I learn A LOT when I teach Nia. I learn a lot when I teach anything, but since my focus now is teaching Nia, I say I learn a lot when I teach Nia. One thing I learn or I am reminded of is not everyone has taken a class that has taught them basic steps. It is like when I take a Zumba class and the teach calls out a basic Latin dance and I have no idea what she is talking about. I always laugh to myself and say, “I don’t know what the steps are to that basic Latin dance!” But then I remember my Nia training and my Nia practice and while I try to do whatever dance it is she says we are doing, I remain in Joy and just allow myself to move my body in a way that is dance to me. But not everyone has had Nia training and not everyone practices Nia so it is not as easy for them to just allow their bodies to move and not think so much. One of the tools that Nia uses to help teachers instruct the dance and to just help one dance in general is the clock. I posted about how we look at the clock in a Nia class — ok that is just me because I need the actual reference. I have posted about our step called the “Slow Clock” . This post is about the movement called the Fast Clock. The Fast Clock is one of Nia’s 52 Moves
The Fast Clock is similar to the Slow Clock in that we are stepping on the “hours” of a clock (oh, imagine that!), but with the fast clock we don’t return to center before stepping on another number/hour. So if you stand with your feet together imaging you are in the center of the clock, then step your right foot to 12 o’clock, then back to 6 o’clock (without stopping in the center) that is the fast clock. There are a lot of combinations that can be done when doing a fast clock. You could step to 12 o’clock, then 3 o’clock, then 6 o’clock, then return to center. Then your other foot could step to 12 o’clock, then 9 o’clock, then 6 o’clock, then return to center.
POP QUIZ: Which foot would step to 12 o’clock, then 3 o’clock, then 6 o’clock, then return to center? 🙂
Just the same as the Slow Clock you can actually take a step where you place the weight on the foot that is on the number/hour or you can touch or make it a tap. Sometimes you might even get fancy or really dancy and just do it in the air. But all that fancy stuff is obviously added after you learn the basic Fast Clock. As with many things, Nia does have basic steps and proper ways to execute them, then as we dance we add on to them to make them a more animated part of the dance.
As with many of the moves in Nia the participant is responsible for providing their own desired intensity. You can easily work up a sweat in Nia if you make your movements bigger or louder. We sometimes refer to it as turning up the volume. But again, that is up to you and how you are feeling during that class. A “louder” fast clock could have lengthier steps making the imaginary clock face you are dancing on very large. Or your “bigger” could be going deeper into the steps, bringing your body closer to the earth. Having tools like the face of the clock to assist in knowing where to step, allows the Nia student to focus on their body and what it needs and not be so caught up in whether they are “doing it right”. With the clock it makes it easy to teach and easy to follow!
Ok, now get up and practice your clocks! Which foot goes to 12 o’clock? Which foot goes to 9 o’clock?
So, you know what kind of day I had? I awoke to a kiss from my hubby. Then before I could get out of bed I had a sweet little cat rolling around on the floor meowing for attention. She was very affectionate and spent a lot of time visiting with me. My hubby said she spent a lot of time with him too, about twenty minutes. That is a long time, usually she wants to get her morning hugs in then rush off to a bed for her morning nap. Then my day proceeded with me teaching a Nia class. We had a great time. Afterwards my students and I chatted a bit. The conversation ended on a high – a compliment to me and Nia.
The weather was nice in the morning.
I stopped by the grocery store. I came home and made a really yummy sandwich using the panini press. I received a few e-mails from friends and family. I talked to a good friend. We had a nice phone visit. I even took a little nap.
So it was a very wonderful day. I am very blessed. See? I had one of THOSE kinds of days, the ones that I am grateful for, the ones that sometimes get lost in the mix. When I judge my day or talk about it, I don’t condemn the entire day just because there might be a few bad moments. If you ask me about my day, I will tell you it was good. I appreciated it. If you want to hear I will share about the other moments, but I won’t proclaim my whole day BAD or one of “THOSE DAYS”.
I won’t let the fact that when I got downstairs after visiting my cat I noticed that she threw up in four different places, dictate the whole day’s label. For those of you that have cats, I know you understand (Why do they do it in several places??). For those of you that don’t have cats, cats throw up. Sometimes a lot and sometimes not. Sometimes is it just a hairball and sometimes it is just them not feeling well. It seems that no matter WHY they are throwing up they have to do it in three (at least) different places.
I won’t claim it “one of those days” even after I went into the bathroom to get my vacuum cleaner hose out of the tub (yeah that is where I keep it) and noticed that the other stuff I had in there was damp. It wasn’t gonna get that label even after I came back from the garage with a basket to put the stuff in and the entire tub was full of water, then the toilet started to over flow as I was standing there. Yeah, it still wasn’t a bad DAY. I still can’t negate all the good of my day by calling the entire day bad when I realized we don’t have a mop. I use those disposable type of floor cleaners and our mop died a long time ago. So I had nothing to soak up the water with. I had to go to the store.
Even when my hubby didn’t get a call back from the plumber before 5:00 pm and we ended up getting one late at night. I still couldn’t and can’t condemn the entire day. And I hadn’t had a chance to take a shower all day and it was hot and I got really hot and sweaty bailing out the tub. We did eventually get water. It was 10:30 pm. So the laundry had piled up because there was the initial cat blankets and bedding, then the towels to ensure the leak did go past the bathroom, and all the stuff in the tub (I had clothes in the bottom of the tub, ya know the ones I am going to get around to donating? Geez.).
So even though all of that happened it could have been worse. I could have not discovered what the cat did behind the TV in her window seat until there was a stench and a trail of ants leading to it. It was really hot yesterday so it would have baked in the sun. (Gross I know, but think of how thankful I am!) I could have not been standing there when the water started coming in and it could have kept coming. We could have not had water all night. I would not have been able to make it through the night.
It could have been worse AND I had a lot of great points to the day so I don’t like to say I am having a bad day, or a day from hell, or any of those things. I had a day for which I am grateful, it had some moments that were kind of icky, but still those were just moments. The bad moments are not what make up our lives. We all have bad moments. We all have things to deal with and “crosses to bear”. But me, I don’t condemn a whole day for those moments. I fell asleep thinking about the beautiful moments of my day.
How about you? Do you have bad DAYS? Do you let the trying moments dictate the day?
Nia is both a dance exercise and a life practice. Kind of like yoga. You can go to a class and get the exercise you want and have it end there or you can learn about its principles and take them into your life. There are levels of the practice. Nia has chosen to use a “belt” system as their levels. Instead of just having numbers or names, they have assigned belt colors to the levels. There are five levels; White Belt, Green Belt, Blue Belt, Brown Belt, and Black Belt. The intensives to gain the belts can be taken and enjoyed by people who aren’t teaching. Each belt has 13 principles, except Green. Green does not have its own set of principles because green is the belt level that is actually designed specifically for teachers and helps them hone their teaching skills. It delves into the 13 principles of the White Belt. The White Belt’s principle #4 is FreeDance. FreeDance as a practice has eight stages. I have posted about eight through two. This post is about stage one. Stage #1 of Nia’s 4th White Belt Principle is Freedance – Anything Goes (movement wise).
While you are dancing any movement is great if it is authentic movement. With Nia there is choreographed moves, but within the patterns of movement there is the ability to freedance. Also with many routines there is sometimes just freedance where we are allowed to dance free to the music without any choreography. Stage one: Freedance, anything goes, allows us the greatest of freedoms. You can dance using the wall, the mirror, a chair, the floor, or a ballet barre that might be in the room. You can dance fast, slow, high, low, or in the middle. Anything that you sense your body wants to do to the music. It is up to you.
The idea with freedance is to just let the body go. Don’t think about it. When you think about it often comes the judgment. Sometimes the judgment can interfere with movement, especially if it is judgment along the lines of, “Oh I must look silly doing this.” “Oh that probably isn’t pretty.” “Oh, I am not graceful enough to spin.” “Oh, I need to do this or that.” This is all inner dialog that clogs up the muscles and their movements.
Freedance also, as I believe I’ve mentioned before, in not club dancing. We are NOT just bouncing or undulating to the beat, we are moving to the music. We are moving our bodies towards as pleasurable sensation of health and well being.
Freedance is also not patterned dancing, we save the patterns for our choreographed movements. Freedance is just free. It is spinning twirling, diving and whirling. It could be hopping or dropping. It really is whatever your body does.
Freedance is not easy. It takes practice. It is not easy to just be on the floor and not think about how you are going to move and just let your body go. It is a challenge. But once you can stop thinking and talking in your head you will find yourself moving to the music. Sometimes you might even notice that you are moving in a way that you didn’t think about and it is really amazing to have that sensation. But don’t think too much, just keep moving.
I would like to invite and encourage you to make some space in your home or if you are so inclined find a space to dance outside . . . find a space turn on some music and just dance. Let yourself go. Let yourself be free. Allow the time, space, frame of mind and spirit to freedance. Remember, anything goes!
Wahoo! I have to add that in the middle of typing this up I secured another class to sub for the City of San Jose. So exciting to be able to share Nia through the city! Yay!
I teach Nia. I have been teaching Nia for three and a half years. Not as many people who I talk to have heard of Nia as have heard of Zumba so I am constantly being asked the difference between Nia and Zumba. Since I am often asked I am often thinking about them and comparing them. First, they are actually the same in that music is played and participants dance to it. Second, in both the instructor leads the participants through the various dance moves. Third, participants of both claim they are both fun. One difference is Nia is an experience in five sensations, Zumba seems to concentrate on one.
The experience is such a big part of Nia we actually call them the five sensations of Nia. I have posted about them before (FAMSS). They are the sensation of flexibility, of agility, of mobility, of strength, and of stability. In a Nia class your body will move in a way that allows you to sense the energy moving out and away. You will bend and stretch to play with flexibility, either retaining what you have or improving upon it. There are moves in the routines that require the start and the stop. The movement that is agility could be done with our feet, our arms, our hands, our bodies, our heads or a combination of body parts but we sense the start and the stop. With every routine there is a lot of mobility, some routines have more than others, but all of them that I have experienced have a lot. With mobility it is just the same as agility in that it could be a body part that is moving or our whole body. Whatever the case there is a lot of movement from each joint that helps create a healthy joint by allowing the fluid to move to it and within it. Then we also play with strength. We might squeeze our muscles sensing the energy moving in as if the bones are being hugged by the muscles. We might do squats or sit-ups, punches and/or kicks, but there is time where we play with strength. I say Nia is very big on balance because we do many moves that requires us to be stable. Many of our moves are balancing on one leg, could be a kick, could be a stance, but it requires stability. Moving from one move to the next often requires us to call upon our stability. In a Nia routine we experience all of these sensations. I’ve reached the conclusion that Zumba is primarily agility.
In Zumba the moves are always fast. So it is a constant state of start and stop. The only sensation I sense while doing Zumba is agility. Fast start, fast stop . . . . even when there is a stretch where your muscles are yearning for a second to move to their fullest length, it is a fast stretch that does not allow for the muscle to be fully stretched. Doing a full hour of agility is not a bad thing at all. It can be fun and it can produce a lot of sweat. And many of us are programmed to think that sweat equals a good workout. I think that if you are adding Zumba to a stretching program that has some balance practice in it that is great.
I am also a believer that there are a lot of things that compliment Nia too. I actually think that if you like Nia and Zumba and you are able to do both that is a nice combination. You get two different types of cardio. One that is a workout in the sensation of agility and one that can move you through more use of the entire body to get that heart pumping.
I really believe that whatever gets you moving is GREAT. I think that you have to like what you do in order to make it a constant in your life. So Zumba, Nia, Jazzercise, U-Jam, yoga, kickboxing, bootcamp, weight training, whatever works for you is great. Do what you will do! That is the key!
It is that I am always asked about the difference between Zumba and Nia that I am always thinking about it and this was my latest thought after I did a Zumba class. I think I posted before about how I am left wanting to extend and finish my moves in Zumba and it dawned on me that it is the sensation of agility that is predominant in Zumba. Some Zumba classes I have attended do take a song to stretch at the end, but not all of them. So I guess it depends on the instructor. Nia instructors are encouraged to infuse their classes and the routines with their personalities, so I am sure that every Nia class has a few differences too.
Both Nia and Zumba are great cardio workouts. It just depends on what you want to do during your workout and what you want to get out of it. Do what you will do!
I am not a marketing expert or guru or anything, I am just a Nia teacher trying to get the word out about Nia to as many people as possible. As I go I realize that my past experiences have helped me learn a lot. Plus I learn a lot as I go. I have a lot of people who encourage me, and help me learn even more. Here are a few things that I have learned that maybe you don’t know. Or maybe you forgot, or maybe, like me, you need encouragement to do/use.
1–When posting a flyer or a poster make certain there is contact information on it. Make certain the information stands out – whether it be a phone number, an e-mail address, or some other way to communicate.
Recently I received a call from someone wanting to take a different class (not Nia), but she claimed there was no phone number for the instructor she wanted to take a class from. I took her name and number, looked up the instructor on the internet, called the instructor and gave her the prospective student’s name and number. When I was able to look at the poster myself I saw the phone number on it, but it was somewhat camouflaged. It blended in with the other text on the flyer. Make your contact information stand out. Make it bold, make it a different color, make it a different font, make it larger than the rest, or circle it. Something that makes it the first thing people see. Flash a sample at a friend and see if the contact info is the first thing they see.
2–Send e-mail.
I am hesitant to send out e-mails because I don’t like to “bother” people. I don’t like to clog their in box with a lot of stuff. I know we all get a lot of e-mails and I don’t want mine to be the one you don’t read because there is an e-mail from me all the time. I try to keep my e-mail down to “need-to-know” stuff. I work to only e-mail once a month. With this past e-mail I sent out a handful of my students thanked me for the updates. That made me feel better. People appreciate being updated.
3–Use the subject line (when e-mailing) to get the info across.
When a fellow Nia teacher told me she sends e-mails reminding people to come to class, I shared I didn’t like sending out too many e-mails. She gave me a great tip. She said to put the information in the subject line. If it is just a quick reminder of one thing then the subject line can hold all the info and the recipient doesn’t even have to open the e-mail. “See you at class tomorrow.” I thought that was brilliant. I have employed that method and I love it. Otherwise, I use my subject line to announce all the items contained in the e-mail. As an example my last e-mail subject line was: “Monday Evenings are cancelled / Subbing classes for City of San Jose / Fourth of July” I bet you can guess without even having received the e-mail what it was about. Big important news – class is cancelled. Then exciting news – I’m subbing classes. Then a note about Fourth of July. This gives the recipient a chance to decide if they need to open it right away. I know that sometimes I don’t have time to read all my e-mail in one sitting so I prioritize. I usually have a few I have to come back and read.
4–Remind people.
In the e-mail I mentioned above, I did take the time to remind people of my regular class schedule, since I was sending out an e-mail anyway. People get busy, people forget, people need to be reminded of what is happening. I can keep track of MY schedule, I can have that in my head, but I can’t have other people’s too. So when they remind me of what classes they have and when I appreciate it. The same goes with blogs. I have a few blogs I read consistently, but sometimes the ones I want to read don’t have consistent postings so I need to be reminded that they are there. This is another thing I need to work on because, again, I don’t want to “bother” people, but when I DO post a link to my blog on FB people read it and they thank me for reminding them. It’s ok to remind people. If it truly bother’s them they will let you know.
5–Send Thank you Notes.
One Nia teacher I know would send out a thank you e-mail every once in a while after class. Made me happy. I was thankful to be able to attend her class, but she would send an e-mail thanking us all for attending. Since it made me so happy, I figured it made others happy too. Of course, you can also send an actual note via the US Post Office. So many of us seldom get actual mail a thank you note would be a nice surprise. I appreciate that my students take the time to come dance with me every week, sometimes twice a week. So sending a note letting them know is important to me. I didn’t even think of this as a marketing tool until I was writing this. People liked to be thanked. Clients deserved to be thanked.
So this is just a short list. It is not trail blazing information, you probably already know these things. It is just a reminder or maybe a little encouragement. I have learned that I write and post things as much for me as for you. I will probably stumble across this in the future and say, “Yeah, that’s right, sending an e-mail is not as bothersome as you think.”
So what do you think? Even if you are not a business owner you are probably a customer on the receiving end of some of these things. What do you think? Do you have ideas you can share?
As a Nia teacher, my schedule changes a bit sometimes. I had recently added an evening Nia Class to my Nia Class Schedule that just wasn’t getting the attendance I needed in order to keep it going. So sadly there is no longer Nia in Campbell on Monday evenings. The end came rather quickly so the announcement time was short, but sometimes it is better to just rip the bandage off and move on. The opportunity given to cancel the class was wonderfully kind so I took it. You know how I have to cook on Sunday to be ready for Monday. Well, that Sunday’s cooking plan got de-railed because of a party so at the party in my head I was planning on spending my Monday afternoon cooking, but in the wee hours on Monday morning the opportunity arrived to cancel the class. So I actually was able to cook Monday’s dinner on Monday evening. Thankfully there were leftovers, because I was asked to sub for a class on Tuesday. I was still working through my vegetables that I had received. I had received two zucchini. Since I have been out of cucumber I have been putting the zucchini in our salads. I like raw zucchini in salads, but I like it sliced REALLY thin. I had used a half of zucchini for salads. I don’t often buy zucchini because the only way I know how to cook it is to roast it or cook it in a pan where you lay the rounds out in the pan. Then you have to flip each little round to make certain they get brown and yummy on each side. That is a bit too time-consuming for me sometimes. That is how I usually cook it, because I forget about grating it. When I remember I am so happy. Grated zucchini is GREAT!
I don’t remember where I first learned about grating it. But I know the first thing I did with it was mix it with pasta. I am not a big tomato fan. I have never liked tomato based pasta sauces. When I cook pasta it is usually dressed with a little butter and cheese or olive oil and garlic, but not tomato sauce. So one time I grated some zucchini then sautéed it. I tossed it with the cooked pasta and VOILA my husband actually liked it. He is not a big pasta fan so to have him like it was great. As I said I don’t remember when I learned about grating zucchini but it was a long time ago. And I haven’t done it that often since.
Recently I was visiting my mom and she puts slices of zucchini in her salad. So I came home and bought some to put in our salads, which I did, but then I remembered about grating it and I added it to rice. Again, I was reminded of how good that is.
As I was wondering what to cook for dinner Monday night, I was thinking I would use my baby bok choy with the ground turkey I had taken out to defrost on Sunday. But when I took the lone bunch out of the fridge it just seem too lonely to mix with all that turkey. So I decided to use the zucchinis that I had left. As usual, as I was cooking I thought I should take a picture because I will probably post about it, but then I thought, “No, I won’t post about it.” But here I am posting about it because I think that grated zucchini is GREAT (Ok, I like saying that!) and I want to share. I don’t know many people who grate zucchini and add it to things.
So while I was not really that impressed with the entrée overall, I did love the turkey and zucchini. I grilled some corn tortillas and lined a 9X13 baking dish with them. My plan was to cook the turkey and zucchini with my “normal” mix of onions and garlic. I had forgotten until after that I had originally planned to add a bit of Nutritional Yeast for an extra “cheesy” flavor. Half way through cooking I decided to see if we had and taco seasoning. I decided NOT to look at the ingredients on that package and I dumped it in the meat. Then I added the zucchini. Then I thought, “Well this is going to be weird.” Well, I might have ended up being weird, but I liked it. I put the meat on top of the tortillas then put some cheese on top. Part way through I remembered the green onions and the Nutritional Yeast so I threw them on top.
I use my blog as a bit of a recipe book and to remind me of things. With this post about how much I enjoy grated zucchini I am sure that I will remember to use it more often. I might not mix it with taco flavoring but I do love it with pasta and rice. Since it is is so good I am going to experiment with it an other things.
Do you ever grate zucchini? How do you cook it? What do you add it to?
Before I started teaching Nia, I had always had corporate jobs. I remember learning about jicama when I worked at my first “real” job. So that had to be between . . . . well, let’s just say it was a long time ago. I remember being amazed at how it tasted like nothing, but had a little hint of sweet and dryness about it. I love it. When I see it on vegetable trays and in salad bars I always get some. Even though I love it, I have only bought one once. I don’t know how to pick it out and I always forget that is what the people who work in produce can help you do. They can help with picking out produce. My dad always has jicama. My dad always has a container of raw, cut and washed vegetables in the fridge and often jicama is in that container or one of its own. Next time I go to the store I am going to buy one. Jicama is considered a root vegetable, but is actually a legume.
It actually looks like root and tastes like a root. Very plain, but with the slightest hint of sweetness. I have always eaten it raw. Cut into pieces and just eaten it raw, but in my quest for nutritional information on it I saw that people do cook with it. I will have to write another post for that because I have never even thought of cooking it!
One suggestion I saw . . . and if you’ve eaten jicama you will agree . . . said that jicama can replace water chestnuts in recipes. And, of course, they seem exactly the same!
It is pronounced HEcamuh. I have always thought it was HICKamuh. I will work on that!
Some nutritional information on jicama:
-low in calories; 38 calories per 100 grams
-high dietary fiber; 4 grams per 100 grams
-contains the anti-oxidant vitamin C; 33% of the RDA’s Daily Value (DV)
-contains vitamin B
-contains 1 gram of protein per 100 grams -contains 150 mg of Potassium (about 6% of the DV)
-no fat per 100 grams
Additional details (per 100 grams):
Cholesterol 0 mg / Sodium 4 mg / Total Carbohydrates 9 g
“When choosing jicama at the store, look for medium sized, firm tubers with dry roots. Do not purchase jicama that has wet or soft spots, which may indicate rot, and don’t be drawn to overlarge examples of the tuber, because they may not be as flavorful. Jicama will keep under refrigeration for up to two weeks.”
But information on Wiki says to never refrigerate. So I guess you will have to decide that for yourself. I guess if you refrigerate your other root veggies you might as well refrigerate this one too. I think I might not refrigerate it until I cut it.
The outside skin needs to be peeled or cut off, then you can cut up the vegetable anyway you would like to eat it. I tend to like it in long pieces of about an 1/2 inch around. Usually you can only get that out of the middle as it is a round veggie so you end up with some odd shaped pieces.
Are you familiar with jicama? Do you eat it? Do you cook with it?
I didn’t teach my Nia class today, I had a wedding to go to. I love weddings. About five years ago I was sad because I thought we were done going to weddings because most of my friends were married. Then about a year ago it dawned on me that the young friends that we have would be getting married eventually, plus there are kids of friends and relatives that would be getting married. That made me happy. I love weddings. Weddings are so wonderful because they are about love, they are about expression of love and expression of oneself and the couple. People can do whatever they want for weddings and that is one of the things I love. You love to scuba dive, get married under water! You love to sky dive, do a jump ceremony! You love horses, get married on horseback! You love dogs, let your dog be the ring bearer! You love to dance, have a reception filled with dancing! Whatever your hobby, it can be the theme of the reception. Whatever you want, you can do. It is basically a reflection of the couple. A lot of the time current trends have an impact and people might do the latest thing, but some people do the traditional wedding and reception. Whatever the case as long as it is what the couple wants then that is what makes it so special.
Often weddings are in the evening, but this one was at the same time as my Nia class so I couldn’t teach and then rush off to the wedding. The wedding was in the morning, at 10:15 am. (Wow! Now that I think about it, I think this is the first wedding I have ever been to that started on time! Wow. I just realized that.) It is my opinion that they could not have asked for a better day weather-wise. It was so gorgeous. There was not a cloud in the sky. The sky was clear and blue. The ceremony was performed out in the open so the sun was shining, but there was enough of a cool breeze that kept if from getting too hot in the sun. It was just perfect. The setting was amazing. It is somewhat of a local place that I had never even heard of. It is a gorgeous spot. The Pulgas Water Temple.
After the ceremony the reception was held at the same place that my husband and I got married and had our reception fourteen years ago. It was so nice to see how the place and “grown” and thrived. The bride’s room is full of glass cases where they have a favor from the weddings and receptions they hold there. I spotted ours, but the picture didn’t come out.
The real reason I am posting about this wedding is they did something so lovely at the reception I wanted to share. I have never seen this done and I loved it so much I wanted to put it out there. After the bouquet toss, they called all the married couples to the dance floor. Then they invited all of us to dance including the bride and groom. Then the DJ started calling off years. Asking who had been married less than . . . . as they called the number of years couples left the dance floor. So at the end the couple married the longest was left dancing with the bride and groom. This might be a tradition of the reception hall because the couple that remained received a bottle of champagne from the bride and groom “and Freedom Hall and Gardens” I thought it was so cute. So special. It is a reminder that marriages can last.
The couple that remained was the grooms grandparents. They have been married 61 years. That is definitely something to celebrate and deserves a bottle of champagne. Of course, it didn’t even cross my mind that I would be posting about it so I didn’t take a picture of them. But it really was special. I love this idea!
The day was gorgeous, the wedding locations was gorgeous, the reception hall was gorgeous, the bride was gorgeous, it was all just gorgeous. And I really loved the “married couple dance”. I look forward to the day when my husband and I are the last ones remaining on the dance floor for this very special dance.
After teaching Nia a couple of weeks ago I realized I had a knot in my back. It was one of those things that felt fine while I was moving. So in my Nia class I didn’t notice it. When I was moving about the house I didn’t notice. When I stopped moving is when it starting hurting. It was one of those body issues that is so uncomfortable it is painful. I mean no matter which position I sat in, stood in, lied in, it was there. It was painfully annoying. I believe I tend to hold my stress there. I have posted about this “spot” before. I tried using a ball to rub it out. I asked my husband to massage it. Both helped but it came back the next day. It even kept me awake the next morning. I just wanted a few more minutes of sleep but my muscle was saying, no.
I had noticed when my husband was trying to work out the knot I had the strangest sensation. The spot of the pain was right beneath my shoulder blade but when he was pressing on it a tingling poking kind of sensation travelled up my entire shoulder blade. I thought that was very odd. I thought the muscle must contain a lot of nerves that run along the scapula. I thought it was odd that I had this disbursing sensation over my shoulder blade.
That was over the weekend and after Nia class on Monday one of my Nia students, a physical therapist, said she would look at it. She found the knot – as it was easy to feel and she began working on it. She said it was fascia! Ahhhhh! That explains why when my husband was trying to rub it out think it was a knot in the muscle I was sensing it all over my shoulder blade. (Wiki: “A fascia is a structure of connective tissue that surrounds muscles, groups of muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, binding some structures together, while permitting others to slide smoothly over each other.”) She pressed on both ends of it and was able to work it out. The next day it was sore, but I used the ball and it has been fine since. Fascia is fascinating. Fascia is the yellow stuff that is sometime still connected to chicken breast. And I am sure if you work with whole chickens you can see it too.
Here is a video about “fuzzy” fascia. Below the video on YouTube, Gil Hedley has noted that since the video was made in 2005 he has somewhat changed his ideas a little bit. But the video itself is still fascinating as it shows you the fascia in the body.
WARNING this video is of a cadaver. Mr. Hedley is using it to show what fascia is. He stated in his updated write up “ . . . it is normal for there to be “fuzzy” tissue between “individual muscles” within the muscle layer. As with all tissues of the body, all the matter of which it consists is transitioning at various paces, some quicker, some more slowly. “Fuzzy” tissues indeed cycle more quickly then some more dense tissues.”
As we know it is not just keeping our fascia mobile as the reason for moving, but it is interesting to see another part of our bodies that benefit from movement. I knew about fascia before discovering Nia, but I was introduced to Gil Hedley via Nia. Nia often makes the scientific connections in our continued education. There is a lot of continuing education material that deal with anatomy. Moving our fascia is just one reason why we dance.
Nia has a different closed stance than some other dances and exercises I know. In Pilates the stance is heels touching and toes apart. I’ve heard it called a Pilates V. The Pilates V is done in more positions than standing. Sometimes there are exercises done while on the reformer where we will place our feet in Pilates V. It is nice to have positions that are specific. It helps a lot. I as a teacher can just say, “Closed stance.” and the Nia students will know what that means. Instead of forming a V as in the Pilates stance we form more of a rectangle. A basic closed stance is simple. It is stable. Nia’s closed stance is the side of the big toes touching and heels apart. It is as if all four corners of a rectangle are in contact with the edge of the foot. This allows for a very stable base. In the basic closed stance the arms hang. The back is straight, we are standing tall, lengthening the spine. Knees are relaxed as well was the feet. Weight is balanced evenly on both feet. Simple closed stance.
Closed stance is one of the six stances in the Nia 52 Moves. There is Closed Stance, Open Stance, A Stance, Sumo (or Riding) Stance, Bow Stance, and Cat Stance. I believe that in its basic form closed stance is the easiest. But when other elements are added that might not hold true.
We can practice our agility by walking quickly then stopping in closed stance. We might choose to be in closed stance while we allow just our arms to be agile . . . moving around in a starting and stopping fashion. We could just let our closed stance be stable as our arms are mobile. We could do an entire body dance . . . close stance dance. For some this is a challenge, even though our feet are formed into a rectangle and the idea is of a stable base it is still a practice in balance to have your feet secured to the earth while the rest of your body moves around. As I said, what we do with a close stance might not be so simple.
Practicing walking and stopping in closed stance is a good check to make certain you are not landing in “toes in“. The heels shouldn’t be that far apart as if you are doing toes in. Yet the toes should be touching. Coming from other stances to closed is good for conditioning the legs. Moving from Sumo to closed, or from at to closed is something to practice. Again we don’t want our heels to land too far apart making us pigeon toed.
I know of several routines that have us going through the stances. We start out in closed, then go to open stance, then go to A stance, then go to sumo. In some routines we work back through the stances, but in some we do move right into closed from sumo. I can’t think of one where we go from closed to sumo, but I bet there is one and I just can’t put my finger on it. Nia loves to mix up the moves to get the most out of the workout.
Can you sense the stability in the Nia Closed Stance?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 