Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘Zorro’

Nia White Belt P10 – X-Ray Anatomy – 2020

Posted by terrepruitt on September 7, 2020

This is a great principle . . . ok, ok, yes, I know I say that about all of them . . . Debbie does, too.  I laughed at her today when she said something like that.  Again this principle has not changed since I originally took my Nia White Belt back in 2008.  Like I continue to say, the language has changed, the way it is presented, and the knowledge behind it has greatly increased but it is still the basic principle – look at the clues of the body to help you see what is “inside”.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia online, San Jose Virtual classes, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, Nia Technique, Yin Yoga, stretch classes, online exercise, Zoom classes, virtual yoga, City of San Jose online exercise, live classes via Zoom, Nia White Belt training via ZoomNia White Belt P10 – X-Ray Anatomy.  The triad, as you can see is Bones/Joints, Ligaments/Tendons, and Soft Tissue/Muscles.  These are the things we can “see”.  We make observations then move from there.

If you see one arm able to reach higher than the other or a pant leg shorter than the other, is it a mechanical situation or is it a structural one?  Is there muscle tightness in the shoulder that is preventing the arm to reach high or is one leg actually shorter than the other?  X-Ray Anatomy is just about looking and observing.  With the insight we gain from observing we can decide how to proceed in moving in a class, in teaching a class, and/or just moving through life.  We can then apply our knowledge of movement and anatomy to move in ways to help create ease in the shoulders that will allow the arm to reach its full potential and ease in the legs to allow for their full length.  We can also learn to give our body what it needs to find balance and ease even when it is not equal on both sides.

One way we learn X-Ray Anatomy is by Zorro.  Zorro is just a term Nia uses to describe making note of the flow of energy or the lines in a body.  You can do it by observing people – they can be people on TV or people you see in person.  Just quick strokes on paper (or if you have a device you can use) to note the movement of a body.

As I have said, I have posted about Nia Principle #10 X-Ray Anatomy and Zorro before so no reason to go further in this post.  Please click on over to those posts to learn more.

X-Ray Anatomy is just what we in Nia call observing a body and how it moves and we use Zorro as a tool to see the flow of energy all with the goal of helping ensure that we and our students are moving in the most safe and efficient way available.

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Zorro Technique

Posted by terrepruitt on October 29, 2015

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”.

 

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia TechniqueWhen 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.

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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?

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