One of Nia’s 52 Moves is a nice move. It can be done easily, it can be used in almost any dance, and it has numerous benefits, but the name is one I get crawly skin saying. I don’t like to say it. It is worse than Creepy Crawlers. When we do this move I often start out using the actual Nia name, but then explain how I would rather not and I would rather do something else. The move is fantastic though because it has many uses, but the name. I mean, what do you feel when I say, “Catching Flies“? I prefer not to.
But the move itself is a great move and very important to keep our hands, arms, eyes, and brain active. When we “Catch Flies” in Nia we open the hands then we make a loose fist to “catch” and hold the “flies. Ewwww. Just thinking about it . . . I mean . . . really thinking about it grosses me out. Thank God, I don’t think too much about it when I am teaching. I do think enough to change it. There is one routine I teach where I change it to “catching your dreams”. It goes along with the whole sequence of moves before and after. So I will often start out with “catching flies” then change it to “catch your dreams”.
Part of the move is to LOOK before you grab. So we are not just randomly grabbing in the air. We are looking as if we really were going to catch a fly. Since most of us are not like cats — do you know what I mean? Have you ever been playing with a toy with a cat and they won’t even be looking and they just reach out their arm and snatch the toy out of thin air? (Crazy!) Most of us are not like that, we need to look. So we LOOK before we grab at the “flies”. We engage our eyes and our brain — THEN we grab. We are also engaging our neck and spine because we are catching FLIES after all. See, the image makes sense. It is a “good” one, but an icky one. But since it is good and it makes sense, I will start out saying “catching flies” so people get the idea. Then I can change it if I want.
I think I got catching fairies from another Nia class. A Nia teacher said it and I was thrilled, so I use that one. Sometimes I say catching joy. Or perhaps grabbing some energy. There are many things to say after the initial move is understood and the Nia name is announced.
The Nia Technique book explains the benefits very well:
Practicing Catching Flies increases brain activity. This move neurologically connects your hands, your head, and your eyes, and engenders manual dexterity and speed. Emotionally, you can use the is move to express aggression, determination, anger, frustrations, playfulness, and achievement.
I am sure you can use it to express a lot more emotions. When we practice this move we add variety. There can be fast flies, slow flies, they can be flying high, they can be flying low, they can be flying right in front of us, they can be flying behind us, you get the idea. The flies can be all over so it can be quite and active move.
It is like the Locust pose in yoga — GREAT MOVE, not so great name.
What do you think? Do you want to catch flies? Would you rather catch fairies? Would you rather catch joy? Can you understand what a great move it is?
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