our liquid body-suit of awesomeness
Good morning!
Today, in our Nia® classes, we will be exploring sensing our Connective Tissue – our pliable, liquid, body-suit of awesomeness! Our connective tissue is amazing. Our connective tissue in many ways holds us together, allows communication & nutrients to travel through the body, and allows us to be pliable while still sustaining overall integrity. Our connective tissue is important and we want to keep it very healthy. To do so, we want to move in a variety of ways, explore ranges of motion, hydrate well, stretch, and become aware of our postures, emotions, thoughts, and habits which can stress or nourish our connective tissue.
See handout below for some tips! If you’d like a larger copy of the below handout: http://www.nianow.com/public/awareness-of-connective-tissue-sensing-integration-student-handout
Also there are some great blog posts about Connective Tissue by Nia Trainers at http://www.nianow.com/story/2011/11/awareness-of-connective-tissue-sensing-integration
See you soon!
happy knees – part 1
Hello! Long time, no blog posting, eh? 
This session my Nia classes are going to be all about creating healthy, happy, pleasure-full knees! Each class will focus on something (a body part, a way of moving, etc.) that (in some way) relates to knee health and keeping knees safe and happy (or reclaiming knee happiness)! Our bodies are amazing. And with our awareness and conscious intent (and sometimes help from a knee specialist) we can do things to help our bodies feel better (in Nia, we call this self-healing). In this way, movement has the ability to become good medicine, leading to less and less pain and more and more pleasure. This session is all about our amazing knee joints! I hope you will join me for a little Nia (knee–ahhhhhhh)!
So far, as we dance our dance, we’ve been focusing on paying attention to:
1) “Listening to the Sensations of our Knees.” What is your knee communicating to you? Is it in pain? If so, experiment a little bit. Is there anything you can change about your movement to decrease the pain and increase the sensation of pleasure?
2) “Choosing the Directions of our Toes.” What direction are your toes pointing? Are they pointing the direction you are wanting to go? Is the direction they are facing allowing your knee joint to hinge easily? Often we will want our feet parallel as we walk and sink into our stances. However, we also want to create pliable and adaptable knees. So every once in a while, we can also explore and play with turning our toes inward and outward to feed the joints, muscles, and connective tissues of our legs a little variety!
3) “Activating Whole Foot Support” – What part of your foot is supporting your body weight right now? Is your weight shifted more towards the inside of your foot? The outside? Across both? Where our weight shifts will greatly affect the entire ‘kinetic chain’ of muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia that run up the body. Most often, we will want to let our weight be supported by the “whole foot” (meaning the weight isn’t more towards the inside or outside, but somewhere comfortably in the middle). To find this, and keep the muscles of your whole foot (including the tissues that create your arches) fit and healthy, it may help to visualize “3 points” on the bottom of your feet (see image left). I like to visualize them as 3 prongs of an electrical plug. Then, by plugging in our “3 points” to imaginary sockets on the floor, we can keep our movement grounded and condition the arches of our feet which will affect everything above them (including our knees!).
4) “Exploring Three Planes of Movement” – We want strong, mobile, and flexible knee joints. We therefore want to be sure to include 3 planes of movement as we dance. To do this, we seek pleasure and explore dancing through and sliding among the High, Middle, and Low planes. This encourages us to move along the vertical line (to and away from the floor). This conditions our leg muscles and joints for strength and mobility, and also is a great way to increase our cardiovascular fitness conditioning as it is a way to increase the effort needed to move without any jogging or jumping. As they say “if you don’t use it, you lose it!” The good news, is that even if we have lost it, we can still get it back. We just want to make sure that we do so while seeking pleasure in the body. Over time (as long as we choose to stay with pleasure) our legs will get stronger and stronger.
5) “Sensing the Power of Grounded Heels” – When we walk forward we want to activate the “heel lead” technique to absorb the impact of the step and engage the muscles along the back of the legs. When we sink and rise in our stances (for example, a deep A-Stance) we want to push down through our heels to rise up (imagine pushing the floor away). This will help to engage the large, strong muscles along the back of the legs and hips, and thereby decrease the effort required by the knees and the quadriceps (muscles along the front of the legs).
Stay tuned for more tips for creating happy dancing knees in Nia (knee-aaaaaahhhhh) class.
blogging will resume soon!
Hello! Now that Bliss is up and running, I’ll soon be able to devote more time to blogging once again! Stay tuned!!!
registration at bliss is now open!
Hello dancing friends!
Do you know which classes you want to join for the new year? Registration for January classes is now open! blissstudio.co
bliss
Movement Sanctuary for Body and Soul
Offering Nia, Yoga, GriefMoves, and more!
115 NW State St., Room 206, Pullman, WA 99163
w: blissstudio.co | e: info@blissstudio.co
britta is coming to town!
Britta von Tagen, Nia Trainer Extraordinaire, is coming to Moscow this weekend!
She has scheduled a Nia workshop!
Saturday, 10/16
12-4:30 (incl. 30-min break)
University of Idaho Student Rec Center
For price and to register: Peg Hamlett @ 208-885-WELL.
Topic: Styles of learning in relationship to choreography.
“Whether you are student or a teacher of any subject, their are ways of embedding knowledge while moving/exercising; let it be Nia education or quantum mechanics. All the new brain research is about using movement to create pathways in the brain. Long term memory is best set while in motion and through various “Cross Brain” activities. Take home a greater understanding of what style of learner you are and be able to apply it to everything! Britta will use Howard Gardner’s nine multiple intelligence’s in regards to the principles and practice of Nia. Three examples of Howard Gardner’s intelligences are: Verbal learner, Social learner, logical learner…”
I’ll be there! I hope you can join us!
2 quick pullman updates
Hello! 2 quick updates…
Bliss Studio, LLC
I’m opening my own movement studio, Bliss, right here in Pullman! That’s right! For real! This week I signed a lease with Gladish Community and Cultural Center for a studio space that has recently become available! Kristine and I will continue teaching at the Pioneer Center throughout the remainder of the fall (both session one and session two). Once renovations are complete (likely early November) I may also be adding a few classes at “Bliss.” Starting in January, all of my Nia classes will be taking place at Bliss. I’m very excited to be creating a space for us to dance in! My vision is to create a beautiful, inspiring space where we can all feel very relaxed, relieve any stress we may have, be expressive, get to know each other, and dance our hearts out! Thank you so much for all of your support of Nia over the years! I couldn’t have made this BIG GIANT step without you!!!!
I’ll be sending out a very short anonymous survey one of these days. It would be great if you could provide your feedback regarding desired class days/times, etc. This way I can do my best to meet your needs! Thanks in advance!
Also…
The Art of Nia Workshop
I’ve got a Workshop coming up THIS SATURDAY (in Pullman)!!! Explore the sensations of the nine movement forms which inspire Nia – 3 martial arts (Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Aikido), 3 dance arts (Jazz, Duncan, Modern), and 3 healing arts (the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, the Alexander Technique, Yoga). Sense them all! Learn how to activate them for fitness and energetic balance. I hope you can join me! THIS SATURDAY! October 9, 2010 | 2:00-4:30 PM | Pioneer Center, 230 Dexter St., Pullman, WA | $10 | Register: 509.338.3227*
*Drop-ins are allowed the day of, but if possible, please register with the office by Friday afternoon. Thanks!
Thanks again!
Happy Dancing!
~Danielle
dancing cores
This week it is all about awareness of the CORE! We will be dancing with soft corsets on (stable core), popcorn-like bursts (agile core), long spacious spines (flexible core), impenetrable armor (strong core), and wavy spinal cords (mobile core). Experience all that your core muscles can do as you dance, dance, dance! ~ ~
tips for more nia joy!
Make the sole to soul connection.
Nia is traditionally practiced with bare feet. This way you can experience the 7000 nerve endings in each of your feet that help you move in safe and efficient ways from the ground up. While you are invited to be barefoot during Nia class, please feel free to wear shoes if you prefer (clean, ‘indoor-only’ shoes are greatly appreciated).
Keep curiosity up & criticism down.
Nia is different. In Nia, we experience all types of music, movement, patterns, and sensations. It can sometimes be challenging – physically, mentally, and emotionally. It’s a catalyst for you learning about your body, thoughts, feelings, and soul. Be gentle and patient with yourself. Instead of judging, comparing, liking, disliking, succeeding, failing, blah blah blah… just play, explore, and go on an adventure! See what Nia can teach you today!
love your hips day
Love Your Hips Day! How do your hips feel right now? Do they like how you are sitting/standing? Is there anything you can do so that your hip joints, muscles, tendons, & ligaments feel better? Wiggle, stretch, rotate thigh bones, shift body weight, circle pelvis, circle thighbone, rock pelvis (fwd, bk, side 2 side), rumble, shake legs, shake hips, bounce, wag your tail, e-x-h-a-l-e. ❤ Love your hips! ❤
Nia ~ Love your body! Love your life!
toe to hip connection
Hip Tip: Sense the connection from toe tips to hips! Turn your right toes Inward (towards your left foot) then Outward many times and sense the yummy rotation of the thighbone all the way up in the hip socket. Repeat with your left toes. Play with many different toe directions as you dance to condition your hip joint in a variety of delicious ways! ~ ~
liberate your hips, baby.
Hello friends! This week, we are going to let our focus travel up the body a bit, to our hips. However, our hips are not alone. So instead of isolating our hips, I’d like us to sense the relationship – the connection – the dance – between our feet and our hips. We still want to let our dance start from the ground up – from our feet. As we do that, we will sense for the relationship between our dancing feet and our dancing hips.
love your feet day!
Love your feet day! What sort of treat will you give your feet today? A soothing massage? A refreshing exfoliating scrub? A relaxing bubble bath? Some silky smooth lotion? Sparkly new nail polish? A chance to rest? How about a little elevation? How will you thank them for all that they allow you to do? How can you show them a little affection? How will you love your feet today? ❤ Love your feet! ❤
Nia ~ Love Your Body! Love Your Life!
nia co-founder, debbie rosas stewart, on “feet”
Want to read more about dancing in bare feet? Check out this article by Nia co-founder, Debbie Rosas Stewart!
Nia’s Answer to Stability—Naked Feet
by Debbie Rosas Stewart
Published on NiaNow.com, June 2, 2010
I thought a lot about what to discuss for this month’s focus, White Belt Principle 6: The Base of the Body. After much deliberation, I decided to talk about the feet and also to share part of Nia’s history with information from our first book from 1987. This book introduced our crazy notion of working out in bare feet and eliminating the high-impact jumping and jogging of popular aerobics. It was all about stability and comfort – and it ultimately became the foundation of Nia movement.
beautiful grounded dancing feet
Hello! Welcome to our new fall session of Nia classes!
In Nia, we always have a focus for class. The focus is sometimes about sensing a body part, sensing a particular movement dynamic, etc. It’s always about sensing something. Sensing your body… Tapping into the wisdom of your cells… Integrating body and mind through sensation… Staying present as sensations are happening here and now… Staying relaxed, yet focused on what we are doing, how we are moving, seeking more comfort… Well, you get the picture…
This week our focus will be on sensing our feet. Whether we are dancing them around the space or holding a strong, grounded, stable stance, our dance always begins with our feet. Focusing on sensing our feet helps us to move in ways that are safe and pleasurable, and ways that create a strong, grounded, powerful foundation.
pullman summer/fall update!
Hello Nia friends!
Wow, this summer has been quite a whirlwind! I’m back (temporarily) from our 6-week roadtrip, but I’m off again tomorrow for another trip, this time to California, to attend an Intensive Training for Gabrielle Roth’s “5 Rhythms.” Fall classes are right around the corner, so before I leave, I wanted to share with you some of the great happenings ahead!
through movement we find health
Sense your body. Really dive in. ~ ~ ~ Immerse yourself in it. Go deep. ~ ~ ~ Check it out. ~ ~ ~ What do you sense? ~ ~ ~ Begin to activate your joints. Simply begin to move your ankles… then knees… No need to rush. Hips… wrists… elbows… shoulders… and spine. ~ ~ ~ Allow movement to be your medicine. ~ ~ ~ Move so that your body says “Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh, right there… That’s the spot… Yep, just like that… Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.”
pullman summer update
Good morning!
This is our final week of Summer Session 1! I’m here through Wednesday, and then Kristine will teach the rest of the week. If you get a chance, I’d love to dance with you before I go!
BIG THANKS to Kristine who is also going to keep everyone dancing and sensing the JOY of Nia through Session 2 (June 28-Aug 6)!!! Thank you, Kristine!!!!
This Blissful Fitness blog will resume this fall… Thanks once again for stopping by and reading!
I will miss you a TON! I hope I’ll see you on Aug 9 when I return… I also hope your summer is FILLED with lots of JOY and WONDER and SMILES and GIGGLES and DANCING!!!!
x ❤ x ❤ x ❤ x
~Danielle
