Recently I attended a Business Training type of workshop. It was specifically for women. The trainer feels that women – for many reasons – could use business training specifically for woman. She didn’t get into explanations regarding her reasons, but some that have been tossed about before are things like, some woman are challenged in business because they are mothers/wives . . . just like any working woman, time used for work is time taken away from the family so they may feel guilty. Plus . . . business is a “man’s world”. Often times women are not taken as seriously as a man. Some women have a difficult time stating their worth. Some women are inclined to help so they feel “bad” charging for their services. Those are just some reasons I’ve heard before. Perhaps one or some of them are why this workshop was strictly for women. It was a nice workshop. The woman who presented it was very fun and had a lot of good information. But, if you have taken the Nia White Belt Intensive, most of the same information was in that. If you have taken any type of certification and it was a good one, then they would have covered the same type of business information that was in this workshop. But if you have never taken anything before then it was a great one.
The first thing all the business trainings I’ve taken say is to diversify. So in the context of Nia, the idea is to not just teach Nia classes. But to do Nia Workshops, Nia retreats, Nia personal training, Nia sessions, Nia talks/webinars, in other words the idea is you have this great gift to share – don’t hold back. And for something like Nia there really is so much to it, it can’t be all shared in just the dance exercise classes. This training had to do with yoga, so she was using examples pretty much the same. You could do all the same things; classes, workshops, retreats, sessions, webinars . . . etc.
The one thing that was different about this workshop was that the steps she recommended that needed to be taken she aligned with Goddesses. So with the first step she said to “claim your power and passion with the Goddess Durga”. Which according to the first thing on the internet Durga “is the root cause of creation, preservation and annihilation”. Since, I am not going to be using Goddess in my business or my life, I didn’t take many notes that had to do with the Goddess part. But this step was also the part that was connected to finding your niche. Again, in context, there are a lot of different types of yoga so find one that is your passion. Or find something that can complement yoga and concentrate on that. With your passion you will be able to connect to people. So let’s say you love to crochet, you could have a yoga crochet class (and workshop, retreat, sessions, webinar, etc.).
The next step was to release fears and doubts (with another Goddess). And during this one we did a really great exercise. She had us speaking from a place of fears and doubts, then she had us speaking form a place of confidence. We all could really tell the difference. This was a great (and very important) reminder for me.
The next step was to create your offering (with another Goddess) and she shared ideas on that. She shared actual testimonies or information from some of her clients. Step four was marketing (with another Goddess). As you probably know there are many places to market. With social media the ways to do it are encouraging. So much of it can be free.
She shared some mistakes that people make, like no marketing or not doing enough, or boring marketing. Not diversifying, not having a plan, trying to reinvent the wheel, and trying to do it on your own and not ask for help.
Like I said, it was good. It was great if you have never heard any of it before. As you may have read before on my blog, Nia has awesome training and business is one of the 13 principles in the Nia White Belt so they cover these things. These are typical business ideas, attaching Goddesses to them, was new to me.
This workshop was just a taste of a longer more in-depth workshop. The weekend one sounded amazing and fun, but my abundance doesn’t come from Goddesses, so I wasn’t interested.
I do have other things I want to share, but this post is long enough. In another post I’ll share some things that this workshop didn’t cover but I think are good things to think about if you want to teach classes (like yoga or Nia).
If you have a certification in something did the training cover any business training? Are you familiar with any of these business ideas?
Nia has been a cardio-dance workout since 1983. It is not as well known as some other cardio dance exercises. So when we have events, such as Nia Jams, Playshops, Plearns, Workshops, Intensives, Master Classes in addition to attending and enjoying these events I ALWAYS think of those things as opportunities to take pictures and videos. I always think that the pictures and videos can be posted on social media so that we can “get Nia out there” so it becomes more well known. The videos and pictures are meant to show people how fun it is. The pictures and videos are to show that it is a workout. The videos and pictures are meant to show people how anyone can do Nia. I was so caught up in getting people signed in and getting things ready to go for the Nia Class that I recently produced, I neglected to ask permission to take and post pictures and videos. But . . . I also had it in my head that it is well known that while we do our Nia events we want to have pictures of them to promote our Nia events. Well . . . . this is the result of me not doing due diligence and gaining permission BEFORE taking the pictures and the videos. These are some of the pictures and videos from the Nia Class on Friday, March 27, 2015. I have posted other pictures where I had to block someone out, but never videos. It takes a long time, so this is the end result of a non-professional video editor (me).
As I stated in my post, What Did Frankie Say?, on Saturday after the Nia Class, Jason Alan Griffin, a First Degree Nia Black Belt is travel the United States presenting his Nia routine he calls Frankie Say Nia. I didn’t do well, at all, with the dressing in the 80’s style, but I did think the animal print would work. My little head top pony-tail was supposed to be a tribute to the “BIG HAIR” of the 80’s. I didn’t bother actually doing my hair up in that BIG way because after the first song it would have just been flat.
Nia IS a cardio-dance WORKOUT and the routine followed the classic Nia style with all seven cycles of a Nia workout. And in keeping with the seven cycles this routine has a focus and an intent. The focus being the Creative Hand and Arm Expressions. The intent is to allow us to relax into personal power.
The routine is full of fun and familiar songs, except the last three. There were three songs in the Floorplay section and the first one just struck me as odd. I don’t mind dancing to odd music. Dancing to odd music is fun. And, in fact, part of the Nia White Belt Training gets us to dance to music that might be considered undanceable by many. I have yet to come across music that is undanceable, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think some of it is odd. And it wasn’t so much that it was odd, it was that I couldn’t remember ever hearing it before. Jason, kindly reminded me again (because I asked him at least three times and couldn’t remember still) that it was Ghost Town by the Specials. I was also trying to follow the moves and allow myself to dance, so I didn’t even listen to all the words. It is a very varied song. I am listening to it now as I type and it is making me laugh!
Regardless of my error in not getting permission beforehand and regardless of the less-than-professional job of “editing”, I believe it is still obvious that fun was had by all. It was a great time. I still have the Playshop to post about. I will get to that eventually. So stay tuned! We can’t wait to have Jason back for more Nia. I will keep you posted so next time you can join us!
I am certain that I have mentioned the fact that Nia changes. Like many things it grows, it morphs, it improves, it changes, yet it remains the same. The basics stay the same. The core of it stays the same, but as time goes on it morphs. Sometimes it is the verbiage and the names of things, but it basically stays the same. It has been a year since I have taken the Nia Blue Belt Intensive. In that intensive we were given a Manual from August 2006 and while we were being trained we were told that a new manual was soon to be released along with some new ways of explaining, talking, and learning things. So part of what I quote here might be a little different from what is being taught now, but the idea and the process is the same. The process is Creating Space.
In an intensive, before every session we gather and create the space. This practice was discovered as something done in martial arts. Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, the creators of Nia, recognized its value and brought it into Nia. It is the responsibility of the participants to create the space. It is the responsibility of trainers to hold the space.
The Blue Belt Manual states: “Creating space is the conscious act of preparing the environment, which includes your body.”
It is an incredibly powerful act that enables an individual and a group to become prepared for receiving. It is — at its core — coming into stillness. In preparation for creating the space we use a prescribed process. There is a schedule that is kept. A bell is rung seven to ten minutes before we are to start creating the space. This allows for people to wrap up any conversations they might be involved in and to do any last minute things that need to be done. Then there is a five minute bell and another one at one minute. Then, the students create a circle in which we sit quietly while we create the space. The things we do is quiet the mind, stop the inner dialog and just let the mind rest and become open to hearing and receiving the teaching that is about to happen. The body is also stilled. The emotions are balanced and not taking over. We are connected to our higher self . . . the manual says, “open, but you are not seeking at the moment”.
A main point is to not allow for distractions of any kind. No physical distractions . . . that is one reason why we sit still. No mental distractions . . .that is one reason why we stop the inner dialog and the thinking. All four bodies, Body-Mind-Emotion-Spirit (BMES), are stilled.
The space we create is “a way to set up an energy environment that supports your practice and learning.” It really is a very helpful and powerful tool to help with the learning process. We continue to sit in the space until the trainer interrupts us by thanking us.
I believe that many things could benefit from the creation of space; a meeting, family dinner time, Nia classes, a yoga practice, any exercise, and many more. I think it is a good idea sometimes to clear your head and body of distractions in order to concentrate fully on the “task” at hand. I know that for me this practice really works well in the intensives.
Is this something that you think you could benefit from? What types of tasks or activities do you think you could create space for?
I have been teaching Nia for over four and half years. I have students that are Nia teachers. I have students who have taken the training but are not teachers. The Nia Intensives are open to people who do not intend to teach. So I have people in my classes who have experienced the training, but this is the first time that I have people who are taking the Nia White Belt Training because I introduced them to Nia. Well, one for certain, she did not know about it until she had taken my class and the other one I think didn’t know about it until she came to one of my Nia classes. Now this is not me saying I am so great that I have inspired two individuals to take the intensive, this is me saying, “Yay!” to the power of Nia. It is fun cardio dance exercise class . . . but if you want to take the intensive it is a lot more.
I am so excited. I have not had a chance to talk to my student much. She just returned and we have yet to meet so I can get the scoop, but she did express awe. She is in my Tuesday morning class. The Tuesday before she left for her training she was so kind she said that she was bringing a laptop and she would be able to send me some e-mails and we could communicate the week she was in the training. I told her no we would not. I told her that she is going to be so full she will not be able to e-mail. For me, while I was in the intensive, any time that I was not actually IN the training, I was either trying to absorb it and remember and think about all that I had just heard or I was do a little bit of socializing. The training is intense. I have mentioned before. It is not so physically intense that you feel as if you are at military boot camp, but it is physical. There is a lot of moving. I did send her an e-mail during the week and she said she was too tired to respond. I laughed. It is a lot.
Usually there is a Nia class at 7:00 in the morning or so. And when I was in the training we were not required to go to them all, but why not? So the day starts with movement at 7:00 am. Then there is lectures and movement and all of it together. And – something else I’ve said before – not everything you hear is a new concept or a new idea, but the way it is presented or tied into Nia and/or movement makes it seem new in the sense that your brain and your body want to examine it. Learning can be exhausting. Intensives are about 50 hours. The day usually ends about 7:00 pm after an evening Nia class. I know I said most of this just this past November when I took my blue belt. But I am just so excited to have two students becoming Nia White Belts I wanted to share. I want to shout it out!
The brief moments I did get to speak to my student she expressed exactly what one expects after a training. She was happy and grateful and just full of new things. She was amazed to see how much anatomy is part of the Nia training. One of the co-founders wanted to be a doctor so she is very interesting in anatomy. Plus knowing how the body is designed helps know how to create choreography that will allow the body to have a wonderful sensation while moving. Nia is amazing.
I really just wanted to share my joy that one of my students took the next step in the amazing journey that is Nia. She was very kind and as a thank you for introducing her to Nia, she brought me these lovely gladioli.
Whether you do Nia, Zumba, yoga, Pilates, country western dance, motor-cycle race, play tennis, or just about anything there are the “Gods” or celebrities of the practice/dance/sport. Often the “Gods” or gurus are the masters or the top teachers, but sometimes it is the CREATOR himself/herself. That is when the event is really rockin’. That is when the events sell out or get so crowded it is crazy. Well, Nia is going through a lot of changes and they have been working for a couple of years training the top instructors to move up even further to become top trainers. The male of the male-female combo that created Nia, Carlos AyaRosas (FKA Carlos Rosas) retired a bit ago, so that left the female creator to continue on. She is coming to the San Francisco Bay Area . . . . . which is a rather large area. She is going to be in the North Bay, the East Bay, and the Peninsula. And it is going to be rockin’. She and a top trainer are going to be here.
April 2013
Debbie Rosas is the (co-)creator of Nia. Kevin VerEecke is a Nia Trainer. They are going to be in the San Francisco Bay Area in the beginning of April (2013). They are going to have seven classes. It is going to be incredible. Every thing has its superstars, its celebrities and these are ours. It is really exciting.
I took my Nia White Belt Intensive at the Nia Headquarters in Portland. The trainers doing the intensive were Debbie and Carlos. Plus they were here for a “Spirit of Nia” tour within the last four years. So I have met them both. I have never met Kevin.
I am excited that Debbie and Kevin will be here sharing the Nia experience. The classes that they are going to be doing are 52 Moves classes. While we have a basic set of 52 Moves we don’t typically do all 52 in every Nia Routine. We do many, but not usually all. In these classes they are going to lead us through all 52 Moves. There are going to be seven chances to check it out.
The first class that will be held will be with Keven VerEecke only in San Rafael. Then Friday’s classes, Saturday’s Classes, and Sunday’s Classes will be both Debbie and Kevin.
The flyer indicates that all classes will have a different playlist. I guess for some people that is important. I know Nia enough to know that all seven classes could be the same EXACT playlist yet all seven classes could be totally different. That is the beauty of Nia. And with two masters leading the dance it wouldn’t matter. BUT . . . the flyer does indicate all classes will have different play lists.
I hope you will take this opportunity. Nia is always fun, but when you have the creator up in front of a room full of people who are there to dance, move, and have fun there is no way you can experience anything but MAGIC.
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?
Last week I cancelled my Monday and Wednesday Nia class and got a substitute for my Tuesday Nia class with the City of San Jose. I decided to take the next level of Nia training. I was a White Belt, now I am a Blue Belt. Nia calls their trainings intensive. I cannot assume to know why, but I am glad they do. They are very intense. The training is part lecture and part moving. The moving can be dancing or types of exercises to further the learning process. People tend to learn better when they are doing, so there is a lot of doing. In my rough calculations it was about 53 hours of instruction, including the Master Classes. It was Saturday through Friday. It was exhausting. It was energizing. It was incredible. As I have mentioned before and I will continue to mention Nia is a cardio dance exercise. Come to a class. Move. Have fun. Sweat. Get your workout in. But Nia is also a practice. I compare it to yoga in that a person can go into a yoga class and work out and do the exercise and then leave and not give it a second though. Or they could give it a second thought. They could take on some of the aspects of yoga, they could practice breathing and/or meditating or anything else that might be attached to their yoga class on a deeper level. That is what a person can do with Nia too. So some people take the intensives for self-growth with no intention of teaching at all. Even if they are not planning on teaching or are not currently doing so, the training is just as intense.
Each belt level has its own focus and intent. Blue Belt focus is Communication, Relationship and Intimacy with the intent to energize personal connection through self-discovery and communication by following The Body’s Way. Sounds like a lot. Ok, it IS a lot. LOL!
In addition to a focus and intent, each belt level (aside from Green) has its own set of principles. With the Blue Belt, the principles were made to layer onto or over the White Belt Principles. Some of the information is very close to being the same, but with a little more added to it. It is very interesting the way Nia does things. It is very amazing the training they come up with and the delivery of it.
In this training we were shown many things, one was an enlightened way to use the Nia 5 Stages or the Developmental Anatomy to measure all types of things and where we might be in a process. It is a pretty cool tool. It is part of the Body’s Way.
I am 100% positive I will have more posts regarding the Blue Belt Intensive, the Blue Belt Principles, and my thoughts on it all. I am still processing it right now. My mind is racing with thoughts, ideas, things I learned, things I didn’t learn, just a lot of things. There is so much that I want to share. There is also a lot I don’t want to share. Nia is not a secret society by any means. There are no secrets to the intensives, in fact most of the information is things that have been around for as long as I can remember. The information is stuff you have probably heard before. It is just the WAY they deliver it. And the way it is connected to the body that is somewhat unique. If I decide not to share something or talk vaguely about some things it is because I don’t want to ruin the surprise of some things for those of you that will be taking the Blue Belt. Since the Blue Belt Principles are layered onto the White Belt Principles I will probably write more post about them too. And we will see what comes up. I have chosen to participate in Nia as a practice. For now, I will revel in Blue!
Is there something that you have in your life you consider a practice?
Nia’s training, the Nia Intensives are something that anyone can take. If you are not planning on teaching you can still attend the intensives. Nia is a practice that can be applied to life without ever having to teach it. Nia has several different ways of helping with continued education both for the livelihood member and for teachers. First for a person that is planning on teaching, #12 of the White Belt principles is continued education. There are instructions and ideas on how to learn Nia routines.
There are three stages to learning a routine. When I took my White Belt Carlos was very adamant about not skipping any of these steps. I am glad I have decided to post this because I am being reminded that there are a few steps in each stage that I could be better about doing. In the first stage we are reminded to just simply do the DVD. With each routine we have a DVD and we are instructed to just do it. Do it as if we are taking a Nia class. Do it as you would do any exercise DVD. Move, listen, and enjoy the workout. This is obviously one step that can be done several times.
Another step is to listen to the music all the time. Listen and allow it to seep into the body. Then we are encouraged to FreeDance to the music. We are instructed to dance six of the eight stages. Keep in mind this can be over the course of days or weeks, whatever it takes. Then they advise us to just WATCH the DVD without working out to it. The last step in Stage 1 is to do the bars.
Stage 2 is where we watch the DVD and note the separate portions of the body’s choreography. Three separate steps, first we watch and note the legs, then the core, then the arms.
Stage 3 of learning a Nia Routine is where we start to go deeper into the routine by starting to have an awareness of the musical cues that signal a change in movement. By now, with having danced the routine to the Nia DVD as a student, listened to the music, mapped out the music, noted the choreography, and become aware of the sounds that tell us when there is a movement change coming we are ready to pretend. We call that teaching or dancing with your bears. It is the example used when you are at a point in the learning process where you are ready to do the workout and pretend there are students. During my Nia White Belt Intensive Carlos said something like set up stuff bears or spoons or pillows, just set up something so you can have a focus. I think the bear scenario is used in all intensives because we all call it “teaching/dancing with your bears”. Step 3 of stage 3 is to even go deeper into the music. It is amazing how the music will sound different after you have taught your bears. I might realize I need to pick a different music cue because while I am moving the one I originally chose gets lost, or I hear a better one. Sometimes I stop and don’t move at all to make sure I am hearing the music correctly. More advice includes being the student, doing the routine again, but as the student and not the teacher and getting more technical with the moves. Once you have the basic choreography down it is time to get technical and make certain you have all the levels of intensity familiarized in your body. The Nia Routine training DVD also has many other tools on it to help us learn the routine. They have a portion where they talk about the energy that goes with each move and more about the technical aspect of each move. One of the last steps is the recommendation to dance the routine with a different focus. That is a great way to learn a routine because it becomes practically brand new and you discover so much. The last stage encourages us to change the music. Because we have mapped out music and know the count of it we can pick songs that match and put the choreography to different music.
In addition to these great stages and steps they have mapped out for us to assist us in learning a routine, Nia’s continue education includes articles and telecourses. They also film classes that they hold at Nia HQ so that people can watch and learn about more ideas that delve into Nia. In 2010 the course of study was the 13 Nia White Belt Principles. The course of study for 2011 is “Becoming A Sensation Scientist”, learning about senses of the body. I am not sure of what the course of study’s name is for 2012, but it looks as if it has to do with the body itself with title such as, “Awareness of Muscles” and “Awareness of Ligaments and Tendons.” So this is part of what I mean when I say Nia is so much more than a workout.
YES, Nia is a cardio dance workout where you can go to a class and move your body to music get sweaty and get exercise for your body. But if you want, it can be a practice, where you learn more about your body. Even if you are not a teacher or a livelihood member Nia does a monthly telecourse call where everyBODY can listen, I would like to encourage you to check it out. Go to the main website for Nia and see all the education they have to offer. You might be just amazed as I always am.
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