I have said many times that Nia is constantly changing and evolving. In the past I have felt that Nia has remained BASICALLY the same, but has moved forward when new knowledge has come to light, I recently saw something on FB that had me looking at some of the new material and I realized I should probably do some updating to my information. I am hoping to discover that I won’t need to change too much, but we will see. We will also see how far I get as it seems that other things tend to pull my attention away.
I don’t have the desire to update every single post that I have ever written regarding Nia but in the quick look I did, I saw some things that I would like to update.
For awhile I have felt that Nia is trying to tap into more of a “self-improvement” or “self-development” type of market. When I took my White Belt in 2008 they were at the start of re-vamping the training with triads and new verbiage, but I still felt there was a strong emphasis on teaching the participants how to tap into movement sensation in order to teach. In subsequent years, I remember having conversations with White Belt graduates about some of the teaching techniques I was taught and the graduates were not familiar. Then when I took it again in 2020 there wasn’t that much emphasis on teaching the teacher.
In 2022 Debbie Rosas, one of the founders of Nia, hosted an online event called “the global Nia Wisdom Summit”. She wanted to “explore Nia White Belt Principles from a new perspective.” She was looking to change the Nia White Belt training into something other than a teacher training. And after the meeting Nia has revamped the Nia White Belt training into “Nia Art of Sensation”, saying it is somatic movement education. So things are a little different. The principles look like they have been rearranged a bit and the verbiage throughout the “Art of Sensation” manual is – to me – more complicated and less user friendly. At first glance it looks like a lot more bells and whistles with more graphics and pictures of people moving. But as always it is evident that a lot goes into Nia training material so we will see.
I am going to try to go through it and hopefully update a few things. Stay tuned.
At the end of March (2015) there were two Special Nia Events in Campbell, California. They were special for a lot of reasons. One reason being is because a visiting teacher was going to be doing them. It is always special when someone who does not live in the area comes and shares their talents. Another reason is because the Nia Class is a one-of-a-kind-creation. The visiting teacher created the routine and was going to lead us through it. ANOTHER reason, they were special, was that one of the classes was a workshop or a playshop as we like to call them in Nia. And it was also, the creation of the visiting teacher and it was something that I think anyone that dances Nia can benefit from. Another reason they special was they were the first Nia Events that I produced. Produced meaning, when I heard that the Nia Teacher who created the Playshop was coming to my area I contacted him to invite him to do these events. I secured the location, I created marketing material, I promoted the events (as I am sure you have seen, I posted about them often), I worked to get participants to the events, and I worried about how it would all turn out. So, two special Nia Events. I have posted two separate posts (What Did Frankie Say? and Dancing, Learning, Posting, Editing) about the Nia Class that was held on Friday, March 27, 2015. This post is about the Playshop.
The Playshop on Saturday, March 28, 2015 was a playshop regarding Nia FreeDance. In a Nia class, there is normally choreography. Nia Headquarters and the training staff create Nia Routines. There are Nia Routine DVDs that Nia Teachers purchase. We learn the routines and lead our students through them. We have a lot of freedom with our classes. We can follow the routines “exactly” or we can play with them. We can create our own routines from a mix of Nia Routines or we can take the Nia choreography and add it to other music. Or we can create our own routines with other non-Nia music. But with almost every routine there is FreeDance.
FreeDance is where there is not specific choreography. You are not told exactly how to move. Now, I have heard the creators of Nia express very different opinions on FreeDance. I heard one of them say in the past that FreeDance should ALWAYS be guided and the other one say that FreeDance can just be free. So . . . there are different opinions on the matter. I think that in keeping with the Nia White Belt Principle #4, Nia FreeDance does not need to be guided because “Anything Goes . . . movement-wise”. But FreeDance in an exercise class is a challenge to many people. There are many reasons as to why people cannot or will not just move their bodies in their own way in an exercise class.
This playshop was brought here to help people with that. Many of the tools (ideas) Jason shared were covered in the Nia Intensives. So if you have not attended a Nia White Belt Intensive or Nia Blue Belt Intensive, they would be new to you. They are GREAT! And they were the reminder and push I needed to pull them out to use them. The most valuable things he shared with me though were not necessarily the guiding ideas, but more about how the individuals in class can be left to be.
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When I see people in my class not moving or seeming to struggle with FreeDance, I take responsibility and blame myself for not getting them to move with my suggestions and guidance. But he brought up some very good points that I will now take to class and practice just letting those people be where they are, at that moment, in class.
Although I will still strive for the “When Harry Met Sally Moment” of wanting people to look at us and say, “I’ll have what SHE’S having.” I will also take into consideration that they could very well be doing my suggestion, but it looks different to me than I would do it. Or that they are just not in a place to FreeDance. Could be a case of Natural Time.
I learned a lot. I had a lot of fun. I am excited for Jason to come back again! This video and the video on my website are the same song. As I only stopped participating one time to video. The videos are at different times so they are a little different. Also shown here are a few of the pictures I took during the Playshop. I took more pictures during the hour Frankie Say Nia class than I did during the 3.75 hours of the Nia FreeDance Playshop.
There might be one more blog post about this, but we will see. These are the extent of pictures and videos. Enjoy!
Please share your comments. Please ask if you have any questions!
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In 2022 Debbie Rosas, one of the founders of Nia, hosted an online event called “the global Nia Wisdom Summit”. She wanted to “explore Nia White Belt Principles from a new perspective.” She was looking to change the Nia White Belt training into something other than a teacher training. And after the meeting Nia has revamped the Nia White Belt training into “Nia Art of Sensation”, saying it is somatic movement education. So things are a little different. The principles look like they have been rearranged a bit and the verbiage throughout the “Art of Sensation” manual is – to me – more complicated and less user friendly. At first glance it looks like a lot more bells and whistles with more graphics and pictures of people moving. But as always it is evident that a lot goes into Nia training material so we will see.
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