Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

  • I teach yoga, Nia, and stretch online!

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Posts Tagged ‘seven cycles of Nia’

HelpYouWell.com Got a New Look!

Posted by terrepruitt on February 18, 2012

After three years of teaching Nia and promoting it via my website, I have moved my website to a different host.  Sometimes it is nice to have a new look to things.  I don’t necessarily always feel the need for a new look.  Since I have limited time I don’t always enjoy going to a site that I visit often and have it be completely revamped so I have to spend extra time on it to find what I need.  But, I understand that it is nice to change things and have a fresh look.  Sometimes there are other reasons to change things, there might be other benefits that are sought so it is all just part of the change.  My site is still the best source for my Nia Class Schedule because even though I have been teaching at the same place for three years* sometimes there are changes.  Sometimes it is out of my control, like when one of the studios I teach at moves my class time, but sometimes I am holding a special class or announcing an additional Nia class (new Nia Class in Campbell).  Either way, it is best to always check my site for any adjustments that might occur in my Nia Class Schedule.  Otherwise you can find the same information on my new site as you could my old site.  The way is it arranged is slightly different as I put more of the information under headings instead of having the long list of pages on the side.  The new look to HelpYouWell.com is a nice way to start off 2012!

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia Campbell, Campbell Nia, Nia classes in Campbell, evening Nia, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout,My site still contains the following information:  How Nia started, What is Nia, Seven Cycles of Nia, Main Benefits of Nia, Tips for a Pleasurable Nia Experience, Nia’s Principles of the Body’s Way, Tips for Moving with Nia, a list of Nia’s 52 Moves, Nia’s Belt List, Indexes for the Nia Technique Book, and a few other things.  New is a list and map of locations where I hold Nia Classes

Because I switched to a new host I have to go through all of my blog posts and update my links, both the hotlinks in the text AND the pictures.  Not sure everyone even realizes that the different color words in a post are links to other things.  Usually they link to my site, so since the page addresses have changed, I am working on going through all 491 posts.  If you click on a link and it does not work, then I have not gotten to that one yet.  I always welcome the information though, so if you want to let me know, I would appreciate it.  So far I have made it through September 2011, and May 2009.

*I have been teaching at the same place for three years.  I am still at the studio in the Willow Glen area of San Jose.  For three years I have had a Monday and Wednesday morning class at 9 am.  I would love for you to join us one of these days.  I make it a point to teach on Holidays because since it is a morning class that is the time when many people can make it.  When they have the time off of work.  So if you ever have the opportunity please join us.  We are there every Monday and Wednesdays (do check the schedule, though). 

Well, I hope you will take two minutes to click through my new site.  Let me know what you think.  You can comment or contact me through the contact page on my website.  Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

So?  What do you think?

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Nia Routines

Posted by terrepruitt on February 4, 2010

I always get questions about the Nia Routines.  Are teachers given the routines?  Do teachers make up their own routines?  How many routines are there?  And more.  In this post I’ll just cover those three questions.

At the time of this writing there are 18 Nia routines showing on the teacher website for purchase.  I know in the 26 years that Nia has been around there have been a lot more.  I believe back when Nia started having routines, music rights and all that big business part of music was not an issue.  Now, I think, that portion of life has affected Nia and the routines.  I think they had to remove some from sale.

A routine is group of songs.  I think 8 to 10 is the average, but it depends on the length of the songs.  An average Nia workout class is about 55 minutes, give or take a few minutes.  At the time of this post Carlos and Debbie were the creators of the routines.

As a teacher, we purchase a routine which includes a DVD disc, a music CD, and an information pamphlet.  It is an amazing piece of educational material.  This post is not about the fabulous package of material we receive or about learning the routine, it is just general information about Nia routines.  But whenever I talk about the Nia routine packages I feel compelled to exclaim how wonderful they are. I will save the explanation of them for another post.

Teachers are encouraged to use their own creativity when leading a routine.  Nia routines are very well thought out and put together.  It is my understanding that with higher belt levels choreography is discussed, but with White Belts, Nia encourages them to use the routines that Nia has created.  But at the same time we are encouraged to do the katas to different music than we are given.

With the encouragement of using our own creativity, I believe comes the impression that we can do things in Natural Time and to me, that means we can adjust routines.  A kata might be less aerobic, but if we want to help make it more so we can add cha-cha-chas in place of a regular step, or just do fast side steps instead of a grapevine.

In addition to changing simple steps we are empowered with all of the different Movement Forms.  When we employ the energies of the different movement forms they can change the routine dramatically.

I do mix up the katas from various routines to “create” new routines.  To me this gives the participants a feeling of doing something new, yet at the same time they are moving to familiar patterns.  Or once, I had an out of town friend attending my classes, after the first class, she admitted she couldn’t do turns.  Well, if she were going to be my student for any length of time, you know I would put those in and work with her on them, but since she was only going to be in one more class, I put together katas that didn’t have turns so she would enjoy her workout more.

When I do mix it up, I make certain I adhere to the seven cycles of Nia.  I also try to make it a well-rounded routine.  I love it when I put something together and afterwards the class says, “Ahhh, I really liked that routine, what was it?”

I hope this helped to answer some of the questions about Nia routines.  Please let me know if you have other question.

I am going to continue to you invite you, my reader to a Nia class.  If you are ever visiting the San Jose/South Bay Area or you are local to me, please, come to one of mine :-).  If you are not local, look up a class near you and try Nia in your area.

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