The current Nia routine I am trying to learn is taking me a long time. I have mentioned before that I feel it takes me a long time to learn a routine, but this one seems even longer. The first thing I do is listen to the music. I had been doing so for a couple of weeks, then I got busy for a couple of days and hadn’t turned it on. When I went to the album in my iTunes I was shocked to see I had never listened past the sixth song. In fact, at that point I had never made it through the entire sixth song (that is how annoying it is). So I realized I needed to watch the Nia Training DVD. Watching the choreography usually helps me get through a song that I don’t like because it gives me points of reference. But this workout is filmed where the teacher and class are FACING the camera. I don’t like this since I primarily teach with my back towards the class. Back to the class really helps people copy the moves because they don’t have the whole “mirroring” issue to resolve. When I am trying to learn a routine and the people on the DVD are facing me, I don’t care for it. I do it as mirror, they are using their left foot and I am using my right, so I go right when they say “Go left”. All trainers sometimes state the opposite side or direction, but when they are actually USING the left, but I am mirroring them, it confuses my brain. In addition to the camera angle challenge (for me) this particular song is said to be a different version than they thought they were getting. So the choreography appears to be being created as the routine is being filmed. So it is very loose. I often feel that Debbie Rosas, in her brilliance, has so many ideas about choreography for one song that she sometimes shares them all during the filming and there ends up being a lot of moves in one song. I am grateful that the belts I have taken thus far have emphasized “less is more” and we have permission to pick a couple of moves from the song on the DVD and do them to the song. So that is what I did with one of the songs. I picked a few of the moves she did and organized them into something I can learn.
I will work on learning it this way. Although I will need a lot of practice because the song tends to mesmerize me and I lose my place. Hopefully as I grow more familiar with the moves and music I can play with it as the Debbie did. Since I don’t watch the DVDs that are filmed with the class facing front as many times as I watch the other ones I need to have a map I can follow from the get go. That is also the case for me when the song is very long and repetitive. I need to have a pattern, even then I can get lost in a song like this. And as I mentioned — just listening to it, trying to learn the song itself is not something I have been able to do. Every time I turn it on to learn it, half way through I am so annoyed by it, I turn it off. But moving to it is another thing. That is why when I don’t like a song, I look to the choreography because often times when the choreography makes sense it allows me to get through the song. More often than not I end up liking the song. We will see what happens with this song. It is like a dripping faucet.
Except for the class and the trainer facing the camera and the song titles not being shown as each song begins, the Nia training material continues to be stellar. At the end of 2014, Nia HQ put out the new Routines. I had ordered three earlier in the year, I just received the fourth one. I am going to add the titles in with the AWESOME software I have on trial. I have to do it before my 30 days is up. Then I will continue learning the routine I am working on. I will debut it to my class soon.
When you take group exercise classes do you like the instructor to face you? Have you ever noticed how a lot of songs are very repetitive?
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