This week we are focusing on the combination of principle 1 from White, Blue, and Brown Belts.I combine The Joy of Movement~Sensing Universal Joy, The Joy of Being in Relationship~The power of Two, and The Joy of Movement in the Zone~Expanding Awareness.

As we danced, I suggested that each person tap into sensing Joy in their body as pleasure.  If it wasn’t present, tweak as necessary and then when Joy in the form of physical pleasure was found, sustain.  Once sustained, try to increase the sensation or expand it in some way.  Again, if pleasure was not there, the suggestion was to tweak again and again until the tweaking, increasing, and sustaining were all fluid, simultaneous, etc… This takes practice.  More and more I realize that dancing all out crazy will not get me to Joy.  It often provides me with pain messages and the initial charge that I get from movement to music is eclipsed by that. Read More→

On ENERGY WEEK of my Nia study, I had a Jam at The Mindfulness Center.  The theme was Back-To-School and it was great.  I had had a really awful day at school, the worst ever I think and my energy for the theme was not too great even though I was very happy to be dancing on a Friday night with my Nia ladies in Bethesda.  My energy changed as soon as I got to TMC and the Jam turned out to be the best I produced yet.  There were 10 people, three of which were official teachers and the rest, dancers.  During my teaching stint, I ran four school-based themes.  The first song (warm up from Dreamwalker) I did with the students perfectly lined up in columns and rows.  The intent was to dance and stay in your assigned place, just like in school.  Read More→

This week’s classes focused on Principle # 1 of the Brown Belt, The Joy of Movement in the Zone  ~ Expanding Awareness. Brown Belt is about Energy and how we use, abuse, increase, save, utilize, circulate, fritter, conserve, keep or spend, etc…ENERGY.  The Zone is difficult to understand unless you go there.  It is the place where I am energetically self-contained and comfortable but at the same time I am connected with everything else.  It is a feeling of rest and support.  It is slower than regular/ordinary life.  It is quiet and unhassled.  Really, if I could stay in the zone at all times, I would.  As it is, I can slip into the zone when I realize that I am not in it.  Usually, I step into the zone energy when I step into Nia class, but there are other times when I am in the zone without realizing it.  Knowing that I am in the zone is the better deal than allowing it to slip my attention.  I can change the way I feel if I change the way I behave.  I can change my quality of life if I desire to do so, by saying, thinking and doing with the awareness of what I want.  

So, the work of the first principle in brown belt is expanding awareness.  This is knowing what you are doing and knowing what you aren’t doing. Avoiding not knowing what you are doing and not knowing what you aren’t doing. This might sound complex, and it is, but it is easy to sense when you consciously choose awareness of energy and stay in that awareness. Read More→

Explored the Joy of Being In Relationship To My Body in Nia class yesterday. 

The routine was a compilation of songs and the focus made the hour fly by.  Each song was chosen to draw attention (focus) to sensation in a different joint (set of joints).  There were 11 songs, so the last four were focused on body, mind, emotion, spirit.  I got a great workout and learned some new things about the choreography, the music, my joints, and the anatomy of movement. When I explore relationship, I am looking at my attitude toward, the difference between, the proximity to, the coordination of, the mobility of or the immobility of, the health of in comparison to another time, the desires of, the voice of, the dominance or subservience to, my knowledge of, familiarity with, etc… etc…  The outcome of this exploration was an increased awareness that things are happening all the time with or without my notice.  Keying into sensation in my ankles just makes me aware of what is already going on there. My ankles are relating to me, eachother, the past, present and future whether or not I am cognizant of it.  Focusing in on one thing at a time gives me the pleasure of feeling what I want rather than letting my body feel what it feels – which is sometimes pain if I am not paying attention.  My left foot is a great example of this.  My foot has a few problems that are exacerbated by lack of attention.  When I pay attention, I am able to heal the ill. Read More→

Being in relationship to my studio.

Last Tuesday I said goodbye to the Hot yoga studio on Wisconsin Ave, NW DC.  Not only did I break it off with that space, but all my students did too, and the yoga students, and the Washington Ballet, and all the other businesses that rented space in that building (some for 40 years).  The building is going to be torn down along with two full blocks of prime real estate owned by Giant Supermarkets.  In it’s place will be condos, shops, restaurants, green spaces, and a new vibe for that area.  It will be two years until we move back over to that space.  In the meantime, Bentley and Ashley (of Hot Yoga) have rented and renovated a new space that is smaller, but more convenient for me in terms of the other work I do at The Center. And so we enter a new phase of Nia Dancing in Washington, DC.  A new studio and new energy.  Besides classes, I will bring new energy to Nia in that space by producing a Nia Jam, and a Playshop in October. Read More→