The Dance of the Transitional Generation

The Spiritual Power of Dance by Gabrielle Roth

Photo provided by Nia Technique

Each of us is a moving center, a space of divine mystery. And though we spend most of our time on the surface in the daily details of ordinary existence, most us hunger to connect to this space within, to break through to bliss, to be swept away into something bigger than us.

As a young dancer, I made the transition from the world of steps and structures to the world of transformation and trance by exposure to live drumming. The beats, the patterns, the rhythms kept calling me deeper and deeper into my dance. Being young, wild and free, it didn't dawn on me that in order to go into deep ecstatic places, I would have to be willing to transform absolutely everything that got in my way. That included every form of inertia: the physical inertia of tight and stressed muscles; the emotional baggage of depressed, repressed feelings; the mental baggage of dogmas, attitudes and philosophies. In other words, I'd have to let it all go -- everything. At the time, I was teaching movement to tens of thousands of people and, in them, I began to witness my own body/spirit split.

Between the head and feet of any given person is a billion miles of unexplored wilderness. I yearned to know what was going on in that wilderness, not only in me, but in everyone else as well. And so, movement became both my medicine and my meditation. Having found and healed myself in its wild embrace, I became a mapmaker for others to follow, but not in my footsteps, in their own.

Many of us are looking for a beat, something solid and rooted where we can take refuge and begin to explore the fluidity of being alive, to investigate why we often feel stuck, numb, spaced-out, tense, inert, and unable to stand up or sit down or unscramble the screens that reflect our collective insanity.

The question I ask myself and everyone else is, "Do you have the discipline to be a free spirit?"

Can we be free of all that binds and bends us into a shape of consciousness that has nothing to do with who we are from moment to moment, from breath to breath?

Dance is the fastest, most direct route to the truth -- not some big truth that belongs to everybody, but the get down and personal kind, the what's-happening-in-me-right-now kind of truth.

We dance to reclaim our brilliant ability to disappear in something bigger, something safe, a space without a critic or a judge or an analyst.

We dance to fall in love with the spirit in all things, to wipe out memory or transform it into moves that nobody else can make because they didn't live it.

We dance to hook up to the true genius lurking behind all the bullshit -- to seek refuge in our originality and our power to reinvent ourselves; to shed the past, forget the future and fall into the moment feet first.

Remember being fifteen, possessed by the beat, by the thrill of music pumping loud enough to drown out everything you'd ever known?

The beat is a lover that never disappoints and, like all lovers, it demands 100% surrender. It has the power to seduce moves we couldn't dream. It grabs us by the belly, turns us inside out and leaves us abruptly begging for more. We love beats that move faster than we can think, beats that drive us ever deeper inside, that rock our worlds, break down walls and make us sweat our prayers.

Prayer is moving. Prayer is offering our bones back to the dance. Prayer is letting go of everything that impedes our inner silence.

God is the dance and the dance is the way to freedom and freedom is our holy work.

We dance to survive, and the beat offers a yellow brick road to make it through the chaos that is the tempo of our times.

We dance to shed skins, tear off masks, crack molds, and experience the breakdown -- the shattering of borders between body, heart and mind, between genders and generations, between nations and nomads.

We are the transitional generation.

This is our dance.

The above was originally posted on Huffington Post on May 16, 2011: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabrielle-roth/spirituality-dance_b_862226.html

Trust the Process

"Whether in painting, poetry, performance, music, dance, or life, there is an intelligence working in every situation. This force is the primary carrier of creation.

If we trust it and follow its natural movement, it will astound us with its ability to find a way through problems—and even make creative use of our mistakes and failures.

There is a magic to this process that cannot be controlled by the ego. Somehow it always finds the way to the place where you need to be, and a destination you never could have known in advance.

When everything seems as if it is hopeless and going nowhere . . . trust the process."

- Shaun McNiff

Photo from: www.annahalprin.org

Nia 5 Stages 5-Week Series

Five-week Nia 5 Stages Series 

Sunday evenings starting February 19, 2012 for five consecutive weeks through March 18, 2012

Specific dates: 2/19, 2/26, 3/4, 3/11 and 3/18 

Time: 5pm - 6pm

Where: The Dance Space in Greenwood
124 N 103rd Street Seattle, WA 98133

Cost: $50 for the series or $13 drop-in

Series description:

Nia 5 Stages is a powerful practice to realign and self-heal the body. Through music, imagery, movement and language, this class guides you through five stages based on the natural phases of human development: Embryonic, Creeping, Crawling, Standing and Walking.

This practice is dedicated to self-healing and to using these five movements as stimulation to feel better in your body.

The object of practicing these five simple movements is to prepare the body to become more functional, energetic, and comfortable while doing any movement such as: dancing, walking, running, yoga, martial arts, etc. This practice allows you to sense the natural ability your body has to realign itself and self-heal through movement.

By the end of this five-week series you will have an in-depth introduction to each of the movements so that you can sustain a home practice.

Sign-up for the series, drop-in for $13 or use a class card.

Watch the Nia 5 Stages:

Questions and/or to register: jennifer@everybodyloveyourbody.com

Enjoy the Freedom You Were Born With

Did you wonder why so many people in class looked blissful? And why so many people are commenting here that Nia deserves a second glance? It is because of how inherently healthful it is to free yourself from your restraints and enjoy the freedom you were born with. It gets your body fit without being uncomfortable, and it releases tons of endorphins when you play in stead of always working all the time. Nia offers fitness, but it also offers wholeness, emotional release, joyfulness, vitality and youthfulness. I've worked in the fitness industry for over 2 decades and I've never come across anything that can touch people on so many levels.- Jason Alan Griffin

Photograph by Nia (www.nianow.com)

I feel compelled to share with you a comment one of my Nia colleagues, Jason Alan Griffin, shared in response to a blog post on someone's first Nia class experience (I Tried It: Nia at Athleta Philly). I must say up front that I embrace everyone's comments about Nia - the good, the bad, the confusing! Like the woman who wrote this blog, I felt like a "bad dancer." I do not exaggerate when I say that I lacked coordination and had no idea how to dance to the beat. I have a come a long way in nine years! In my case, I didn't care that I felt awkward and uncoordinated because my entire body was smiling and I felt blown open in the best way possible. It was as if someone finally gave me permission to express my fullest, biggest and most childlike self. But not everyone experiences "love at first Nia" and that's okay. I hope the blogger gives Nia a second chance but if she doesn't then I am glad she tried it once and hope she, like all of us, finds some form of movement that is fulfilling and rewarding. I am sharing Jason's comments because it captures so beautifully how I personally feel about Nia and why I encourage everyone to give it a second, third and fourth chance. Nia changed my life (including my body) and continues to do so in profound ways.

The below was written by Jason Alan Griffin of JAG Healthy Lifestyle:

The one sentence of this blog that struck me as cringe-worthy, was this, "We did have fun. Maybe a little too much, though, as I realized during our third laughing fit that we were the only people in the room who found the class so amusing." Laughter is one of the best things you can do for your overall health, not to mention your abs. And don't be so sure that just because you didn't notice any of the others laughing, that they weren't totally tickled, amused and turned on by the class, because the chances are, they were enjoying it just as much as you were.

The first time I tried Nia, I wasn't impressed either. I come from an athletic background and I found the movements a bit too fluid. I couldn't deny that I was getting a good workout, but I found that I wasn't allowing myself to relax and have a good time because I was so concerned with how I was doing, and even more so with how I looked and how I would be perceived. The truth is, there is much more to be gained through Nia than fitness. Sure you can get a good workout, but you also have the opportunity to move your body like you did when you were a child and didn't have a care in the world. Do you wonder why you laughed like a child during the class? It's no coincidence. Did you wonder why so many people in class looked blissful? And why so many people are commenting here that Nia deserves a second glance? It is because of how inherently healthful it is to free yourself from your restraints and enjoy the freedom you were born with. It gets your body fit without being uncomfortable, and it releases tons of endorphins when you play instead of always working all the time. Nia offers fitness, but it also offers wholeness, emotional release, joyfulness, vitality and youthfulness. I've worked in the fitness industry for over 2 decades and I've never come across anything that can touch people on so many levels.

It is a shame that we, as a culture, are encouraged not to play and have our emotions. But I'm confident that as we become more and more educated, we'll realize that the 'best workout' is not the one that's the hardest or the most painful, but in fact, the best workout is one that can touch us more than just physically. We are not just "bodies" walking around in between "pumps." We are living, growing, feeling, sharing, sensitive beings. Nia addresses that. All of it. That's why the feelings are so rich and unusual. And as I said, I was unimpressed (maybe even a bit frightened) by Nia the first time I tried it. It's a lot for an American man to handle. But I did try it again. And to make a long story short, I've been teaching it now for 15 years. I teach a handful of different types of classes but Nia is the only one where students are constantly commenting on how it feels so miraculous and it changed their lives.

I'll just wrap up by saying that I'm so glad I didn't follow my first impulse, which was to run away from all the things Nia was bringing up for me. I will join the ranks of people who say that the practice has changed and improved my life dramatically.

Belly Dance Basics

Get a head start on our February 2013 Nia and Belly Dancing retreat in Hawaii!

Join Delilah this Saturday for a 2-hour workshop on Belly Dance Basics! 

Saturday, February 18, 2012
10:30am-12:30pm
Delilah's Belly Dance Studio in Fremont
4128 Fremont Ave. N. 

I promise you will be hooked. I'll be there :)!

A Dance of Birth and Reclaiming

For our last evening we put on quite the performance for Kalani Oceanside Retreat guests and staff - belly dancing and a mini-Nia jam with my Nia colleagues Sandra Caldwell (Tacoma) and Maribeth Snell (Alaska) and we all shared a belly dance performance called Circle Beledi - a dance of birth and reclaiming. These are the beautiful women I've come to know and love over the past 5 days. Tomorrow is our last day together and we'll make the most fun of it.

 

 

Tide Pools, Dancing in Nature and Howling at the Moon

Day 4 - Today we danced in and with nature, then we danced Nia twice indoors - once in honor of Life as Art, the four elements and four realms and then for Natural Time and the cycle of nature (full moon tonight). We even howled at the moon. Nia and belly dancing are a beautiful marriage of movement forms/healing modalities - they are true soul sisters. We took a break in the middle of the day to go to the tide pools where a few dancers went snorkeling. Here is a photo of the tide pool area.