Touching – One Of Nia’s 52 Moves
Posted by terrepruitt on September 17, 2013
I am not certain “touching” is included in any other workout. I am not certain if it is included in any other cardio dance exercise. Now I am not talking about “putting your hands on your hips as you shake them” or “putting your hands behind your head as you advance forward” or “touch your elbow to your knee” or “putting your hands on your shoulders”. I am not talking about that type of touching. I am talking about touching. Touching for the sake of touching. Touching to gather sensation from your hands. Gathering information from the nerves in your fingers, palms, and the backs of your hands. In Nia we touch.
Touching gives us a lot of information. A Nia Routine might have us touching the air around us. We touch to sense the air. We touch the space around us. All around us. Above our heads, behind us, below us. We use our open palms and webbed spaces. We use the backs of our hands. We push and pull the energy. The Nia Technique book, by Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, states “Practicing Touching is excellent training for increasing your Sensory IQ and for improving body awareness.” Touching the space that surrounds the body also moves the energy around — as mentioned the push and the pull. In addition to moving the energy you can draw energy in through the touch or send it out.
There is also the touching we do to things. We can touch things while we dance in a Nia class or throughout our day. In a dance class we can touch the floor, the walls, the mirror, the other things in the room. They give us information through touch.
We can also touch our skin and our own bodies to gather information. We can touch to create heat. We can touch to supply energy to a specific body part. We can touch to heal. We can touch to allow for sensation or attention. Touching brings awareness. If you are touching your elbow, as an example, with the touch you receive information from two sources. One is your hand that is doing the touching. It senses your elbow. It might feel dry skin, causing you to think you need lotion. The second source is your elbow. Your elbow senses the hand. You might think, your hand is soft/warm/moist. Exchange of information. Awareness. Attention. Touch is amazing.
No matter whether we are touching the space around us, the things around us, or our own bodies we can use fingers, palms, and back of hands. With different “touches” we are exchanging different information. Moving and/or releasing and/or gathering energy. Touch is a powerful tool in the Nia toy box.
Another way touch can be applied is in the common way of touching as measurement. In the beginning of class, say, before your body is warmed up, you can only touch as far as your shins. Then after was have moved warming the muscles all of the attachments you can easily bend all the way over to touch your toes. Touch. It is a great thing to use for many reasons. In Nia we use touch. Touching is one of Nia’s 52 Moves.
What sensations have you received today from things you have touched?
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