Regular reader? Familiar with Nia? Then you know that Nia has different levels and that they use belt colors to distinguish between. White, Blue, Brown, and Black. Each belt has thirteen principles (except Green Belt*). The trainings for the levels are called intensives and the intensives can be attended by people who just want a to explore self growth and/or learn how the body is connected to many things. If you are a new reader and/or not familiar with Nia . . . . there you have it. In November 2011 I took the Nia Blue Belt Training and I am using my blog to make notes on it. It is taking me some time to get through the principles, but I am jotting down my thoughts that come to me as I thumb through my notes. My intent is to continue to work and play with the 13 Nia Blue Belt Principles after my initial posts and come back to some of them and share some more. The principles can be deep because they are very rich. So like many things they have layers and the layers can be peeled back to expose more and more. This post is about Nia Blue Belt Principle #11, Music, Movement, Magic – Manifesting the Ultimmmate Nia Experience. Yes, ultimate is spelled with three m’s, representing music, movement, magic.
One of the ways we learn to bring this to class is to use objective and subjective descriptions. We can do this for many things. We can do this when stating the class focus and intent. We can do this when leading the class through a move. We can do this when talking about music. The following are examples:
Focus and Intent:
Objective – Today we are going to focus on the rhomboid muscles. These are muscles in your upper back that assist with shoulder blade movement. They pull your shoulders back and down.
Subjective – I like pay special attention to my rhomboids so I feel as if I am standing upright and not hunched over. I feel they need extra love. We can give them that during class with the intent to stand tall.
Move:
Objective – Pull your shoulder blades down.
Subjective – I feel as if my shoulder blades are in my back pockets!
Music:
Objective – This music was part of an Oscar Winning Score.
Subjective – This music makes me want to close my eyes and ride the peaceful notes to happy.
This objective and subjective way of looking at things is a key to Nia. It can be compared to THE Body’s Way and Your Body’s Way. There is a way the body was designed to move — objective. There is a way that YOUR body, and my body moves — subjective. There are specific ways to do the Nia 52 Moves — objective. There is a way that each individual Nia participant does the Nia 52 Moves — subjective. All of this helps to create the “magic” that is part of Nia.
The Music is the core. We dance to the music. The Movement is what we do. We move. We dance. We play. The Magic is what we bring, which with all of it put together there is resulting magic.
This is just a tiny portion of Nia Blue Belt Principle #11, just off the top of my head. There is much, much more to Music, Movement, Magic – Manifesting the Ultimmmate Nia Experience and I look forward to delving into it more.
Have you experience the Nia Music, Movement, and Magic yet for yourself?
*Green Belt is specifically for Nia teachers.
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