Where is it written that you have to walk into a workout class or a dance class and know every step?  Can you point me to that grand writing?  No.  It doesn’t exist.  Nowhere is it written that you walk in and know the steps or even that you know them after the first workout or the first class.  But we still think that we should “get it” right away.  Almost immediately we pull out labels like awkward and uncoordinated.  Not often do we stop to give ourselves a break.  Did we not have to learn how to walk, why is it that we think we must know how to move or dance?

I bring this up because I keep having this brought up to me.  People say they feel like a klutz or that they have two left feet.  Well, this could all be true as a feeling of what they feel, but how are they ever going to get over it?

With Nia (one of) the point(s) is to move how you need to move that day, in that class, in that moment.  NOT to move exactly like the teacher or like the other students, or to be perfect or workout like it is a performance.  It is to move how your body needs to move.  It is to stop judging HOW you are moving and just MOVE.  Yes, there are steps, there is a routine, most of the time you are doing guided movements, but you aren’t expected to know them and do them perfect.  And even if you do know them, sometimes you might need to adjust them.

I understand that there is a desire to do it right, but with Nia™ we really take that saying “If you stumble make it part of your dance” to heart.  No one is perfect, we are not expecting the routine to be done perfect.  We are expecting respecting, respecting your body and your heart.  You move, you mess up, you forgive yourself, you keep moving.  It is not because you are awkward or uncoordinated no labels, take the next step.  Come to class, learn, practice.  Once you get the moves down then the fun really begins because then you can play with the move making it big or small fast or slow do it with ease or make it dynamic.

But you have to start at the beginning.

Honest?  Want me to be honest here?  After I get the gist of the routine down, I stop watching the training DVD.  I refer back to it when I get stuck or want to refresh my memory or “tighten it up”.  But I don’t practice to it.  I don’t move like Debbie or Carlos*.  I can’t concentrate on my music and the movements when I try.  I have to turn them off and tune them out and concentrate on me and my workout.  I have to listen to the music and sense when I am supposed to cue.  I can’t learn what my body needs and get the work out I need if I am trying to do it exactly like them.  I am not them.  I am me.  I have to pay attention to what I can do especially since what I can do in my living room is entirely different then what I can do when I teach.  I have to make certain I practice the different levels so I have a chance to show them in class.  When I workout to the DVD, I don’t practice level one, I am trying to keep up with Debbie.

So what I am saying is give yourself a break.  We cannot all move the same.  So we need to practice quieting our inner dialog that tells us we have to do it like whomever, and just do it like our body needs.  It probably won’t be perfect because we are not perfect.  We are there to move and improve and enjoy.  So are you ready to give yourself a break and just move?

My schedule of classes in San Jose and Los Gatos.

*Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, the people that have brought us Nia.