Nia Testimonials
Filled with Energy and Joy
In the early 1990s, Bonnie began to suffer from severe, debilitating osteoarthritis. Her doctor recommended exercise and prescribed pain medication, but neither was effective.
“The pain was mostly in my hips,” she recalls. “Then I began to also have lower back pain.”
The sedentary nature of her profession exacerbated the arthritis. “When I started Nia,” she says, “my hips and pelvic area felt frozen from years of sitting at a desk. I love to dance and walk for exercise, but Nia gave me the structure to explore movements I was not familiar with. For example, I began to use my upper body and arms in new ways.”
When she started to do Nia, her arthritic symptoms began to improve dramatically. Her hips regained most of their former flexibility, and her entire body became more toned. She now says, “I do not experience any arthritic pain in my hips.”
Even though she was receiving tangible physical benefits, her primary motivation to continue came from the fact that Nia was simply fun. “I immediately knew this was the class for me,” she notes. “I loved the music. I had taken aerobics classes before and had been very turned off by the music the instructors had selected. I love to dance, and the possibility that I could dance and have such a fun workout thrilled me. I also liked my Nia teacher, Jamie. She was so comfortable in her body that I mistakenly thought she was a dancer by background and training.
“I’ve noticed that I can come to a Nia class feeling a little down, and within the hour my entire mood shifts. My body comes alive and is filled with energy and joy. I feel such a great physical release. My spirit soars with the rhythms of the different musical cultures of the world. I also love the integration of the various martial arts and yoga.”
Despite her physical healing and spiritual growth, fun and pleasure remain the driving forces behind her ongoing practice of Nia.
“In every Nia class,” she says, “I rediscover the creative child that lives within me – and I let her out to play!”
Bonnie, Nia Student
An Effective and Enduring Therapy
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.
To fight the disorder, Kahlie Sue was heavily medicated with conventional psychoactive drugs. “I have been on many medications,” she notes, “and was once over-medicated with seventeen pills daily.” These medications caused negative reactions, primarily torpor and extreme fatigue. At times, they made her feel as if she were existing in a vegetative state.
“The last medication that I was prescribed could absolutely not be used with drugs or alcohol. I stayed with my mom the first weeks of my withdrawal. On the third day of it, she brought me to a Nia class. She made me come.
“I was in tears throughout the entire class, only to realize that it was from true release. I cried through the next two classes. After that, I cried only during the cool-down section. I don’t cry much anymore, and when I do, it’s from true letting go.”Nia became Kahlie Sue’s most effective and enduring therapy.
“Nia has given me a venue in which I no longer have to hit a pillow in a sterile environment just to get release. Nia lets me actually work through emotions. When I was on meds, my emotions were suppressed and energy built up and caused racing thoughts, nervous tics, and compulsive outbursts.
“In Nia, though, I experience an emptying of pent-up energy. Nia is a safe environment in which I can share feelings, and work out difficult issues with the help of other peoples’ points of views, instead of being limited to just the perspectives of doctors.
“Most importantly,” she says, “Nia is a place to worship – not within the boundaries of any organized religion, but with any higher power I choose to focus on that day.”
Her work with Nia has enabled Kahlie Sue to finally understand herself. “Nia has helped me to peel away the layers, and reveal my true self. After shedding these layers, and remaining clean and sober, I now have the true Kahlie Sue to give to my family and friends.”
Nia has, of course, also helped improve Kahlie Sue’s body. She says her body now has “a glow.” Her mother has also become a Nia student, and has lost a considerable amount of weight. “The transformation Nia has made in my 55-year old mother is fabulous,” she says.
However, Kahlie Sue’s primary benefits from Nia are reflected not in her outward appearance, but in her inner life.
“Nia is a workout with your inner self,” Kahlie Sue says. “It is moving meditation. Dance. Therapy. Church.
“I thank Nia for giving me a second chance.”
Kahlie Sue, Nia Student
“I Feel Like a Kid Again!”
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.
The first change in her perspective was the way she perceived exercise. Before Nia, she had worked hard at being fit, to the point of developing an exercise addiction, abusing and injuring her body. She liked the results of exercising–her body didn’t. “I was out of balance, not listening to my body. Nia has shaken up my beliefs about traditional fitness,” she says. “I now prefer listening to my body and moving in a way that fits my energy that moment, rather than pushing, forcing, and pounding during workouts. I realized that I had a lot of ideas that were based on what I had learned from experts, but now I view my body as the expert. I honor what my body needs.”
Nia also changed the way she perceived herself. “I changed how I defined myself,” she recalls. “The artistic, creative and expressive parts of me are now present in the world. Emotionally, Nia has reconnected me to the joy of being alive, and enhanced my self-awareness. It brought out the kid inside me.”
Because Lynda is now forthright about who she truly is, she has gained deeper intimacy with others. “Nia has helped me be more present in my friendships,” she says. “Instead of hiding parts of myself, I am letting friends see who I am and what I really think and feel. Doing Nia has also made me more playful in my relationship with my husband. I now see myself as a beautiful, powerful, sexual woman. For me, Nia is about being truly present in the world and being myself one-hundred percent of the time. No more censoring and hiding!”
Nia has even changed elements of her basic personality. “I used to get stressed out a lot,” Lynda recalls, “and have wicked outbursts of anger, with temper tantrums. Since my Nia White Belt training, though, the need to express myself this way has disappeared. Nia grounds me in the present moment, and I find this calming and centering. I focus on sensing the present and enjoying my daily life.”
Most of all, Nia has changed the way she sees her own body. “I feel so beautiful doing
Nia – and I feel beautiful afterwards. Fat days just don’t happen anymore!”
Lynda, Nia Teacher
Living with Fibromyalgia
“It is a cliche,” Sandy notes, “to say that Nia changed my life – but that’s the truth!”
Since childhood, Sandy had been very athletic. She’d participated in a variety of sports and outdoor activities, as both a player and coach. In July of 1994, though, she suddenly became quite ill, with symptoms of severe muscle pain and weakness.
After several harrowing weeks of diagnostic work-ups, her physicians concluded that she had contracted fibromyalgia, a generally intractable chronic condition that causes excruciating, widespread muscle pain.
“My doctor,” she recalls, “was wise enough to tell me that conventional medicine would probably not help me. She said that each individual must explore every available option.” Thus, Sandy began a long and difficult process of medical exploration. During this period, she was frequently incapacitated by the pain and fatigue caused by fibromyalgia, which can not be effectively treated with conventional medical care.
“The prospect of being a virtual prisoner in my body was terrifying to me,” she recalls. “It took nearly two years of experimentation and severe disability before I discovered Nia.
“As soon as I set foot in my very first class,” she notes, “I was mesmerized. My first reaction was utter amazement that I was even able to complete the class without totally exhausting myself. For the first time in many months, I was able to receive pleasure from physical activity.”
Soon, Sandy was attending three classes every week, a physical feat that previously would have been impossible. “In the beginning,” she says, “I literally had to learn how to walk all over again, and in time I rebuilt and reshaped my entire physical structure. I became convinced that this opportunity to recreate my physical being was truly a gift. Not many people get a second chance.”
As Sandy’s involvement with Nia progressed, she began to experience not only physical improvement, but also mental, emotional, and spiritual growth. “I gradually developed a heightened awareness,” she says. “The attention I gave to my mental, emotional, and spiritual selves was a unique experience for me. Each realm seemed to take on a life of its own, and after awhile I learned how to live amongst all of them together.”
Nia has also had a great impact on her family life. “At the time I became ill,” Sandy recalls, “my three kids were still quite young, and I was scared, frustrated and depressed at my state of affairs. I could do very little for them.” Now, that frustration is over. “These days, there are very few times I cannot participate in my life to the extent I want.”
Sandy Feldstein, Nia Black Belt Teacher
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sandy has been teaching Nia since 1998. She received a Bachelor of Science in 1981, and a Master of Human Kinetics in 1983. She was a charter member of the Ontario Association of Applied Kinesiology, and has been employed in the fields of ergonomics and medical underwriting. She is married and has three children. Sandy has successfully developed a Nia program offered at the University of Toronto, which is a part of a four-year inter-disciplinary honors bachelor’s degree program, teaching every aspect of physical activity and its relationship with health.
Nia in a Piano Teacher’s Life
I adore Nia! It’s what my body and soul crave. Ever since I stepped into my first Nia class, I have felt the healing power of Nia in my life. In 2005, with Nia instructor Susan McCulley’s encouragement, I signed up for White Belt Training to deepen my practice, and truly give myself a gift.
I am an independent music teacher with a sizable class of piano students. Although many people choose to become Nia teachers at the end of their White Belt training, I chose to simply take the White Belt as something 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 actually important work, which enables them to make discoveries about themselves and the world around them, I’ve discovered my weekly Nia “play” and White Belt Training have enormous benefits for myself, and my work as a music teacher.
During the White Belt training I found my mind racing with all the possible connections I could transfer what I was learning in Nia to my work with my piano students. The ideas were coming so fast, I sometimes had to stop right in the middle of class to quickly jot down notes so I would remember it all! I learned early on that Nia had a remarkable effect on unclogging my brain. Frequently, solutions or revelations to challenges have presented themselves with stunning clarity in the middle of a dance when least expected.
After my White Belt training, on my first day back teaching piano, I immediately began using Nia techniques with my first student of the day, an 8th grade boy. When he sat down to practice his scales, I asked him to turn his head to the left as his fingers ascended the keyboard right, and to turn his head to the right as his fingers descended left. This use of the Feldenkrais MethodÒ, which I became familiar with in the White Belt, enabled him to discover for himself how he could shift his torso movement so his body could be more at ease with scale playing.
This boy had had a reserved manner in lessons, and would hold in his emotions. To help him be expressed in his music, I used what I learned from Nia in acting out an emotion as a way to explore. I acted out the emotion in several of the phrases of his Chopin Mazurka, and boy, did that Nia technique bring out more colorful playing from him! I really enjoyed watching the grin spread across his face as we went through this process.
With my second student of the day, a 9th grade girl, I noticed she slumped her shoulders while sitting on the piano bench. Without mentioning her posture, I asked if she could sense her bare feet on the floor and her bottom on the piano bench. Using the Nia technique of connecting with sensation worked instantly — she immediately drew her spine up in the most graceful, flamingo-like manner. Amazing!
With my third student, a 12 year-old boy who plays with a dynamic range of loud, louder and loudest, I used a Nia visualization to tap into dynamics. I asked him to imagine what it feels like to walk barefoot in the sand and then to pretend that the keyboard was made of sand. Voila! Right away his sound become soft, but firm and pleasing to the ear.
In addition to using Nia in my studio teaching, I’ve also discussed many of its principles and how they apply to music studio management and business practices in lecture discussions I’ve led at music teacher seminars.
Before the training, I thought I was pretty good at helping my students use their bodies in effective ways at the keyboard and that I had some pretty good analogies to help them play expressively. My White Belt training has given me a whole new treasure chest of pearls to use that are significantly more effective than what I was doing before. And, best of all Nia has helped me see that this treasure comes directly from me. My life has been immeasurably enhanced by Nia.
Jeanne Jackson, Nia White Belt Teacher
Charlottesville, VA
Nia Saved My Life
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.
In 1994, while I working as an actress and musician in Los Angeles, CA, my sister called me and told me about a new dance practice she was doing. She said every time she danced this dance, she thought of me. When she said the dance was called Nia, I felt energy shoot through my body like a bolt of lightening. Something about what she was telling me made feel emotional, and pushed me to begin to assess what my perceptions were like at the time. Even though I was living a happy successful life, I energetically felt something was needed.
A month later my father developed cancer. I felt it was important be near to my ailing dad, so I moved back to my home town of Portland, OR for what was to be a short-term visit. I began taking Nia classes with Debbie and Carlos, and something just clicked for me — that energetic void was being filled. I stayed in Portland and never looked back.
In 1997 I took the White Belt Intensive. At one point during the training Carlos asked me why I had chosen to take my White Belt, and I said, “I want to be an ambassador for Nia.” I didn’t know what that meant at the time, yet I knew that I wanted to share the power of my Nia practice with others. Little did I know that my Nia practice would also be the foundation that would save my life.
I was cast in a Henry James film in Ireland one month after taking my White Belt, and I planned to become a Nia instructor when I finished the movie. During filming, I was involved in a nearly fatal equestrian accident where I was kicked in the head and suffered a depressed skull fracture with a tear in the dura and a compound fracture of the ulna. I was told I may never recover completely and was lucky to be alive. As a result of the accident, I could barely walk; I could not fly in an airplane due to a vestibular disorder; I could not drive; I was over stimulated easily which resulted in anxiety attacks; in general, I could not rely on who I was. My whole life was dramatically altered, and I had to reinvent myself — body, mind, emotions, and spirit. It was through Nia that I healed myself from the inside out.
The years that followed were very powerful as I worked with my body anew in the Nia way. I took classes, went slow, taught myself how to walk again, and became honored to be in my body in a new way. The Western trained doctors that I was seeing were amazed at my rapid improvements. They said they had never seen such success in such a short time. I know that my recovery came from my body-based Nia practice, my commitment to wisdom, and the blessing of Nia.
In the Fall of 2000 I became a Nia instructor. Soon, I was teaching 7 to 10 classes a week, and took my Blue Belt in 2001 and Brown Belt in 2003. From my experience as a teacher I found the courage to record the music inspired in my body and life. I now have recorded two CDs of original music, and four of my songs are on the new Nia routine CD “Opal”.
In 2006 I took the Black Belt, which is a true milestone for me. Out of that training something soulful has called forth the wisdom of living life as art, and I feel Nia flowing even more deeply through my life. I feel I have become a true ambassador for Nia as I work in Production, PR, and Product Development at Nia HQ. My dream now as an ambassador is to be a liaison between Nia Europe and Nia USA.
My dreams have come true in ways I would have never imagined. The thread through all of my experiences for the past 13 years has been Nia. From my greatest successes to my darkest hours, through Nia I see that my life truly has been art. I have received so many blessings and great teachings from Nia, through the deepening of my form and freedom.
My passion grows daily as I witness the power and joy of our Nia community and the healing power of love. I look toward the global expansion of Nia with much pleasure and vision for potential! May the journey continue as beautifully as it has unfolded thus far, and may we all be Stars in our own hearts.
Shannon Day, Nia Black Belt Teacher
Portland, Oregon, USA
www.shannon-day.com
A Passion for Sharing Movement
I’ve always said that Nia gave me context and confirmation – a place to land with my passion for movement, teaching and community and a place that inspired me to grow in my own unique way and time with the gifts that I have to share with the world.
In 1996 I was teaching my own type of movement classes in Toronto, Canada, which I called Martha’s Mystery Gym. Yet, after a short period of time I found I wasn’t excited about the direction I was taking the classes. I literally said to the Universe, “I think there is already a technique out there that I am meant to teach… I recognize that creating it is not my forte and I don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”
About a month later, I ran into an earlier dance connection of mine, Roberta Mohler, who had just started teaching Nia and she invited me to attend my first Nia class offered by visiting trainer Zeta Gaudet. Being curious about any dance form that put spirit and movement together, I had to go check it out. During the class a tear of recognition and gratitude ran down my cheek – I knew I had found my movement art for teaching. The combination of music, movement and spirit compelled me to register immediately for the next White Belt training with Zeta in British Columbia.
I taught Nia for five-and-a-half years, gaining skill as a teacher and going deeper into my own Nia practice. My daughter Dylann was two years old in March 2002 when I was invited to be a Nia Trainer. I remember sitting in Portland thinking, “Oh my…can I really manage adding another large aspect to my Nia business and raise a daughter with mindfulness?” In a moment I knew that I wanted my daughter to witness a woman living her dreams, living large in the world. It has been a dynamic experience with her. When she attends class she chooses the songs for the Freedance section, she also sends drawings to class for me to share with my students and loves to practice “Tae Kwon Toe” Nia with Daddy at home. I often hear, “Mommy, is this a Nia move? Is this? How about this?” “Yes, Dylann,” I tell her, “Every move is a Nia move!”
I’ve been teaching Nia for over 10 years now and training people in the Nia White Belt for three-and-a-half years. These have been the most rewarding years of my life. I knew that I was called to guide people into awareness and health through movement and Nia gave me the context to realize that vision.
I have always been committed to personal growth, and running my own Nia business while in relationship with a dynamic community of my Nia peers has provided many opportunities to step into roles of leadership, be part of cooperative initiatives, and accept and provide mentoring.
I have stretched my entrepreneurial muscles in all kinds of ways by being a Nia professional. From facilitating the Nia Technique book tour in Toronto in 2005, to connecting with local media for the tour and for other Nia events, to traveling to various cities and towns to introduce the work, to getting the word out about Nia by my sandwich board on the street or giving classes in the local park, I’ve stretched and grown as a professional with Nia.
I also have an amazing community of students who are committed to my classes week after week and even laugh at my jokes – with the occasional groan. Through my work as a teacher and Trainer I have created a web of people who lead me into many new and interesting teaching opportunities. From teaching a three-day course for the Expressive Arts Therapy program at Haliburton School of Fine Arts, to volunteering at the Gilda Radner Breast Cancer Support Centre, to presenting Nia to physicians at the University of Toronto, my Nia work and community is rich and diverse.
Being a Nia Trainer and guiding people through the White Belt training continues to nudge me gently in the direction of mastery. I appreciate the guidance I receive from Debbie and Carlos and Nia headquarters to refine my craft and be all that I can be in this work. I love watching my trainees awaken to the richness and depth of Nia, breaking through personal limitations and inhibitions, committing to live more fully in their bodies and sharing that experiential journey with others.
I believe that living well in our bodies requires a practice of awareness, fitness variety, and pleasure. And I think we really groove when we can do it in community with one another. Nia is a celebration of all of this and more. I feel so blessed to have this as my path!
Martha Randall, Nia Trainer
Ontario, Canada
Dancing Through Pregnancy With Power
In all areas of my life – from my performing career on the stages of New York, to working as a Nia Teacher, to giving birth – my Nia practice has enriched everything that I’ve taken on.
I’ve been a performer my whole life and was always interested in being fit, but I never liked “exercising.” Traditional forms of exercise felt rigid to me, and didn’t seem holistic. So, when I took Nia in 1998 I knew immediately I had found a movement practice that would feed my body, mind, and spirit. And, the expressive freedom of Nia spoke to my performer side. It was a perfect fit.
When I discovered Nia I was pursuing my performing career, auditioning for Off-Broadway shows and producing my own one-woman show. I was also working as a waitress full-time to pay the bills. I decided I’d much rather do something I loved to pay the bills, so in 2000 I took the Nia White Belt Intensive and became a Nia Teacher — I’ve been teaching ever since. I feel so honored to provide people with the opportunity to love themselves through practicing Nia.
Through all the training I’ve done with Nia and all of the wonderful moments I’ve experienced teaching, I still continue to be amazed by the power of Nia. This power was especially apparent to me during my pregnancy last year.
I was so excited to become pregnant right after being married in October of 2005. I was 40, and my husband and I were thrilled that we conceived so quickly after our marriage. Unfortunately, I miscarried two months later. But then I got pregnant again in January 2006, and we had our baby girl Talia on October 11th.
I had the best pregnancy with absolutely no morning sickness or other problems. I truly believe I had such a great pregnancy because of Nia. I think it’s such a shame that so many people (including doctors) treat pregnancy like a sickness and tell women to stop “doing” their lives while they are pregnant. It’s natural to be pregnant, and since my body was used to dancing and I was so strong because of Nia, I saw no need to stop.
I told everyone that I planned to teach Nia right up until I gave birth and I did. I stopped about ten days before Talia came. Of course, I modified my movements in my later months, and I was so blessed to have regular students who happily demonstrated the more rigorous Level 3 Nia moves for the rest of the class for me.
Every day of my pregnancy I repeated the mantra, “Thank you God for a pain-free, joy-filled pregnancy and birth.” The magic of that mantra, my amazing midwife, and the power of my Nia practice contributed to a wonderful birthing experience. Talia came dancing into the world only two hours after my water broke. I had her naturally — without drugs to sedate me and in the water — just as I had envisioned. It was great!
I’ve now returned to teaching two of my classes, and my students are thrilled to have me back. They say they felt so involved in my pregnancy because they watched my belly grow on a weekly basis, and they all told me what an inspiration I was. Wow!
I’m also already completely back to my pre-pregnancy figure, which I also attribute to Nia. I think a lot of that has to do with muscle memory I’ve built through Nia. With my Nia practice I live so fully in my body that my body just knew how to go back.
My pregnancy experience is a potent example to me of the richness of the gifts that I receive by practicing Nia. It was such a gift to be able to dance Nia with my baby inside of me. I feel Talia and I bonded in a special way through dancing Nia together. I encourage other women to share that wonderful experience with their own babies. I’m so glad I have Nia – it’s a gift I give myself!
Toni Condos, Nia Black Belt
New York, New York, USA
Nia Brings Healing, and Passion for Life
My journey with Nia was sparked one day in 1986, when I received an enthusiastic phone call from my dear friend who said that she had discovered something that combined the things I loved – movement, spirit, and fitness — and was a perfect fit for me.
“Denise,” she said, “You’ve got to do this class called Nia! It’s everything you enjoying doing all in one class! It’s tai chi, and yoga, and jazz, and dancing, and breathing! You’re going to love this!”
My friend had just danced Nia with Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, the founders of the then new body-mind fitness practice called Nia. I was so compelled by my friend’s enthusiasm for Nia that within a couple of weeks I was in the Nia White Belt Intensive–even though I had only seen Nia on a video! I took a leap into the unknown based on my intuition that Nia was going to be a perfect fit for me – and I’ve never looked back, I’ve just kept spiraling upward!
At that time, I was a partner in building a resort retreat based on well-being, and the connection of the body and mind. Nia seemed the ideal fit for our philosophies on the body-mind connection and how it can affect all realms of our being and the way we walk through life.
At first I thought I was doing the White Belt training just to have the understanding of the body of work that is Nia in order to apply it to various aspects of the wellness retreat. Yet, I soon found it was a personal growth tool that served me well though many challenges in life. I also found that to sharing Nia with others as a Nia Teacher brought me great personal joy. I saw changes in my body and in my life as I taught Nia. And, I saw changes in the bodies and lives of my Nia students.
When I discovered Nia, I was also in the middle of a 29-year career in corporate marketing and community relations, with lots of stress and tension and deadlines, and lots of people around me who were also stressed out and tense. I began teaching Nia for myself, as an outlet of stress. Soon, my colleagues began attending my classes. Not only did we all feel better doing Nia, but also we functioned better mentally and emotionally, and our interactions with each other changed to a more positive dynamic. It was a transforming experience in personal ways, and in our workplace.
Along with the personal growth and fitness that I gained with Nia, I also experienced the healing power of Nia first hand and in a big way.
I was in a dramatic car accident where a drunk driver going 90 miles an hour slammed into the passenger side of a car I was in. I was the passenger. I walked away from the accident thinking I was unscathed…without even going through a medical examination. Nearly two years later, I began to develop acute neck pain, numbness in my right leg, and pain and numbness in my right arm and hand. I went to doctors and chiropractors who told me my spine was so severely pushed to the left that I might never be able to correct it, even with a series of surgeries. Several surgeries were suggested, along with a few other radical treatments and many admonishments that I might never be able to turn my head to the right again, or that I might only be able to temporarily alleviate the pain and needed to learn to live with it.
I began to see a chiropractor, a Chinese medicine doctor, and acupuncturist – and I began to practice Nia diligently five to six days a week. When all three the medical practitioners had completed their work and had seen all the improvement everyone thought possible (and I had improved a great deal), I continued to practice Nia. I observed quite dramatically that when I didn’t do Nia for a few days or a week, I once again experienced acute pain and stiffness, and began to feel numbness in my right arm and hand. After doing a week or two of Nia the pain was alleviated 90% or more.
Over years of practice and experimenting with my Nia conditioning, I have fully healed my neck and spine. In the process, I’ve also gone from being a person who dedicatedly worked out with machines and in aerobics classes five times a week as I gritted my teeth through it all because I knew it was “good “ for me, to someone who joyfully anticipates my next Nia class because of the way it makes me feel inside and out — even after 20 years!
As one of the Nia Education Trainers, I’ve taught many thousands of classes over the past two decades – and with each class, each studio venue, each White Belt training, I see the same results — when people practice Nia they experience changes in their lives and bodies, they experience greater joy, comfort and ease in life, and they make commitments to themselves and for themselves that become life practices. And, when my students take the Nia White Belt training for personal growth or because they, too, want to share Nia with others as a Nia Teacher, I am always struck by how their lives are deepened and enriched by the Nia experience in ways that can be observed and sensed by others.
The healing power of Nia cuts across all ages, all cultures, all abilities, and all situations. I have taught people in wheel chairs, women in abuse shelters, children at camp, cancer patients, joint replacement support groups, students with Alzheimer’s or dementia, golfers and tennis players, men who “hate” to dance, battered children, patients with fibromyalgia. I see the same results over and over again. Regained personal joy. Rediscovered physical freedom. An outlet for self-expression. A tool for self-healing.
Nia is a small stir in my soul. It is a whispered purpose in my body. Nia’s teaching of “Now I Am” is a mantra that plays in my mind as I walk, jiggle, flow, strut, sway, ooze, twirl, float, spin, melt, thrust, and pulse from my body as I dance thorough life. I am empowered daily by the choice I make again and again to truly LIVE my life in this body that is such a magnificent home to what is Divinely me!
Come make the choice with me! What are you waiting for?
Denise Medved, Nia Trainer
Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA
Trained Dancer Finds Her Own Expression in Nia
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. With a successful dancer for a mother, it was inevitable that I would be involved with dance early in life.
Beginning at age 3, I was in ballet class several times a week through my growing-up years. In my teens, I studied Modern Dance and Jazz. And, although I was quite talented, being given solos and spotlighted in recitals, I always heard a little girl’s voice in my mind telling me that my mom (with whom I am very close and otherwise non-competitive) could probably nail any combination just a bit better than I was able to. So, throughout my life I could never quite own my dance, or feel that I was really a dancer – until I found Nia.
I took my first Nia class while on vacation at the Rancho La Puerta resort in 2002, and was compelled to return to the ranch each year for four years to experience Nia. Then I realized it wasn’t enough for me to take Nia class only three times during one week out of the year – I knew that Nia could mean more to me.
I saw on the Nia website that there was going to be a retreat held on a Greek island in October, 2006 so I signed up immediately. I knew no one on the trip, and didn’t realize that I was going to be in the company of some of the best Nia Teachers and Trainers. Taking Nia classes with these high-powered Nia people was a huge leap from taking classes at Rancho La Puerta!
Meeting these ladies and taking two classes a day led by Nia Trainer Denise Medved in Greece fueled my Nia passion. After class one night, Denise suggested that I pursue a White Belt Intensive Training to explore where that might take me in my personal Nia practice, and possibly become a Nia Teacher. It seemed like a giant step to become certified to teach, because I had taken only 12 or so Nia classes ever! Yet, I gave it a lot of thought, I prayed about it, and at the end 2006 I signed up for the March White Belt Intensive in Hendersonville, North Carolina. I decided I was worth working on – Nia had reminded me that my personal dance was worth cultivating.
I arrived in North Carolina knowing I was exactly where I needed to be, at exactly the right time. Now I know we in Nia refer to this as Natural Time, which I learned in Day Two of the White Belt. Everything I heard and learned during my week in the White Belt intensive deepened my personal Nia practice and I know it will benefit my future students.
I am not the same woman who left Rancho La Puerta seeking more Nia. Nia has become my passion, my recommended daily requirement of movement, and soon it will be my profession as a Nia Teacher. I have never appreciated my body more, never felt so comfortable in my body, and never loved my body as much as I do today. In Nia, I do not compare myself to anyone, I simply revel in my dance – this is life changing for this daughter of a dancer!
Linda Casto, White Belt
Malibu, California, USA
Teacher Finds Nia a Perfect Fit For Life and Class
When I heard about Nia for the first time I was curious, excited, interested, and tired! I had been dancing on a huge outdoor dance floor under giant redwood trees at the California Brazil Camp (a camp for learning Brazilian drumming and dancing) for a few days and my body was happy, and also tired and sore. Gabriela Masala, a new friend I had made at camp, told me about a holistic fitness practice called Nia. Her description of Nia being for both body and mind intrigued me, and I already felt I wished I practiced Nia for my body!
To my delight, when I returned home to Wisconsin, I found a Nia instructor in my own city. During my first class, my gut told me that this was the thing I’d been waiting for — I had spent years trying to create my own form of fitness fused with dance, and while what I created was always fun, it was always missing something. I felt Nia was created for me personally, and gave me the perfect fusion of fitness I had been looking for. Nia spoke to my spirit, and it spoke to me as Jessica the athlete, Jessica the dancer, and Jessica the educator.
I shared my Nia experience with my mom, who has had two knee replacements and was looking for healthy ways to get cardiovascular exercise. Nia seemed perfect for her, too, and in August of 2006, my mom and I did the White Belt Intensive with Nia Trainer Denise Medved. It was so great to share that experience with my Mom. I knew I wanted to teach Nia, and right after the Intensive training I was off to Brazilian camp again. I started studying my first Nia routine on the airplane ride to camp. When I returned home two weeks later, I taught my first class in Wisconsin. I am now not only a vocalist and high school teacher, I am also a Nia Teacher — I love it!
I have integrated Nia into so many aspects of my life, including my personal work as a performer, and my work as a high school vocal music director, dance team coach, and musical theatre director.
I love the way that I can layer Nia over all of the work I do. My classroom rules are now the four Energy Allies that I learned in my Nia White Belt Intensive, and I use Nia to help my students (particularly the boys) to be more comfortable with movement in our musical theatre performance group. I also love to use Nia in my warm-ups with my dance team. The precision required for such a group is quite demanding on the body, and the girls love the freedom of expression and release they get when we practice Nia.
Public education doesn’t leave a lot of room for expressive arts and as a vocal music director I’m fortunate to be a part of my student’s arts experience. Nia has brought me even deeper into that relationship. I am excited to continue my work with teens in my home area as well as in other schools. It’s a perfect fit! I’ve always been a teacher, and Nia has changed how I approach my work. It has opened up a whole new world for me and somehow brilliantly integrated everything I was already doing with a wonderful mind-body practice that speaks to every fiber of my being.
Jessica Fashun, Nia White Belt
Oostburg, Wisconsin, USA
A Passion for Sharing Movement
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. In 1984, as a result of being in the traditional mode of exercise, I severely injured both my knees. I had numbed myself to my body’s voice of pain, which led me to requiring surgery.
Then, in July of 1991, I was really on the edge of quitting teaching. I attended the IDEA Fitness Conference and I saw a sign that said ”Body, Mind, Spirit Workout.” I had not seen the word ‘spirit’ used in any other courses offered. Immediately, my curiosity drew me to take the workshop. It was a Nia workshop, and I clearly recall watching Debbie and Carlos enter the room and sensing every cell of my being recognize their radiance. They took the stage, and did something unheard of at that time in the fitness industry – they invited us to take off our shoes and move barefoot.
Those first barefoot seconds of passionate movement had my hurt knees saying “ahhhhhhh” as they experienced healing through movement. After tearfully dancing a deep healing awakening, I registered for the White Belt Intensive. I sensed a deep knowing within myself that Nia had much to teach me.
I was truly transformed from my White Belt training. My exercise students eagerly wanted me to share Nia immediately, so I jumped right in … only this time with a mindful and conscious Nia Heel Lead. The seeds of awareness were planted in me from my White Belt training, and I moved in an entirely new way. My energy and passion to teach soared.
My white belt experience reminded me I had personal work to do and every part of my being said, “Sign me up for more!” so I did. I eagerly attended the Blue, Brown and Black Belt trainings in annual succession. The year that followed each belt continued to remind me of ways I could pay more attention personally and professionally to my healing journey.
In February of 1997, after years of practicing Nia and many hours of teaching, I was blessed with the honor of becoming a Nia Trainer. Words merely cannot express the infinite gifts my heart receives from the privilege of being a Nia Trainer.
I now deliver about eight White Belt Intensives per year, and I continue to stand in awe of the process at every single training. My heart feels expanded physically and energetically when I guide trainees through the magic of Nia, and watch them develop themselves, and embark upon a path of movement medicine and living radiantly.
I am deeply grateful to Nia. Every tool and principle I have learned through Nia has enhanced my life force. I practice the principles of Nia with my husband in running our scuba business of 26 years. I travel internationally teaching Nia, and I am passionately in love with what I share. I sing professionally and am a motivational keynote speaker, as well as a Rising Star energy practitioner and Yoga teacher. My ability to balance all that I love I owe to the teachings of Nia.
I am honored to joyfully dance in the sea of life with all of you!
Winalee Zeeb, Nia Trainer
Lansing, MI, USA
Whole-Being Healing For an Adventurer and Entrepreneur
The very first time I danced Nia, I was filled with tears of joy and also tears of letting go of pain. What I experienced was so freeing, so in flow with my spirit and felt so good to my body that I knew I had found something more than an exercise program. I’d found something for my whole being. Since that day, I have kept dancing Nia and I have no pain in my joints or body, only Joy!
My wife, Deb and I are adventurers, and we own a very successful construction company. I’ve always kept my body strong so I could pursue adventures and run our business. Before I found Nia, I had been working out in gyms for 20 years with various trainers. About a year ago I began to feel bored with my exercise program. My body joints were inflamed and I had an inguinal hernia on the rise. I had prostate surgery in May 2006 and afterward I went back to working out in the gym. Instead of feeling better, my workouts were making me feel worse.
I felt it was time for a change, so I called my long-time fitness trainer over Christmas 2006, thanked him for everything he did for me and let him know I wanted to pursue other opportunities. I did not realize until after I made my decision to quit my long-time fitness practice that letting go of my old path of exercise would open up the opportunity for a new path with far more than just exercise as the benefit. It would open up the opportunity for whole-being fitness – Nia!
Two weeks before our vacation in Sarasota Florida, I had surgery for the inguinal hernia. It was January, 2007. In Sarasota, Deb and I discovered Nia.
After discovering Nia, Deb and I wanted to keep practicing. There is no Nia class near our home, so we bought the Nia routine, Global Unity, on DVD and worked out with it every week. After dancing to Global Unity the first time, led by Nia founders Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, I was really taken by the Joy of Movement they shared in the workout, and I knew I wanted to meet them and take the Nia White Belt intensive.
In June, Deb and I attended the White Belt intensive in Portland, Oregon with Debbie and Carlos. The depth and thoughtfulness of the Nia program really took my breath away. Debbie and Carlos are fantastic trainers and people. Since the White Belt, I feel I am more in synch with my own rhythm, and I manage stress better. From consciously experiencing the Joy of Movement in the White Belt, I feel like John Travolta going down the street in Saturday Night Fever – full of total joy and power!
As I am embodying the Nia principles and sharing them in my life, I’m seeing my friends and family smile and resonate with me even more. Also, Deb and I attending the training together was an amazing thing to deepen our relationship. We’ve been married for 30 years and have had many adventures. Doing the White Belt together was a whole new adventure for us as individuals and as a couple. It has meant a lot for our relationship. I love dancing Nia with Deb every chance I get.
Although I went into the White Belt for personal growth, I found that the principles and practices are really applicable to business and can be used to create a space where people are happy and therefore creative and productive. I see the connection between my business relationships and my Nia practice. I now have a vision of Nia dancing with a heavy construction piece of equipment such as an excavator – just for the Joy of it! The Joy I feel dancing Nia is awesome. I am so thankful for the Joy I feel from my Nia experience.
Barry Schlouch, Nia White Belt
Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, USA
Living the Dream – Being a Dancer and Sharing Power
As a child, I knew I wanted to dance, but didn’t have an opportunity to take dance classes because my family lived in remote places overseas where lessons were not available. Yet, I had passion for dancing, so I spent my growing up years playing records, dancing in my bedroom, dancing in the living room, dancing everywhere that I could. A powerful dancer was in me and needed an outlet.
I did not get a chance to take a dance class until I was in college. I majored in Dance for two years at the University of Texas, but my lack of earlier training kept me from excelling. After two years, I quit.
In the early 1980s, to quench my thirst for movement, I got into the fitness industry and became an aerobics instructor. As an instructor, part of me was satisfied because I was moving; yet I was not doing what my spirit really wanted to do. It wasn’t until I experienced the unique dance movement of Nia that I realized I’d let my dream of being a dancer slip away, and I became inspired to fulfill my dream again…
Nia came to me in 1993 after 11 years of teaching aerobics and leading a successful career in fitness. I was in a transition period of my life where I was back in school and pursuing a degree in kinesiology and health education. I was heavily involved in running the University of Texas Aerobics club where I taught step-aerobics, hi/lo, and conditioning to both students and faculty. I had acquired many credentials as a fitness instructor and personal trainer. I was highly respected by my students and peers, and my classes were well attended. I was known as a “hard teacher who gets results.” Even with all the success I was having, it was clear to me something was missing. There was a sense of emptiness in what I was doing, and I had no idea how to fill the void I felt. Then, I met Nia.
As a graduate student, I attended a professional health promotion conference were Deborah Kern was giving a lecture entitled, “The Motion in Emotion.” Deborah spoke about The Nia Technique and discussed one of the fundamental aspects of Nia, the Pleasure Principle–how the human body can find pleasure in movement. She asked all of us in the lecture hall to stand up, move, and flow with our spines. She asked us to open our arms up to the sky and notice the smile on our faces. She asked us to sense our bodies and notice places of comfort and discomfort as we moved. There was little room to move in that lecture hall, yet even the small amount of movement I was able to do inspired me in the direction I had been seeking. I watched Deborah move with a quality and presence that I wanted. Without a doubt, I knew I had found my way, and Nia was it.
I called the Nia office the next day and arranged to be at the next available White Belt training. That training launched me into teaching Nia classes. I quit teaching aerobics classes, and I never looked back. Now, 14 years later, I have a rewarding and passion-filled career as a Nia Teacher and Nia Trainer.
There are so many ways Nia has touched my life. Physically I have used Nia to self-heal from all the overuse injuries I had acquired in my former life. The repetitive movements of step aerobics and running had eroded the cartilage in my knees. My feet, my low back, my upper spine, my neck, and my shoulders were all seized with tension from pushing so hard with my body, always striving toward a particular heart rate, or a particular weight. As a professional in the field of fitness, I was particularly prone to over-doing exercise. With Nia, I have healed many parts of me, and I am continuing to experience healing.
Mentally, Nia has helped me recognize the power of my mind. The Nia practice of noticing how I speak to my body was the first step. Learning to listen to my thoughts was the second. This mental clarity is directly responsible for the life I lead now as a Nia Teacher and Trainer.
Emotionally, I am more varied since beginning my practice of Nia. The mono feeling of sadness that I had when I began Nia has evaporated and has been replaced with a rich emotional life. The practice of FreeDance and the integration of sound and gesture in Nia classes have helped me expand my emotional expression. I notice and trust my feelings now.
Spiritually, I now have an even deeper appreciation for this life I have because of my Nia practice. I am continually curious about the next unfolding and have been able to exterminate the fear that kept me from acting before. Nia taught me to trust my courage, and Dance Through Life!
Most importantly, Nia has made it possible for me to make a difference to the world. I have the great privilege to work and play with many, many Nia teachers and students. Just as Deborah Kern opened the door to Nia for me, I now open the door to Nia for many students and trainees. As a Nia Trainer, I witness time after time the power of the 13 Principles of the White Belt to heal and empower body, mind, emotions, and spirit. I watch people come awake as I did in my White Belt. I witness and support people in their own dreams of being dancers and helping the world. My reward is to see the joy, the insights, and the community that builds as the spirit of Nia moves through me and out to others. And, I have reclaimed my dream–I am a dancer, and will be for life!
Holly Curtis, Nia Trainer
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Ageless and Strong with Nia – 74 Year–Old Nia Teacher Dances Through Life
I was 58 years old and about 20 pounds overweight when I took my first Nia class in 1991. I was certain that I would be the oldest and fattest person in the class, and I wasn’t! The class was full of all ages and types of people – young, old, fit, becoming fit–and I was made to feel completely welcome, like I belonged there. I left that first class feeling exhilarated and inspired to come back for more. From the spark ignited in that first class, Nia became a great part of my life, and I eventually became a Nia teacher at age 71. I will be celebrating my 75th birthday in January 2008, and I may be the oldest Nia teacher practicing and teaching, which is a great testament to the power of Nia for people of all ages.
I’ve been an actress and dancer since I was a child. When I discovered Nia, I was acting and going on tours, sometimes for six weeks. As soon as I’d get home from a tour, I’d go downtown for my Nia class “fix”. The more I danced Nia, the more I noticed that little aches and pains disappeared. I even lost weight and toned up. Mostly it was fun. I enjoyed the playfulness, the exploration, and the invitation to find my own expression.
Then, in January of 2004, when I was turning 71 I took the White Belt Intensive. For some time my friends at Nia had been telling me that I would love the White Belt, and Debbie and Carlos assured me I’d be able to handle it in spite of my advanced years. I took the plunge. What an extraordinary experience it was, putting much of what I’d learned in a new context – bringing it all together – and adding new information.
In the White Belt I began my journey into a deeper understanding of music, a deeper understanding of how and why Nia taps into Joy. It was so beautiful for me to connect with the other White Belt students, who accepted me fully, even though I was eldest in the group.
Before I went into the White Belt Intensive I had no intention of teaching Nia. Yet, during our last exercise of the White Belt, as we were Free-Dancing (letting the music and our bodies guide us) I felt an intuitive hit to be a Nia Teacher. I’ve learned to trust moments like this. I had been teaching one thing or another most of my life, so why not teach Nia?
I started teaching shortly after receiving the White Belt. Teaching gave me a new and deeper level of experiencing the benefits Nia has to offer. I have become stronger and healthier in body, mind and spirit from teaching. Just recently, a student remarked that I seem so calm despite situations that could be quite upsetting. I attribute this to the centering and balancing techniques I practice. I have become a better dancer, yogi and listener of music through my Nia practice.
I teach people of all ages. My “seniors” – aged 55 and up–relate to me as a contemporary who is an example of their possibility. It is most gratifying to see them overcome difficulties in balance, heal stiffness in joints and other age related conditions. They love the non-competitive atmosphere and the invitation to choose their own level of activity. Some of my students are quite lonely, having lost their spouses, and take Nia classes for the community spirit. In fact, one of my classes has instituted a practice of going to the coffee/tea room after class to share snacks and conversation.
The classes I teach at a community college are equally exciting. Younger people tell me I inspire them; they want to be just like me when they get to be my age. One of the requirements of the community college Nia course is to keep a journal of their Nia experience. From those journals, I could put together a book of the miracles that have occurred through people dancing Nia.
I’ve gone on to take other Nia intensives: Blue Belt, Brown Belt and two FABs (For All Belts). Each intensive has been healing, energizing, informative, and transformational. I will continue to study as long as I can. Somehow, I seem to be getting stronger and younger instead of older and weaker. Does Nia have anything to do with this? Yes!
Kaycheri Rappaport, Nia Brown Belt and Nia Teacher
Portland, Oregon, USA
Moving with Grace, Passion, and The Art of Change
Becoming a whole human being in body, mind, emotions, and spirit is a messy, miraculous, and on-going process. It takes a bit of grace to step into opportunities for personal development. A woman I didn’t know named Grace actually led me to one of my own personal development opportunities when she invited me to a Nia class. That invitation changed my life forever. I am now inexorably linked with the power of Nia.
In 1996 I was looking for something new in my life, something that would give me a richer, deeper and more empowered way of living. Grace invited me to attend a Nia class with Holly Curtis at the studio called NiaSpace in Austin, Texas. I went to the class expecting to see Grace. She never showed up. She was simply an angel of grace who led me there.
I didn’t fall in love with Nia my first time. I was more in my head than my body at that time and I was filled with thoughts. “What is this place?” “Who are these people, and why are they shouting, ‘YES!’ and ‘NO!’ ?” “Do I belong here?” I left my first Nia class feeling unsure about whether I would return. Thankfully, the grace of curiosity guided me back a few days later.
In the next class, I felt different. We danced and moved through the room, sometimes making sounds, and at one point we all stood in a circle. I stood next to Holly, and this time I looked at her, I really looked at her, and I thought, “I do not know what Nia is, but if this passionate, sensual, articulate, integrated and grounded person does Nia, there must be something to it.” As I moved in class, my mind relaxed, my body came more alive with every shimmy, hip-bump, sound, and move to the World beat music that filled the room. I had found passion in my body, and I was hooked!
I took my White Belt six months after I began Nia classes and found what I was looking for–a life practice rooted in Joy and self-discovery. Even though I was a dancer, I had never wanted to teach dance, and yet with Nia, I saw how accessible this form is to so many people, and that inspired me to share it.
What I didn’t know was how sharing Nia would enhance everything in my life–my art, my friendships, my energy level, and my dream of a radiant and truly ecstatic way of living.
As a dancer and performance artist, I had never before been able to blend my vocation with my avocation. Nia offered me a way to do this. I have had so many different kinds of jobs to support my desire to live with art. I’ve been a waitress, cook, insurance claims examiner, EMT, just to name a few. Through it all, I always danced, moved, and made art, but until I found Nia I had never seen a way to be paid for what I do best, and Nia offered me this.
I began teaching three months after doing my White Belt. I started teaching at NiaSpace and World Gym in Austin. In my first class, I had one student. She left halfway through the class. In my second class, I had two students. – One left halfway through the class. I didn’t take it personally, and I kept going. I kept teaching, getting more students, and gaining knowledge by going through the Nia Belts. Four years later, I completed my Nia Black Belt and I began living my life in a different way – as Living Art. In 2001 grace moved through my life again, and I was invited to become a Nia Trainer.
As a Nia Trainer I have the opportunity to share and practice the art of change. I myself change with each training that I lead, and I help ignite the dreams of the attendees who desire to change themselves and the world we live in. As Nia practitioners, we are in the business of changing lives; and we begin with self. When I look at the vast body of work that has been co-created for us to use and share, my inspiration is high and my gratitude is immense.
Through Nia I have learned that the most important thing that I can do with this work is to bring people together. I moved my practice and my life from Austin TX, to Portland, OR to work as Operations Manager and Studio Director. I work with the founders of Nia, Debbie and Carlos and the entire staff of the Nia Technique Headquarters office. Everything I have ever done has prepared me for what I have been called here to do.
Grace brought me to Nia, and Nia called me to support her people in a bigger way than I ever dreamed. I came into the Nia world as a skeptic. Sometimes the hardest skeptics become the truest believers, and this is what occurred for me. I have aligned my body and my life with the spirit of Nia. Nia called me to be where I am now and is leading me to my highest self and my deepest gifts.
Liz Ganz
Nia Trainer
Portland, Oregon, USA
Nia Provides ‘Something More’ in Dancer’s Life
“Roberta, you’ve got to do Nia! It’s all that you love and do, plus something more!” It was 1995. I was teaching at an exclusive fitness club for women in Toronto, Canada. Helen, one of my favorite Dance & Stretch class students, said those words to me. She had just returned from her third annual visit to the Rancho la Puerta resort in Mexico where she had taken Nia classes from Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, the founders of Nia. Each time she returned from a trip to do Nia at Rancho la Puerta, she raved about Nia to me. She finally got my attention when she described Nia as “something more”, something different than what we already taught at the fitness club.
I had been a modern dance performer and choreographer for 20 years and a fitness teacher for 10 years. I felt that I was doing a good enough job and couldn’t imagine what that “something more” could be. Helen brought me a Nia workout video called Jingo. I watched it. It had great Latin music and the moves were fun. I pulled out all my Latin tunes and created my own mock Nia class, then taught it to Helen and the Dance & Stretch class.
Afterward, I asked Helen, “How was it? How was my first Nia class?” She replied that it was very good, but there was still something missing, that there was something more. That was it. I had to know what the ‘something more’ was. I signed up for the next available Nia White Belt training in Portland, Oregon led by Debbie and Carlos.
September, 1995. I took the training specifically for the purpose of teaching. After all, I was already an experienced fitness teacher. The major thing I gained from the training was that Nia is held in the context of joy, your body’s way and healing through movement. None of my previous training and experience had focussed on those aspects. I was able to ascertain my personal strengths and weaknesses. I was motivated to learn more about martial arts and healing modalities, particularly yoga. I also got to take standard Nia classes with Debbie and Carlos. Their enthusiasm, their skill and their joy of movement were inspirational.
I watched Debbie walk into the room at the beginning of the first class, and I thought to myself, “I’ll have what she’s having”–power, grace, confidence and knowledge. I wanted to be able to offer that empowerment to others. Carlos guided me into my sensations to gain information and move in a variety of ways to begin healing my chronic neck pain. In the past I had combated pain as an enemy. Now I had tools to be kinder to my body and work with it to bring it to excellence. And yes, my neck still lets me know when I’m overdoing or stressing, and yes, I can find ways to heal it.
What was that ‘something more’? It took me a couple more years to really understand. Finally I knew. It was awareness, listening to my body and moving the way my body wanted to move, moving for pleasure. As a dancer I had been trained to do the steps and make the shapes at any cost. I was an expert at ignoring physical and emotional pain signals. I particularly enjoyed that Nia doesn’t make artificial demands on the body the way dancing does. The beauty of Nia became clear for me when I began to teach what I was sensing. I had to really be in my body and guide myself with awareness. I certainly did not want to guide others into a painful, mindless experience. I wanted to share the best that dance, movement, and I had to offer.
I knew I wanted to become a Trainer during my White Belt training. A trainer is someone who not only teaches students, but someone who can facilitate the Belt trainings, an awesome challenge, but one that I was prepared for. I would need to take the Blue, Brown and Black Belt trainings. I plunged into the process, took my Blue Belt training in Martha’s Vineyard, MA with Dani Riposo. It was delightful experience.
1998: My Brown Belt training with Debbie and Carlos in Portland was my most challenging experience, with moments of exquisite clarity regarding the blending of masculine and feminine energy.
1999: the required 13 months later. I took the Black Belt training, once again with Debbie and Carlos in Portland. It definitely helped me break habits with the exciting emphasis on creativity and transformation, and spontaneity.
Two years later, I achieved my dream to become a Trainer. Debbie and Carlos invited 25 people who had expressed clear intent to become trainers to a TRAINING FOR TRAINERS IN Portland, Oregon. The process and commitment was intense, and I was ready for it!
I continue to teach classes, and as a certified Trainer, I have brought over 100 people through the White Belt. Each White Belt group offers me new insights about Nia’s depth and richness. I don’t think of myself as the leader or the expert. I think of myself as another learner who has walked the path many, many times. Sometimes I feel like a ‘Mid-life Midwife’ when I see people rediscovering their creativity, vitality, their juiciness that has been directed into work and family for so long.
It would be wonderful for all my Nia students to take the White Belt training. I know they love Nia already and are reaping lots of benefits, and there is so much more available to them through the White Belt training. I want them, and everyone I know, to have it all!
Nia has helped me to appreciate movement in a whole new way. Now I know that everyone can dance and express their unique life experience. Dance is not just for “dancers”. We can all be artists and expressive movers. I love being in a room full of people ranging in age from 25 to 80, of different dance and fitness levels, all dancing together, sounding, groaning, laughing, and learning from each other.
And yes, Helen, you were so right when you said, “Roberta, you’ve got to do Nia! It’s all that you love and do, plus something more!”
Roberta Mohler
Nia Trainer
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nia Saved my Life...Twice
Before starting Nia in 1994, I was chronically depressed and taking medication. A friend dragged me to a Nia class at the West Side YMCA in New York City. The class was co-taught by Caroline Kohles and Megan McArthur.
I began to experience unfamiliar sensations almost immediately, one of which I later learned to identify as Joy Energy. I began releasing things that had been locked inside. At the end of the class, I felt something I had not felt in years, that life was good. I felt good. Empowered. Alive. Bursting with potential.
I went on to do my White Belt with Debbie and Carlos in Portland in February 1998 and began teaching to college students in March of that year at Columbia University. By that summer I added another class at Lotus Music and Dance where I taught a weekly class for about two years.
Within a year, I decided I wanted to go deeper into the Nia technique and did my Blue Belt Training with Debbie and Carlos in La Jolla, CA. I was in a group with 18 women who were much further along in the mastery of the White Belt. It was an eye-opening—as well as humiliating—experience to realize I had not been mastering the White Belt Principles since my White Belt Training. Before I could go on to master the Blue Belt, I had to go back to basics and relearn the White Belt. And that took my teaching to a whole new level.
Over the next several years, I subbed for other teachers and took over teaching two classes per week at the Battery Park Fitness Collective when the teacher left New York City for North Carolina. I continued those two weekly classes for about five years. I also added a weekly class at my private studio in Brooklyn, NY.
By the time I went on to finish my Brown and Black with Debbie and Carlos in Portland, I was teaching three to four classes per week, and that produced a level of fitness I had not experienced since my Marine Corps days in the mid 60’s. I did my Brown Belt with six other people, all women. And then, for the first time in my Nia Belts, I did my Black Belt with another male, Ken Gilbert, a real treat for me both personally and professionally. Ken and I have the honor of being the first male Black Belts, except for Carlos, of course. Ken and I also share being in the acting profession. He has gone on to become a Nia Trainer. YES, there were other men teaching Nia besides Carlos!
As a member of the Y, I was entitled to take the three Nia classes per week that were available. I eagerly searched out guest passes for Nia classes at other locations. I took class with Debbie and Carlos when they came to New York. My life began to change. Within just a few years, I was—and continue to be—free of meds. I resumed my acting career and began to straighten out my personal and financial life. I credit Nia with having saved my life.
In June 2007, I began to experience severe chest and arm pains whenever I would sustain Level Three when teaching Nia. I only experienced these symptoms doing Level Three Nia. If I slowed down to Level One or Level Two, I was fine. I noticed these symptoms whenever I would take class with another Nia teacher. I am also an avid hiker/camper and kayaker, but these activities did not produce the symptoms. I was pretty sure it wasn’t heartburn since I have been a vegetarian since 1973 and have always carefully watched what I eat.
At first I thought it was just stress. After all, I had been following a healthy diet for years, working out aerobically three to four times a week, hiking, kayaking, etc. In addition, my cholesterol level was normal, great blood pressure and I held a steady 48 bpm heartbeat. I was fit and healthy, right?
Wrong. My doctor sent me for a stress test where the cardiogram indicated I had problems. My cardiologist did an angiogram and, to my shock and horror, I discovered that I had an 85% blockage in my coronary arteries. I was on my way to a heart attack, an aneurysm…or worse.
On the spot, the doctor did an angioplasty (inserting a balloon to open the artery) and inserted a medicated stent (a sort of scaffolding device) in my artery to keep the artery open. I am back on two different kinds of meds now, Plavix to thin my blood so that a clot will not form around the stent and Simvastation to reduce cholesterol and lessen the danger of internal inflammation.
Although I have mixed feelings about taking medications, I now feel terrific and am back to Level Three Nia with no pain. Had I not been doing Nia, specifically Level Three Nia, I would never have known that I had a medical problem until it was too late. No wonder they call Cardiovascular Disease the “silent killer.”
Last Tuesday I took a Nia class with Angela Pinti in Brooklyn. I then taught a class Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Saturday and Sunday I backpacked and camped with my son in the Catskills where we covered 12 miles in two days going up and down mountains to the tune of 6,000 feet elevation gain and descent, hand over hand with backpacks in places. And last night, Monday, I taught another class. Not a bad week, especially for a 64 year old!
Thank you, Nia, for saving my life again.
Jim Williams
Black Belt Nia Teacher
Brooklyn, New York, USA
A Dancer Finds Nia
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. I was their dance teacher as well.
My dream as a young girl was to have my own business–a studio for dance and movement. This dream did come true in 1996 in Israel. I named my studio “The Way We Move”. I always encouraged my students–children and adults–to focus on joy, healing and health; to live life fully; to be oneself and to listen to one’s own body in order to find one’s way. I taught Mommy and Me classes, creative movement, ballet, modern dance and jazz dance classes. I had my own dance performance group, and we participated in national dance competitions where we did quite well.
In addition I was the head of a dance department in middle school where I taught the history of dance, modern dance and choreography. I also taught dance in a performing art school. Throughout the years I always taught fitness classes–which for me were very boring.
In 2002, at my oldest daughter Amit’s first play date since we moved from Israel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, I met her friend’s mother. She asked me about my profession and what I was currently doing. I told her that I have an MA in Dance and Dance Education from NYU and had been teaching dance and movement classes for the past 16 years. She was thrilled to show me a long article about Nia coming to the Center.
I could not have imagined how this article would change my life. When I read it I was amazed to learn that the only one of the nine movement forms I had never practiced was Aikido. I was curious to experience the blend of the techniques. I took my first Nia class a month later when the session began.
I clearly remember my systemic body sensations during that first Nia class. The music was powerful and the movements beautifully designed to create a magical experience. I was on such a high; my body floating, moving vigorously, creating, vibrant, youthful and alive. I knew from the moment I took that first class that this is all I wanted to do and teach. By the end of class the teacher Robin Block, Blue belt (now Brown) told me I should do the White Belt.
I had been experiencing extreme pain in my arm at the time, and after taking several tests, I was diagnosed with two bulged discs. My best friend, who is a neurosurgeon, told me I would never be able to dance again. After telling him to never say never, I asked him to help me find a solution. He referred me to a spine clinic where I was treated with physical therapy and occupational therapy. Through the practice of Nia, I learned how to modify and simplify my moves, and I regained my strength and physical abilities. A month and a half later I flew to New York and did my White Belt with Trainer Carolyn Kohles.
I did my White Belt while pregnant with my fourth child. During all my previous pregnancies, I danced until my water broke. With this pregnancy I was physically very limited by constant headaches and nausea. I kept dancing as a student with Barbara Wesson, Black Belt, learning how to play with level one, (I had been used to dancing at level three) sitting, utilizing body parts in an intrinsic way, listening to my body and teaching it how to move in a new way that feels good. To my surprise, both as a student and as a teacher, I always left classes with uplifting sensations. Before Nia I taught dance and fitness classes between 10-20 hours a week. Today I teach Nia between 5-10 hours a week. None of my previous teaching was as exciting as Nia. “Miracle” was my first routine.
I was fortunate to bring 31 years of dance training and teaching to Nia. It has served me well. Nia has given me so much more depth and awareness of my body–depth in all my realms–physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. I physically feel like I am in my 20’s. The child within me has returned and shows its beauty. I appreciate the body-mind-spirit connection and the healing aspect of Nia.
Nia is my full time job and life. I multitask and have created a schedule that works for my family and me. I love and enjoy sharing my passion and belief in Nia with new and varied groups of people. I teach Nia in private studios, Jewish Community Center, health clubs, the school system and special needs populations (mentally and physically challenged). I work with Nia teachers in groups and mentor them one-on-one. I introduce Nia to as many people as I can so that they may benefit and receive Nia’s joy and fullness. I met my husband, Guy when we were both doing our compulsory service in the Israeli army. I was a sports and hand-to-hand combat instructor. I knew when I met him that he was my soul mate. Guy is very supportive of my Nia path, although he has never taken a Nia class or participated in any other fitness class. We have four beautiful children–Omer 13, Amit 11, Dana 8 and Maya 4.
Each year when I visit my family and friends in Israel I teach Nia classes and workshops. I am planting seeds in my homeland. The joy and fulfillment I feel as a human being is truly amazing with each class I teach. My family and I are completing a dream moving back to Israel next summer July 2008. My desire is to develop and teach so that Nia will be a well-known name in every household in Israel.
I have achieved one of my desires by becoming a Black Belt Nia teacher. Becoming a Nia trainer is another dream. Teaching teachers is another level I find extremely challenging and rewarding. I am currently working on a yearly plan geared for pre-scholars. Other populations I would like to introduce Nia to are soldiers and civilians suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and victims of war and terror. By teaching different populations, not only do I grow and learn as a teacher, I get to play and teach a variety of people allowing them to learn, be more aware of their actions, find healthier ways of moving, healing and growing as human beings. I am creating a healthier community as a whole. The joy is abundant!
Nia has given me tools for living–more focus and clarity, tolerance, patience, creativity, strength, stamina and vibrancy for life. Nia is a way of life for me. Nia has given me closure. I now know my purpose here in the universe!
Yonit Lerner Ofan
Black Belt Nia Teacher
Nia, More than a Dance Class
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.
“I’m off to dance class,” I shout to my husband as I race out of the house Saturday mornings to my Nia class with Debby Rosas. The students in our class seem to have an unspoken understanding that to the outside world we call Nia our “dance class,” knowing full well that this is mere code for something much more profound. However, to explain to our friends and family that Nia is a mind, body, energy program that is something more akin to what church is supposed to be like than to a dance class simply takes too much patience. So “dance class” suffices as our shorthand.
I was 32 before I discovered Nia. With two young children, a waistline to prove it and a marriage that I was beginning to realize was emotionally abusive, I set off to rekindle the spirit of the girl who at 12 years old walked daily to the YMCA for after school jazz dance and modern dance classes. Never an aspiring professional dancer, I was always happiest moving to music. But somewhere between seventh grade and my wedding day, I lost the time or the ability to prioritize movement.
One morning holding one child on my lap as the other played at my feet, I read in the Oregonian that a prominent woman in the community had tried to kill her ex-husband for among other reasons continuing to attend the same dance class as she did even after they had separated. I was fascinated that someone could be so passionate about their dance studio. This must be some dance program. So, I called the studio for more information. Vinnie, a big friendly voice, answered the phone and told me the studio was a great community of people and, by the way, when I come there is no need to bring my shoes. “We all dance barefoot,” he said. This was something different, something I wanted to try.
I showed up at my first Nia class in Oct, 1992. My marriage was obviously in crisis and I needed to take care of myself. Outwardly I seemed fine to most people. I had a job as a personnel director at a local company in town. My children seemed happy and well cared for. But something was missing. A deep longing in my heart, a certainty that I had not reached the potential I was capable of seemed to hang over me daily. The dance steps were not impossible, but did take some getting used to. Debbie, the instructor, told me to give it six full classes before I gave up on it. So I did and the rest, as they say, is history.
Ten years later remarried to a man I love dearly in a job I am passionate about, Nia continues to comfort and challenge me. Nia has been with me through the discovery of my dear love, the risk it took to get what I wanted, my father’s death, the raising of two teenagers, knee surgery, a new house, three jobs, and a development of a successful family business. I often say, “Nia is a lot cheaper and just as effective as therapy.”
Looking back ten years I see a young, searching woman that could have become a bitter old lady. Today I am confident that I have made choices that have put me on the path I needed to be on. Nia gave me the confidence in my power, a sense of balance, permission to feel pleasure and validation of my personal journey. Debbie used to say, “Come to class even if you are tired or sad. Move happy, move with energy, move exhausted, move sick, move sad, but move.” The invitation was to bring whoever I was that day to class. I can remember spinning in circles back and forth across the room to Loreena McKennitt’s eerie album, the Visit. Tears were streaming down my facing. I couldn’t stop crying, but I kept spinning. I found myself that day in a way I hadn’t before. No matter what I felt, it was OK. I could just move through it. No one in the room seemed to mind (much less notice).
So, I kept showing up – three days a week. One day working to find the stillness in my center as the movement increased in speed. Debbie talked of finding the eye of the storm, the quiet center, in our bodies. It’s there she’d say. “Find it.” It is like riding a bike. The faster you ride, the more you find the balance in the speed. Practice. Keep at it. Another day we worked on pure balance. “Be a child. Stand on one foot. Lean over. Knock yourself over. Start over. It’s a game.” We’d look for the point at which we could balance and the limits we could push ourselves to before losing balance and finally, the joy in falling out of balance and starting over again.
These games somehow profoundly mirrored the risks I was taking in my life. In class, we would work on not being in the teacher’s body. Stop watching the teacher after you get the move down, Debbie would say. Find “what we call 2nd attention”. This is the space where you are aware of only yourself, letting your body lead. If I was lucky I could find 2nd attention for 30 seconds to a minute out of each class. Then Debbie would say, try this new move, but find the pleasure in it. Don’t do it for me. Do it for you. This is not a workout for pain. Each person can find the pleasure in each movement for themselves. If your back needs special focus, stretch your back a little more. Make it feel good. To give myself permission to feel good – hmm? This seemed like an altogether impossible notion for awhile. I tried it in dance class and then I tried it in my life. Of course, as it turned out, even a Catholic girl could seek pleasure and the world would not fall apart.
Have you ever spent an entire hour focused on your pelvis, the weight of your head, the stiffness in your shoulders? Nia gives you this opportunity. Attending to the details of your body, your breadth, your lightness, your heaviness, allows for a deeper sensation of yourself. To attend to the small sounds, the subtle sensual moments, bring a very satisfying understanding that you have truly participated in the moment, the class, the day. “There is so much to experience. Don’t miss it.” This is one of the messages of Nia.
On the day, Debbie told the class, “seduction is 90% intent. Go get what you want. The job. The lover. The adventure,” I think I graduated level one of Nia. Our movements led with intention that day. Those watching at the doors would have simply seen a group of students in a dance class reaching their arms forward to the pulsing music. But if those same observers could look inside the students, feel what they feel, they might understand that these students were hard at work developing the tools for mastery of living life fully.
Nia, while full of messages and learnings, is not burdened with dogma or seriousness. Debbie might start out a class suggesting that the students try cleaning their houses naked or wearing $100 silk underpants to make themselves feel good. Laughter breaks out and the dance class begins.
My goal ten years ago was to balance my life and be as sensual and strong as Debbie was then at 42. Now ten years later, almost 42 myself, my body is in terrific condition, but Debbie is has set the bar higher. At 52, she’s slender, sensual and now able to do endless one-handed push-ups. Will I ever catch up?
A dance class. Perhaps. But, oh so much more.
Nia, meaning “with purpose,” provides the opportunity to bring more meaning, more joy, more health into our lives. Thank you Debbie.
Eileen Brady
Nia White Belt
From Pain and Poor Health to Joy
I found my groove, my energy center and my natural rhythm through Nia. After years of sometimes painful and often mind numbing physical practices, Nia introduced my body to freedom, creativity and boundless self-expression.
Nia has taught me to love being me by respecting my body’s way and moving according to its design. I spent six years practicing Nia while working as a Speech-Language Pathologist before studying to become an instructor. Now, as a Certified Blue Belt Nia Instructor, the pure joy of movement that Nia offers is part of my working life. Imagine a job where joy, laughter, fun and dance are infused into every moment. I enthusiastically embrace the potential for fitness, healing and spiritual development that Nia offers and yearn to share that with all my students.
In April 2003, my life changed substantially. My father-in-law had been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The fear of not being able to have a direct impact on the situation, i.e., not being able to cure the cancer, was at times overwhelming for me. To cope with the lack of control, I slowly became quite strict about my own nutrition and began managing unbearable amounts of anxiety by significantly increasing my level of physical activity. I felt that if I did not have the power of immortality for my father-in-law, then I certainly was going to do everything possible to prolong my own life. Sadly, he passed away in January 2004, and I was on my way downhill.
I began being quite creative about getting exercise. Cycling became my main mode of transportation and I used the early morning hours before work, lunchtimes and evening hours to fit in more exercise time. Eventually, I became so enthusiastic about exercise that I would wake in the middle of the night and sneak out of the house to work out. Every spare moment was occupied by some form of physical activity. At times I would manage, despite full and part-time work, to fit in as much as four to eight hours a day of exercise. Running, weight lifting, swimming, soccer, hockey, yoga, power walking, interval training, aerobics and cycling became my second full-time job. Over time, my paid job as a Speech-Language Pathologist got in the way of my ability to work out, making me extremely irritable. Around the same time, I noticed my energy levels souring so high that I seemed to function better and better on less and less sleep.
Not only was I maximizing my physical activity, I was excelling in all other realms of my life. I maintained my very strong professional reputation, took on extra projects, developed new programs, lectured and presented at conferences.
In 2004 everything came crashing down when I was diagnosed as having anorexia. The picture became more clear when I was diagnosed with bipolar as well, which explained the excess energy that propelled me through all that vigorous activity.
I was shocked. I was feeling incredible about my body. For the first time in my always chubby life, I was thin, and I really had not “dieted” to achieve this. I was on cloud nine! I was convinced that the diagnosis was motivated by jealousy–that my doctor and those around me were envious of my new body. I began dressing quite elaborately to intentionally accentuate my thinness. Looking back on that time, I was physically, emotionally and mentally a wreck.
My deeply caring and committed husband saw me through my darkest days and nights. He was determined to help me gain a greater insight into my situation. Even when I felt truly unworthy of his love and attempts to reach out, he was right there by my side. He accompanied me to India in 2005. It was a truly healing experience. Among other events, I met an extraordinary American woman named Lina.
In Rishikesh, under Lina’s tutelage about life, I studied Reiki. The number of spiritual revelations that I had while in Rishikesh were something I still have difficulty truly appreciating. I returned home with optimism for healing and feeling less isolated in my experience. I realized that there is a world of people out there that had been searching just as hard as I had been. It was so refreshing to be able to draw upon that energy.
In India, I learned that the most humbling and centering artistic expression I have is through movement. Feeling my energy move in atypical and individually graceful and healing ways has taught me so much. After years of experimenting with more traditional practices such as running, swimming and rowing, I knew I needed more. I began to thirst for a spiritually based movement and life practice, and my eyes widened significantly to the possibilities.
With this broadened quest, I discovered practices such as yoga and tae kwon do. While these practices fed me in ways that deepened my connection to meaning-based and disciplined movements, I realized they could not completely fulfill my needs. In some ways, I felt that these practices were sometimes creatively limiting because of their “rule-oriented” nature. These disciplines led me to desire more personal expression in my movement.
In 2002 I was working at as a Speech-Language Pathologist at an outpatient rehabilitation facility. I decided I needed more community-based experience, so took on a casual position with a neuro-rehabilitation company. The Director of that company, Marla Feldman, wanted to have a team-building event for the staff, and organized a Nia workshop with Martha Randall, Black Belt Instructor and Trainer in Toronto, Canada. Because of the “no pain, no gain” exercise mentality that I was so familiar with, I distinctly remember finding this barefoot practice a little unusual.
Nonetheless, I was curious, and took classes around Toronto for the next four years. After my eye-opening trip to India in 2006, I decided to enroll in the White Belt Training with Martha. Truthfully, I was still in my exercise mania phase and secretly hoped that learning more about Nia could add to my exercise options.
But that’s not what Nia had in mind for me. Instead, I slowed down. I began feeling and sensing and really moving in a loving way to which my body was unaccustomed. I stopped restricting my food, gained weight and allowed my body to rest and heal
Through Nia, I was introduced to a community of people who were not there to “exercise”–they were there to embody the “joy of life” through dance. The training helped me to break the cycle of numbness I had been engaging in with demanding types of exercise. I was excited to have this intellectually stimulating, spiritually based and fun type of movement practice penetrate my very being. I was shocked that I could find this much fulfillment through a body practice. I cemented my belief that there is much wellness and restorative potential in the movement-music connection. As my body became more alive through these studies and practice, I could physically feel the energy flow and magic engulf me. Surrounded by a group of people who understood what that was like had enormous healing potential.
In finding Nia, I let go of perfectionism, which allowed my unique movement style to flourish. Nia has enabled me to find all my basic energy needs of movement, music and magic through one practice. The ties to spirituality, healing, dance and martial arts that this practice offers has given me a nearly indescribable gift.
I felt inspired by Nia and it’s ability to give me a focus. It met so many creative, emotional, spiritual and intellectual needs simultaneously at just the right time. Nia allowed me to continue to work through deep issues in a more connected way than ever before. Having studied the foundations of this practice and certifying as an instructor has allowed me to deepen my body/mind/spirit connection. And the bonus is that I am able to share the true joy that I have found!
I took my Blue Belt training in May, 2007 with Debbie and Carlos in Portland. Deepening my practice by expanding my knowledge through this process has been a wonderful experience. I’m registered to take my Brown Belt this October (2008)!
Nia is integral part of my recovery. Nia has not only kept me connected, but has helped my self confidence, allowed me to be fully present during physical activity and has improved my body image. It has offered me self-compassion, which has made my eating disorder a thing of the past. I am grateful to Nia for mood management. I can find balance, creativity and healthy expressive outlets through my daily practice and work with students. I can live my life, knowing that I still have bipolar disorder, but because of Nia, have faith that I can make healthy choices about coping. Nia is now an essential part of my life–one that gives me strength and renewed faith in my potential.
Nia inspires my creativity, something that, as a kinetic spirit, I need to experience through movement. The motivation to share this gift of health I have been given has helped me develop my entrepreneurial skills and allowed me to deliver an Intro to Nia Workshop to 50 people this past March in Bangalore, India.
Teaching Nia is really fun and fulfilling for me. I love the creative challenge of sharing my joy of movement in a really transparent way. Meeting Nia neophytes and watching their personal discoveries and transformations is a real gift to me. I feel like I’m really making a difference by sharing this special gem of a wellness tool with the world.
In all, my experiences have taught me that the healing process involves using my unique gifts and resources to renew myself; not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. Despite the fact that I avoided self-reflection for many years, I now can identify with Plato, who said, “the unexamined life is not worth living”. I’m much more in tune now with the idea that, “in order to bear the fruits, you gotta have roots” (author unknown). For me those roots are self-knowledge.
I believe that the therapeutic process is multi-faceted. I have come to understand that there is no single road to wellness and that, regretfully, there is no “miracle cure” for what ails us emotionally. I have learned that the healing journey requires the exploration of multiple avenues, some in parallel, others in a serial fashion. I know that each individual has a different road to travel to get there, and that I must sit in my own driver’s seat. The essence of the process of therapy is to get to a point where one can peel back the layers and see one’s truth. In order for that to happen, I have found that I have had to be resourceful and self-directed. I have had to rely on an intuitive knowing about what would serve me best. Many would find it hard to believe that going to India and studying Nia would be therapeutic for someone with an eating disorder and bipolar disorder!
However, I know now that deep within, we have the potential to heal ourselves. Most of all, I’ve learned that this process does not conform to temporal restrictions; there is no time frame to complete the journey. Along my path thus far, I’ve learned countless lessons about patience, surrender and respecting the divine within.
Jennifer Hicks
Nia Blue Belt Teacher
Nia and a Story of Synchronicity
I sat uncomfortably perched on the edge of a well-cushioned sofa in the orthodontist’s office, waiting for my son. I’d suffered a head trauma years earlier and lived in almost constant pain. Yet, I was pushing myself to write Cracked Bat. My neck and shoulders ached, so I held my August 2006 copy of The Sun at eye level to read an interview with Marion Woodman. James Kullander’s article, On the Inner Marriage of the True Masculine and the True Feminine, reminds readers that, as a Jungian analyst, Woodman’s work and writing show, “the way to access the treasure buried in the body is through dance, meditation, and dream imagery.”
For months, I had been mining my imagination for the gold in Cracked Bat. Dream work and meditation were rich veins for me, but I also tapped into images and words that came from memories warehoused in my muscles as I brought Linnea Perrault’s fairy tale to the page. Integrating her experiences of establishing a relationship with her prodigal father, worrying about her alcoholic husband, trying to heal from a foul play at the baseball stadium, and ultimately finding solace in a garden dwarf, Islamic mystics, and magical strangers left an alchemical residue, a creative lactic acid of sorts, that my physical body could not process well. I received regular bodywork, practiced yoga, and focused on self-guided energetic clearings to relieve my flesh, but the stubborn recurring, right-side knots in my soft tissue proved these modalities weren’t enough. Something was missing. As I read how dancing, like a gypsy, was the turning point in Marion Woodman’s experience with cancer, the deep longing to bring some form of dance — communal dance — into my life resurfaced.
I sighed, putting the magazine aside. I already know the options in my small town. Frustrated, I picked up a copy of the local weekly paper. As I opened it, my eye fell to an ad on a right-hand page. The relatively new Monroe Wellbeing Center for Health was offering something called Nia. I went right out to my Super Mom minivan and called for more information. At five o’clock that evening, I stood barefoot on the floating bamboo floor, wondering if I could do Nia. Would my adhered muscles tissue simply torque my belabored skeleton even more? Moving into Global Unity, I mirrored Robin Rudloff, a firecracker of a Nia instructor, and stepped into my own space. By 5:10, long-forgotten images of the gypsy costume I’d flaunted on Halloween as an eight-year-old were twirling through my mind and I knew I’d found something special. Sometimes when I dance to Miracle, I put the synchronicity of that day in the center of our thank you circle.
My relationship with Nia, Robin, and my other Nia friends grew and developed while I continued to draft and revise Cracked Bat. Soon, our playfulness on the dance floor and connection off of it became intricately entwined with the pages of my novel. After Linnea Perrault’s teenage cousin Clary Sage has a nasty encounter with the father of her baby, the kindhearted witch moonlighting behind the counter at Dentadrug Pharmacy prescribes a little essential oil “to help her remember who she is” and a Nia class, “because it is better to dance your spirit than shroud your soul.” Later in the story, Linnea’s initial choice to dance her spirit becomes the pivotal decision that affects every dimension of her life.
With Nia, I have found my body’s way of processing intense emotional and mental energy. As the dynamic benefits of the technique began to manifest in my own life, my muscles and bones began to work together in new way. I began to make automatic adjustments so that I could be more at ease in my body. As this happened, I achieved a new balance between the masculine and feminine aspects within myself. I noticed this for the first time after doing Chains one evening. I was peacefully making dinner when my son, as normal adolescents do, complained about doing his chores. With automatic blocking energy, I barked, “Clean your room,” kiapping, “Now!” I turned back to my task, humming joyfully.
He stared at me, slightly stunned, and then did it, intrigued by and relieved to know the boundary of my energetic dancing space. Now he regularly attends class with me and I am so glad he has the opportunity to see the men there emulating the strength and wisdom that come from celebrating the true masculine and the true feminine. But, that divine topic is for my next novel! Namaste!
Janiece Hopper is the author of Cracked Bat, available for purchase at www.tenpentacles.com. Nia communities are encouraged to consider the book club opportunities offered on the website.
Robin Rudloff teaches Nia at the Monroe Wellbeing Center for Health in Monroe, Washington. Drop by and dance with them!
Janiece Hopper
Nia Student
