Testimonials

I adore Nia! It’s what my body and soul crave. Ever since I steppedinto my first Nia class, I have felt the healing power of Nia in mylife. In 2005, with Nia instructor Susan McCulley’s encouragement, Isigned up for White Belt Training to deepen my practice, and truly givemyself a gift.

I am an independent music teacher with a sizable class of pianostudents. Although many people choose to become Nia teachers at the endof their White Belt training, I chose to simply take the White Belt assomething just for me. It’s very important to me to keep Nia as a“play” activity in my life. Just as a small child’s “play” is actuallyimportant work, which enables them to make discoveries about themselvesand the world around them, I’ve discovered my weekly Nia “play” andWhite Belt Training have enormous benefits for myself, and my work as amusic teacher.

I began teaching in the fitness industry in 1981. I had a passion for exercise, and although teaching aquatics courses, water exercise and aerobics filled that passion, they were based in traditional fitness practices. That unconscious form of fitness ultimately led me to exhaustion, burnout and physical pain.

For many years, Kahlie Sue’s life was haunted by bi-polar disorder. The condition had caused her to self-medicate with marijuana and alcohol since the age of 12. These substances, however, created addiction, and became primary problems themselves.

I grew up in Israel. I have always loved learning, looking forward to my next project, creating and teaching what I know to others. My dance training began at age three. Since then my trainings have been in creative movement, ballet, modern dance choreography and jazz. As a young child I remember myself teaching my friends and siblings–play acting as if I was their schoolteacher.

Eileen Brady is Nia student and Nia White Belt. By day she is Vice President of Ecotrust, and co-owner of New Seasons Market in Portland, Oregon.

Becoming a whole human being in body, mind, emotions, and spirit isa messy, miraculous, and on-going process. It takes a bit of grace tostep into opportunities for personal development. A woman I didn’t knownamed Grace actually led me to one of my own personal developmentopportunities when she invited me to a Nia class. That invitationchanged my life forever.

I am so thankful for Nia in my life. When I began Nia I had no idea that it would become not only a source of personal development, but also one of the fundamental practices I would use to heal myself from a nearly fatal accident.

After taking just two Nia classes, and then the Nia White Belt Intensive, Lynda wanted to quit her fitness job and become a Nia teacher. Nia had changed the way she saw the world.

I drag myself to Marianne Burrows class in Syracuse, N.Y. Can I get through it? My mind and spirit—to say nothing of body—are heavy with fear and depression. My daughter, Laura Lee, has given birth to twins, a boy, Maxx, and a girl, Isabella. They have been in a NICU for some weeks, fighting for their lives. The thought of my daughter losing two children at once is overwhelming.

My Mother was a professional dancer, one of Jerome Robbins’ muses. She was one of the Sharks dancing “America” on the rooftop in the film West Side Story, and at age 12, she was first on Broadway as one of the Indians in the original cast of Peter Pan with Mary Martin.

I was kicked out of dance class at the age of three.