Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

  • I teach yoga, Nia, and stretch online!

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Posts Tagged ‘dance exercise classes’

Maps Can Help Get You Where You Want To Go

Posted by terrepruitt on September 9, 2014

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classesI am not sure many websites have Site Maps any longer.  Websites now-a-days are so full of bells and whistles not many have site maps.  Not many just have a place where you can go to one page to see a list of everything that is on the site.  I find sometimes when I am on a website, I am just going in circles trying to find the information I want and I think it would be nice if there was that one page . . . that site map . . . that showed me the list of pages so that I could click on the page I want instead of getting dizzy clicking around.  I think I have a lot of information on my site so I know that one might get a little overwhelmed.  I know that some of my pages repeat information on other pages.  I do that because when I am on a website sometimes I don’t see the information if it is only on one page, but the more it is repeated the better chance that I will see it.  But I do have a site map for my site.  I have a lot of information so I wanted to have a list that people can look at in case they wanted an idea of what the whole site contained.

Since I teach at several different places and I have both a FIXED (on-going) schedule and one that changes all the time it can be a bit much for people to keep track of.   In addition to my teaching schedule, I have information regarding Nia on the site because I want to educate people on the classes they can take from me.  So, yeah, there is a lot on there.  So here is what I have created to help.

 

What’s on www.HelpYouWell.com at a glance!  The BOLD indicates the links you see at the left, the others are in the drop down menu if you put your mouse over the links at the left.  And, you can just click the link from this site map. 
• Home
• New to Nia (links to help you navigate site)
• What is Nia?
o Nia Practice
o Nia FreeDance
o Nia 5 Stages
• Contact Terre
• Nia Class Schedule (schedule of regular ON-GOING Classes)
o San Jose Nia Classes (M/W) (details about Wednesday classes)
o Community Center Classes (regular classes with the City of San Jose – T/Th)
– City of San Jose – Nia (Classes SUBBING for the City of San Jose)
o YMCA Silicon Valley Classes
– YMCA Silicon Valley – Sub Dates (Classes SUBBING for the YMCA)
o Present Nia Class Locations (locations at a glance)
o Nia in the Evening
o Nia on Saturday at 10 am
o Nia Schedule at a glance (another way to look at Terre’s Nia schedule)
• Nia Information
o Nia Class Cycles
o Main Benefits of Nia
o Tips for a Pleasurable Nia Experience
o Principles of the Body’s Way
o Nia Tips for Moving with Nia
o Sounding Tips
o Nia’s 52 Moves
o Nia Belt Levels and Focuses
o Indexes for The Nia Technique Book
   Index with Sections
   Index with separate list of subsections
• About Terre Pruitt
• Nia Class Fees (each location has different fees)
• Nia Monthly (information regarding Nia in the current month, sometimes additional info, check it out)
• Nia Jams
• Gentle Yoga
• ZUMBA
o Zumba Fitness Class Schedule
• Pictures and Stuff
• San Medusa (a write-up about a Playshop with Helen Terry.  Link not shown on left.)
• Site Map

Hopefully this helps people navigate the site.  The site map is a list of all the pages on the site with hot links so you can click on the page you want to visit.  What do you think?  Do you ever get “lost” on a website?  It seems as if you are just going in circles?  Do you find many websites with site maps?

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Turn In Nia And Other Dance Exercise Classes (Video)

Posted by terrepruitt on July 10, 2012

I wrote a post about a four-point turn, that is what I call one of the turns we do while we are doing Nia.  In Nia it is sometimes called an Aikido turn.  But it is a turn that is done in many dance exercise classes, including Zumba.  I realize that even if you are reading the post while trying to do it, it could be a bit confusing so . . . . . voila!  A video.

The first clip is of me facing away and I start with a RIGHT turn, then alternate.  Then the second clip is of me facing the camera.

As with my Aikido turn post maybe right and left indications will work better for you.  In my other post I decribed the left turn, so here I will write out the right turn.  And as stated, the right turn is the first turn I demonstrate.  Turn your head/eyes to the right, allow your hand/arm to follow. Move your right foot to “toes out” turning your right thigh bone to the right. Then step on your RIGHT FOOT in a “toes out” position, put your weight on it 100%. As you are stepping all your weight on your RIGHT FOOT, allow your body to turn to the right, in the direction you want to go. Swing your LEFT LEG (free leg) around to what seems like in front of your RIGHT FOOT. Step onto your LEFT FOOT, toes pointing to the back of the room (or what started off as the back of the room), take the weight off the RIGHT FOOT (“toes out” foot). Swing your RIGHT FOOT (free leg) behind to land about in line with the heel of your LEFT FOOT (weighted foot).  You will land standing on the RIGHT FOOT, and turn the LEFT FOOT to be parallel with the right foot. . . making that the fourth point or step.

Even though in the first clip on the right turn you can’t see my right foot “toes out”, I do the turn enough times in the video for you to see how the first step is a “toes out” move.  Starting the turn with the “toes out” and already turning the direction you want to go will go a long way in enabling you to get all the way around.  Even if it takes a lot of practice to get all the way around, starting that first step with the leg in outward rotation will help a lot.  I also said in my last post that I think it is easier to do this move fast as opposed to slow. So it might be a good idea to not try it really slow at first because it is not easy slow.  Just go.  Right toes out, left, right, left.  Or left toes out, right left right.   Remember we do not spin on our feet. We need to pick the feet up off the ground to avoid blisters and strengthen the leg.  Also you might notice that this turn is done on the balls of the feet.  You put all your weight on the ball of the foot.

While my fourth “point” or step I am exaggerating and pointing my toe in that might not always be the case.  When we are moving to the music the fourth “point” could end up being any number of things depending upon many number of things.  The choreography sometimes calls for different things.  Plus there is the individual body that is doing it to consider.  Sometimes people can’t get all the way around, it could be that the music is really moving and there isn’t enough time to get around and settle into that fourth step or it could be that this is one of those moves that will take practice.

It’s a great move that allows us to use ALL five Nia Sensations.  Flexibility on the “toes out” and as we place our feet, mobility in our joints, strength to get us around and stop, agility to stop, and stability to stay stopped.  Cool, huh?

So how are you doing with your turn?

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