I was recently listening to a recorded meeting for Nia teachers and one of them came on camera to share something she was doing as a way for her to learn a routine and connect with students. The teacher said that she had “pop-up” Zooms where they just popped on for 15 or 20 minutes to review a song and that was it. I thought this was a great way to connect with community during this time when we can’t actually meet in person, so I tried it today. We had a great time.
This being the first time I decided to do this “pop-up” Zoom right after our regular Nia class. I was thinking that it would be easier for the students to just stay then if it were a separate meeting. I figured the Nia students would stay and more people could join. I had notified people of the plan ahead of time. My husband pointed out that advance notification makes it not truly a “pop-up”. To which I responded, that since it was not in my monthly e-mail or on my website I was considering it a “pop-up”.**
When everyone arrived I quickly spoke a bit about katas, what Nia calls a combination of moves. The katas were what I wanted to focus on, the arrangement of the katas can be changed and would take a lot longer than 15 minutes to learn so that was not what this meeting was for — AND THAT WAS THE PART I WAS TRYING TO LEARN. Simple review, me showing/explaining, then them doing. I would check in after each kata and with a “thumbs up” response we would move to the next one. I reviewed the three katas in the song, and then we basically did them to music in the order in which we reviewed them. To me I often feel a review of moves does not prepare me for doing them with the music, so we did them to the song. Then after a “thumbs up” all around we danced the entire song.
The moves were so easy and I didn’t talk too much beforehand so we finished – having danced the song twice – in 20 minutes. We had a lot of fun. I picked a really easy song so we could get through it and have fun.
Thanks to Joan T. for her idea. I think we are going to do it again! Although the next time I will probably send out advanced notification and I might put it on my website so I might have to change the name to a “pop-in”. Pop in, learn the song then go about your day. I want it to be a quick thing so people will come and we can keep it light and fun.
What do you think?
Are you or your teachers finding ways to stay connected while we are not have in-person classes? What are you all doing?
**(edited 11.19.20) I am not calling this quick “non-classes” POP-INS, and having actually classes that are Pop-Ups!
Ahhh, today there were two meetings on Zoom to introduce the new options for Members and Teachers. There was one for brand new Nia White Belt Graduates, since I just attended that training I was able to listen to that one. Then there was one for people who are current Nia Members and I am a current Nia member. So in light of those meetings I feel like it is the perfect time to post this post that has been sitting on my desktop. I want to remind readers that I am a Nia teacher, I teach a dance exercise class called Nia. Nia is really much, much more than that, but that is how I describe it when talking about what I teach. I have written many posts about it and I have a lot of information about it on my website. Nia was initially created by two people, Debbie Rosas and Carlos AyaRosas. Carlos left the organization in, I believe it was 2010. Debbie has continued the work. It is so difficult to describe what “the work” means. She continues to learn about the body and why it needs to move and then applies that to trainings. It is multi-dimensional. I am posting this as a reminder that anything I post about Nia has come from their/her teachings. As I have said many times before not everything in Nia is new . . . they did not invent the moves we do in Nia, but they have added their own way of doing them and learning them and showing how they can help you move in your body more comfortably. In addition to that reminder I want to remind people that many of the movement class forms (Zumba, PiYo, etc.) that you may take require the teacher to be licensed. Nia is one of those things. I pay a fee in order to market my class as “Nia”. And Nia is introducing new ways that people can be licensed.
When I directly quote Debbie or the material I state it. As a Nia teacher we are encouraged to share information about Nia. I have taken pictures of our routine covers and I have created documents myself. I have also used pages of The Nia Technique Book. But I don’t post pictures of the training material from the belts. ANYONE can buy The Nia Technique Book, but only a participant receives the training material – well, now I can say only a graduate as a current member receives the training material. 🙂 (This is part of the new options.) I share the information about the belt trainings to entice you into wanting more.
Nia is giving options on licensing. It used to be that if you wanted to teach you paid a licensing fee – either monthly or annually. That fee came with a lot of things . . . DVDs of the routines (music, the choreography, and the additional training for a routine), teleconference calls, written articles, handouts, and various stuff, now the routines are on NiaTV and there are podcasts and other recorded things. There are meditations and various types of movements including routines with the 52 Moves and Moving to Heal . . . there is a plethora of stuff. Nia is going to have three tiers in which people can stay connected to the wealth of Nia training, they will still have the monthly NiaTV subscription if you just want access to Nia Workout Videos, Music, and Podcasts. The tiers just relate to the additional stuff that is part of Nia.
They are putting up a new website this week (hopefully Wednesday, 10/14/20) so you will be able to get all the details there. I do not want to start to list them because I don’t want to misstate anything. It is better for you to get the information from the source. I am just giving you a heads up to let you know that there are options now. And with Nia there is always a huge amount of material to access. So as a member you can get a lot of information and if you want to teach you get more. Each tier adds on stuff we will have access too.
Since the old website is going away and it will have a new look, I thought I would post my profile page as a photo for this post. I really hope that you will look into Nia . . . you can look into as a movement practice (if you like to dance) or if you want more. Keep in mind the new website should be up this week.
Ok, if you ever read my blog you will know that I am always late to the party. Two weeks ago when we were told to shelter-in-place, many of my with-it Nia cohorts jumped on this Zoom thing and started teaching. My space is limited in many ways so I didn’t think to join in. My circle was going on and on about all the Nia classes they were taking so I decided to take one. It was fun. Nothing beats an actual class- especially, when, as teacher, I dance to Nia DVDs/online routines all the time, but when you have no choice, it is nice to “be” with people. And after a couple of weeks, I was getting a little pouty because I missed talking to people and so I asked a friend if she wanted to get together online to chat. When we came done to figuring out when she asked if it was just us and we decided to invite a few more people. With a little group of 4 (X2) we had a nice little visit.
I say 4 (X2) because it was actually four of us online, but our hubbies were there too. But the meeting was really just four connections.
It was a very needed human connection time. We had fun. I didn’t take a picture when we were all online because it was really low key. I mean, I talked a few of them into it by saying they could be in the dark. The picture you see is just two of us having joined the meeting and I am only posting it BECAUSE it is blurry so . . . . protecting the people I didn’t ask for permission to post. 🙂
Well, it was fun and I want to do it again this Saturday. But I am curious are YOU Zooming? I also just learned that you can FaceTime with multiple people. But when I do it with one it never works so I don’t understand how it would work with multiple people.
Anyway, let me know if you have taking a class via Zoom? Or if you are gathering with friends via Zoom? Or what you are using to visit with friends during this shelter-in-place period.
So, I was so blessed yesterday to have two fellow Nia Teachers attend the class I was teaching. There are three of us that teach a Sunday Nia class at the Northwest YMCA in Cupertino on a rotating basis. We have general “dibbs” on Sundays; Anita likes the first Sunday of the month, I like the second Sunday of the month, and Joan has the fourth Sunday of the month. At one point we had a fourth teacher and she usually took the third Sunday. But now that it is just us three, we each take the third Sunday when we are available. It seems to work out amazingly well that when one (or even two of us) is not available the other two or at least one is. So it works out. Sometimes there is even a fifth Sunday and we make sure one of us is available. Plus we work together when something comes up and we have to switch Sundays. The class is at 12:30 so it is late enough that one can get up and enjoy a nice Sunday morning and not have to rush off to teach. Then we teach and are home in time for a late lunch. 🙂
Well, after class yesterday we were talking about Nia, of course . . . and Anita asked us if we had seen her list of top ten signs you are dancing in a Nia class. I had remembered seeing it, but I didn’t remember them until she started reading them. Then I remembered I saw the list. I had glanced at it, but saved the e-mail to read later. When she brought it up I had asked her if I could share the list on my blog and she kindly agreed. So here ya go:
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“Anita Christensen’s top ten signs you are dancing in a Nia class:
1. They like to freedance without judgement of themselves or others.
2. They are the nicest people.
3. They are all so grateful for the day she, Debbie*, took off her shoes.
4. They make claws with their fingers and scratch the air….sounding grrr…healing emotional issues related to power, abandonment, fear, and anger.**
5. They shimmy and shake their shoulders to express sassy gestures that play with each other in seductive and joyful ways.**
6. They fully acknowledge and embrace that this is THEIR adult play time!
7. They kick to the front, side, and back with authority settling on a supportive leg.
8. As a collective group they yell out “yes” or “no” for all to hear.
9. They choose, sustain, and tweak their JOY of movement to sense life force energy….
10. They invite you to come and be open to a life affirming experience.
It is true Nia is fun, healing and joyful! Do you have anything to add to my top ten list? How I would enJOY hearing your top ten list! The bay area teachers are THRIVING and we want you to join us.”
*”Debbie” is Debbie Rosas is the founder and co-creator of Nia.
**Referenced from the Language of Nia
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Anita Christensen is Nia Black Belt and she teaches several classes in the South Bay and the Peninsula. Check out her profile on NiaNow.com.
I am not organized in all areas of my life. Who is, right? But I do find that when I am organized it makes things easier . . . faster . . . quicker. And, most of us can benefit from that, right? There is so much going on, if we can do something faster it helps. Even if it is just to allow us time to slow down. Hurry up and cook dinner so we can sit and relax. Hurry up and clean up so we can go off to play. Whatever . . . hurry in one area of life to make it easier so we can get to the OTHER things in life. Well, I teach Nia, which is a cardio dance that is done to a variety of music. Nia Teachers purchase routines from Nia Technique. They are playlists and choreography. Ok, really they are A LOT more than that, but if I got into ALL of what the routines are in this post it would be really long and I would probably not even get to the point of this post. The point is some information on how I “organize” or arrange my music in iTunes.
So, Nia teacher purchase routines and for some reason sometimes the Album is titled the name of the routine and sometimes it is titled “NiaSounds”. Sometimes it is the name of the routine-NiaSounds. It is NOT consistent. The artists are all over the place from the ACTUAL artist to “Nia Technique”. It is not consistent. And the genre is spotty too, sometimes it is “Alternative”, sometimes it is “New Age”, and I am not even sure what else. This inconsistency does not make it easy to organize the music. And it is very desirable, if not necessary, to have the music labeled consistently so that it can be organized consistently.
What I do, is I make certain the genre is “Nia”. The ACTUAL genre could be anything because we dance Nia to all types of music. So what it REALLY is, is not what I am looking for. I want my Nia Routine music to come up all in one spot when I look at it if I am looking at it via genre.
I change all the Albums to be the name of the actual Nia Routine so I can find music easily by the name of the routine.
I don’t bother with the artist because I like it when it is the ACTUAL artist, but I am not going to spend the time to correct all the music to be the actual artist. As I said, the way Nia labels it is not consistent.
iTunes changes the way it functions WAY TOO often for me. I notice that the length of a song doesn’t show any longer where it used to. I have to go in and out of playlists to see the length of songs. When I have a playlist pulled up, I have to go out of it into the list of playlists to see the length. I have been delaying the update that is currently out there because I can’t even imagine the new changes they have done, the last time an update came out someone on Facebook asked a question about where the total time of the playlists had gone to and that made me think I had better not update because one of the things that makes an iPhone and iPad useful to me is that it can be used to create playlists. And when you are teaching you need to know how long the playlist is.
One of my devices is on a really old iOS (6something) and the other one is at 9something. I think my iTunes is a few versions behind. But I am afraid to update because I don’t want to lose the function that I use.
Another way I organize the music is I have three separate playlists for the Nia music. One is arranged by Album. So I can easily see what song goes to which routine. I can pick out a song that I know is in a routine, or identify a routine when I know the song. Also, I have a playlist arranged by BPM . . . which means Beats Per Minute, but in Nia we don’t go by BPM we go by the 8BCs. So once I figure out that count I try to remember to put it in my iTunes (under BPM). I have not successfully remembered with all the routines, so not all of them show up properly in that playlist but enough to help me when I am trying to put a particular speed song into a routine I am trying to create. Then I also have a playlist arranged by time because sometimes I need a LONG song and sometimes I need a short song. When they are all clumped together by time it makes it easier to pick the length of time I need then I can just pop it into the correct Nia Class cycle. So these three separate “playlists” allow me to see the music in ways that I need, in order to create playlists on my device that I will use in class.
That is what I do to help keep my music organized in a manner that works for me. I am sure there are different ways that other Nia teachers do it as this is not the only way.
Whether you are a teacher that uses music or not – how do you organize your music?
I teach a cardio dance exercise called Nia. It is dance, it is exercise, it is a cardio workout. It is done to music. Nia teachers pay a licensing fee and included in that are routines. The Nia Technique creates routines. One part to learning a routine is to listen to the music. I listen to it a lot. Sometimes I have difficulty or I feel I do, if I don’t like the music. But most of the time I like it. But either way, I listen to it a lot. Sometimes I listen to it while I am cleaning, but when I have the vacuum on I can’t hear it so I have been wanting some Bluetooth headphones. I have had my earbuds in with my phone in my pocket or tucked in somewhere when the wire has gotten caught and the earbuds RIPPED out of my ears or out of the phone. Neither one is good. So I thought it would be cool to have a wireless pair. Originally I was looking for headphones. Everything I found was expensive. I didn’t even realize they made wireless earbuds! My husband found some that were affordable. It turned out he liked them and they worked well. Sometimes the affordable things don’t always work well, so it is nice that these did. So I went looking and I found a pair that looked almost exactly like his but were even less expensive. I’m only talking $4.00, but, $4.00 is $4.00. So I got some. And I like ’em. I like mine better than his.
Both pair are over the ear type of wearables. Both pair stick IN your ear. On mine, the earbud part seems to be made of metal whereas his are plastic. Also, the over-the-ear holder on mine seems a little softer more flexible. I liked that a lot better. It made them more comfortable. When I tried his on, one of my ears started to hurt. With the softer holder they might flex more and allow for better movement with my glasses.
Of course, at $13.99 they are from a brand I have never heard of – Parasom. But they work. Who knows if they will keep working. I have experienced many off-brand – or more accurately – not a name brand – product that has stopped working after a couple of months. So we will see.
Mine also had a little clip, which I liked. The control portion of the earbuds on mine is about an inch or so closer to the earbud than his, but that is ok for me. I am not using mine while running like he is, so it is easy for me to stop what I am doing if I need to in order to work the controls. Although they are pretty easy and pretty standard controls.
One button powers it on – and it says, “Power on” and off (it says “Power off”). The same button starts the play of music and pauses it. One button turns the volume up, goes to the previous song, and restarts the song. Another button turns the volume down and advances the music to the next song.
I haven’t used it as a headset for phone calls because the first time I tried it with my hubby’s he said he didn’t like the quality of my voice, so I haven’t bothered trying mine. I know when I am using my regular headset and driving I can’t be on the phone that long because the quality of the caller’s voice is distorted. Probably has to do with the fact that it is only coming through one ear bud.
Anyway, I am always excited when I get a product that I think of as expensive at an affordable price AND it works. So, I like to share. So far, this was at an affordable price, it works, so I am sharing. I would like to point out that I did NOT receive this product for free or at a discounted rate for my unbiased and impartial review. But, hey, how do I do that? I read A LOT of blogs and reviews where the people say that. Sign me up for that!
Anyway . . . if you are looking for an affordable wireless headset the one my husband got is good or mine is – which I think is better.
Have you ever had your earbuds ripped out of your ears because the wire to the phone get caught on something? Have you been thinking about a wireless pair?
Saturday, April 2, 2016 there was a Nia Jam in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been a long time since I have been to a Nia Jam. The last one I went to was in 2013! They are so fun. The energy at a jam is fantastic. I thought I was going to miss it because the event was being held at a studio in the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. It is a HUGE complex and I parked in the garage and followed the first sign that said fitness center. It led me to a courtyard where every door was locked. There was a sign pointing up and to the left, but there was no way for me to go up and to the left. I asked someone walking around if he knew where it was and bless his heart, he had no idea but he made an attempt to help me. We looked at a map and I decided the best route was to go out to the street and go all the way around to where I thought the studio was. As I was making my way back to the garage, I made a few turns and ended up on the right track. I was supposed to be the first teacher and I was kinda bummed that I was late because I thought I missed it. But as I was walking in they were saying. “Where is Terre?” and I was able to say, HERE!” Yay! I made it. I was about 5 minutes late. I thought I was going to be early. I am so glad I made it. Nia Jams are soooo fun.
Often times there are microphone issues. It seems as if movement disrupted this one’s connection. But Nancy H. worked on it and got it fixed after the first few songs. And it was good to go. As we were making introductions one of the teachers told me she was going to be after me. It is important in a jam situation to know who is before you and after you. You need to know who is before you so you are paying attention and can be ready to switch off with the microphone. And also, it is nice to know who is after you so you can make eye-contact as you are ending your selection so the switch off can go as smooth as possible.
I don’t normally teach with a microphone so I always feel like I have to be quiet when I have one in my face. Otherwise it would blow people’s ears out.
The focus was the Nia Five Sensations, FAMSS, (Flexibility, Agility, Mobility, Strength, and Stability) And I did it again, I don’t know what the intent was. I always seem to miss the intent. We had a great playlist (as you can see)!
It was super fun. It is always so nice to see all the teachers. We are kind of spread out in so many different areas. It is even nicer to be able to dance with everyone. And the JCC was very kind to donate the space so between ticket sales and the raffle, I think the association did well.
Here are some pictures and a video. I will continue to encourage you to go to a Nia Jam. They are so fun. I know you will love it!
Mind Body Zone in Fremont is having a weekend of FREE yoga classes. The schedule is as follows (note only the classes listed below are free):
Saturday, February 27, 2016
3:30-4:30 Vinyasa Yoga
4:45-5:45 Yin Yoga
Sunday, February 28, 2016
10:30-11:30 Hatha Yoga
11:40-12:40 Gentle Yoga
2:15-3:15 Intro to Yoga
3:25-4:25 Restorative
Since it is free, it might fill up fast, so be sure to reserve your spot at the online sign-up website for the studio. You can use the date field or calendar tool to get to the correct dates, then sign up for whatever classes you want to attend. (Note: ONLY the classes that are indicated as “FREE” are free. There are other classes that are being taught that weekend that are not free, so if you are wanting to take the FREE classes, please be sure to sign up accordingly.) 🙂
Bring your own yoga mat or rent one from the studio. Bring water or purchase a bottle from the studio. If you are planning on taking more than one class you might want to bring a snack. It is up to you.
Keep in mind these classes are kinda like a Nia Jam, each class will be taught by three or four teachers per class. And they are new Graduates of Yoga Teacher Training.
Sign up now, so you can join the fun!
Mind Body Zone: 3335 Seldon Ct, Fremont, CA 94539
(a couple of blocks down from Fry’s right off of 680)
Back in 2010, I posted a bit about X-Ray Anatomy, principle #10 of the Nia White Belt. It is what Nia Teachers, Yoga Teachers, Personal Trainers, and people in the profession of helping people move do to see how a body is moving. We all do it, but Nia calls it X-Ray Anatomy. We look at the posture of the body or the placement of the clothes to see the alignment of the bones or to see the movement of the muscle. If we look at someone’s waist band and one side is higher than the other we can then look closer to see, if they were in a hurry when they pulled on their pants, hiking one side higher, or if their hips are actually askew. We can look at shoulders, checking to see if one is tilted down. We might check to see if a muscle is really tight causing an imbalance. We look, then we go about guiding the person to adjustment, guiding them into ease. Now . . . that is what we do for our students and/or clients. But we wouldn’t do that to someone we just see on the street. Even if we take a pad of paper to the park or to the mall or use our DVDs to practice with “Zorro”.
In the Nia White Belt Intensive I took, one of the tools that the co-founder of Nia, Carlos Aya-Rosas, gave us was “Zorro”. Where you look at someone and with just a few strokes of the pen/pencil you draw their structure. It is supposed to be quick, not a lot of details, just the things you are x-raying. Just key bones or things (like a belt, pant legs, collars, etc.) to allow you to see posture and/or alignment.
Here are my “Zorros” from my White Belt in 2008. We had split up into two groups and we faced each other. Each group had a turn at making shapes and posturing and then “Zorroing”.
When I wrote my post back in 2010, I had said in a comment I was going to go out and do some X-Ray Anatomy Zorroing, but I hadn’t. When I came across the comment again, I decided to do it. Here is the result of me doing Zorro on a random video of people walking and of one of the Nia Routine DVDs.
This type of practice can help us see things quickly that might need adjustment while we are dancing. Then we can cue some guidance to help people move in a safe way. As an example, an easy thing to see is thigh bones, while we cannot actually SEE the thigh bone, if we look at the toe and it is pointed off in one direction we can conclude that the thigh bone is rotated . . . depending on what we are doing, that might not be the safest thing for the knee and hip. So we can keep an eye on toes and practice X-Ray Anatomy.
I have confidence in thinking that you get the idea of this. You can see how you can quickly look at someone and have an idea of the placement of the bones. You can glance at someones clothes and use them to determine their alignment. Is the clothing method 100% accurate? No, people’s clothes might be sitting off for a number of reasons, as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, perhaps someone just pulled their pants on crocked, but this is an idea. But using the clothes is a quick way to perhaps get an idea of what the body is doing. Sometimes a closer inspection or more attention is needed, but for just practicing clothes are great to help with Zorroing.
Can you see how “Zorroing” can help with X-Ray Anatomy? So might you us your X-Ray Anatomy the next time you are out?
I think I am very correct in saying that Group Exercise Instructors and Nia teachers love to hear students ask, “Where else do you teach?” and “What else do you teach?” Isn’t that the greatest thing? It is such a huge compliment. The student is asking where else can they get more of you. The student is asking in what other ways can they get more of you. I had never thought of that as a compliment. I had never even realized it was a compliment. When I was asked that, I used to feel bad because I didn’t teach anything else other than Nia. I also felt bad when I just taught at one place. I was always so focused on not being able to meet their additional needs I didn’t “hear” the compliment. I didn’t hear the un-spoken, “You met my need here.” Last year, I actually was in a required continued education class instructed by the YMCA when the teacher mentioned that if a student asks you those questions it is a compliment. Ha. Silly I had never thought of it as a compliment. I was focused on something else entirely. It strikes me as funny when I go into a situation to learn one thing and something totally different is taught to me. I was taught to see it as a compliment.
Nowadays, I am not so focused on not being able to meet their need for an additional class or another venue, because I am teaching six classes at four different places. Although people still would like an evening Nia class. This schedule can change at anytime, but for now, at least, I feel more varied.
Do you ever go into a situation expecting to learn one thing and come out surprised at what you learned? I like when I can learn what I was expecting AND something I wasn’t expecting. That always makes me feel happy. I feel like I got a bingo or hit the lotto. A two-for-one kind of thing. A real deal. Something completely worth my time. Ya know?
Do you ever miss a compliment? Are you ever so focused on something else you don’t even realize the person talking to you / asking a question is really in a sense giving you a compliment? Sometimes it is kind of nice because later on it might hit you and bring a smile to your face, but then I feel bad I didn’t take the opportunity to show gratitude. But sometimes that happens.
For a second I thought of listening with love, but I don’t think this is the same as that. But perhaps. Maybe if I had been listening with love instead of feeling bad I could help I would have noticed it was a compliment. But then I would have been so excited about the class I had to take. I wouldn’t have gotten that “extra” bang for my buck. Ha, ha!
This same type of compliment would be said to a performer, “Where else do you perform?” “What else have you performed in?” Yeah, that is a compliment all right.
So how about it? Have you ever experienced any unexpected learning? Have you ever totally “missed” that someone was complimenting you? What other situations would that type of comment fit?
The moves were so easy and I didn’t talk too much beforehand so we finished – having danced the song twice – in 20 minutes. We had a lot of fun. I picked a really easy song so we could get through it and have fun.
Terre Pruitt's Blog 