whole body begins. Each foot has 26 bones, 3 arches, 11 muscles, and 7,000 nerve endings that communicate to us through sensation. That's a whole lot of exploration.

Join me tonight for a fanciful foot journeying class from 5pm - 6pm at the Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood.

Sensing and Presence

The focus of tonight’s Gentle Nia and Nia 5 Stages class is cultivating presence through tracking the sensations of pleasure and pain in the body. The simple definition of presence is the state of being present. We’ll be using our breath and the art of sensing to cultivate presence with our bodies. And with this spirit of attention, to make any necessary modifications in our movements to move towards pleasure. Class is from 5pm - 6pm at the Civetta Dance Space in Greenwood.

She Rewards Me With Magic

The focus of tonight’s class is creative movement through sensation. The intent is to celebrate your body’s way.

Yesterday I read and was inspired by a testimonial from a Nia teacher on the Nianow.com website.

Anne Francis, Nia teacher in the UK wrote:

“I teach and practice Nia to explore a side of my life that I had previously largely ignored. I dashed through life to appease the invisible parents, the ruthless society, the crazy world – without realising that my body, the wonderfully magical machine that encompasses my thoughts, dreams and soul yearnings, had such delights to offer me. We're more in step now; I listen more. My body has responded with increased energy levels, deep restorative sleep, muscles appearing from beneath layers of fat, improved scrabble scores, twinge-free meditations and the ability to wear my killer heels without guilt or pain.”
Full testimonial: http://nianow.com/testimonial/nia-testimonial-anne-francis-nia-teacher 


Anne's testimonial resonated with me. I was dashing through life, not to appease anyone, but because I had (and have) so much energy that I craved being in a constant state of "doing." Much of my doing was disconnected from sensation, or body listening, which is why I usually ended up depleted. The practice of Nia has taught me to cultivate conscious and meaningful doing that is based on listening to my body. I follow her prompts and she rewards me with magic. I love how I feel when I move and I find myself dancing a new dance almost every day. It's truly a celebration.


Tonight, I invite you to join me in listening to, responding to and celebrating our wonderfully magical bodies. Let’s dance! 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District.


*This is my last Friday evening class at Open Flight Studio. I am co-teaching the next two Fridays, Decembers 24th and 31st from 9:30am – 10:30am with Jena Hennessey at the Dance Space in Greenwood. 


**On January 7, 2011 I begin teaching my Friday evening class from 6pm-7pm at Delilah’s Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.

Sense, Witness and Adapt with X-Ray Anatomy

The focus of tonight’s class is X-Ray anatomy with the intent to tap into movement variety to create new neuromuscular pathways.

X-Ray anatomy is 10th of the 13 Principles of the Nia White Belt. The goal of this principle is to teach us to see, observe and sense our body alignment using structural anatomy and sensory awareness. To make this happen, we use our eyes, imagination, and intuition to see and perceive the activity occurring beneath our skin. We sense into what is going on with our bones, ligament, and muscles and tweak our movements to create new and different movements that may produce improvements in alignment as well as increased pleasure.

To bring X-Ray Anatomy into your body and life:

Sense
The moment you wake up, become consciously aware of sensation. Go about your day and track the sensations of pain and pleasure. Choose pleasure by consciously placing your bones in alignments that feel good. Listen to the voice of pleasure, which tells you, "This is good. This is a healthy choice - keep doing what you're doing."

Witness
Throughout the day, notice what you are doing with your posture when you feel comfort and pleasurable sensations—notice the alignment of your bones and joints. Pay attention to any level of slight, moderate and acute sensations that feel bad or uncomfortable, and then proactively say "no" to pain. The moment you sense pain and discomfort, shift your bone and/or joint alignment until the sensation of pleasure returns.

Adapt
Play with altering what you normally do throughout the day, while focusing on the desire to feel better. Move your bones and joints in ways that tighten or release your muscles, until you feel more comfort and pleasure in your movement. Remember: Comfort and pleasure are the voices that tell you when your actions are right for you.

Sense, Witness and Adapt: Keep these three things in mind each day, and I promise you will notice wonderful changes in your body and life!

Learn more about Cultivating Comfort with X-Ray Anatomy
By: Debbie Rosas, Nia co-founder

Join me for class tonight at 5:30pm at Open Flight Studio in the University District as we practice self-awareness during movement and listen to the voice of our body to consciously create new ways of moving.