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!
EnJoy!