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Stiff Neck Relief

 

suzandstudent11Driving back from New Jersey, where I spent Passover, I noticed that my neck felt tight.  Two nights on a strange mattress, several hours of standing and socializing, and a long sit at a table, and you are bound to feel a bit of stress in your body. 

My friend and I drove back to DC in the early morning so I could be in the studio for my class at noon.  Driving for three and a half hours was rough on a stiff neck.  But then it was Nia class to the rescue!

 As soon as I started to move, the tension in my neck was relieved. 

I always tell people that there are days when the only time my body feels pain free is during and after Nia class.  When I go back to my regular life – sitting at the computer, driving in traffic, cooking, training, doing errands, it’s all wear and tear on the body.

In Nia class I am able to dance the form of the routines and create freedom in my body.  Dancing within a structure allows my creativity to flourish. Moving freely lubricates my joints and pumps my muscles with blood, warms my body and gets me to a place where my body can self-heal.  That’s why I feel good dancing.  I feel good when I lift weights too, but in Nia there is the music, energy and the flow of the moves.  It is restorative and transformative.

The Confidence Thing

suznia-whiteI want to talk a little more about Girls Night Out  and how it relates to confidence-building. 

The music for this dance is really great and no matter who dances the routine, there is a playful and connected response to it. This is truly a routine in which you get a workout without even realizing it. The hour is over really quickly.

Another unique feature of this routine is that it starts and ends with the same song, and that calls for Freedance both at the top and bottom ends.  This is an unusual way to start a routine since Nia Technique usually takes you through seven cycles: Setting the Focus and Intent, Stepping In, Warming Up, Getting Moving, Cooling Down, FloorPlay, and Stepping Out.  

Freedance, although it can belong to any of the movement segments, is not usually the domain of the Warm Up.  In GNO, the music starts right in to get the dancers stoked up.  The song is actually called Girl’s Night Out, and it is supposed to create that buzz that happens when the girls are together pajama party-style and getting ready to go out together. 

Dancing it again at the end of the routine gives us an opportunity to feel the same groove but with a totally different body, a different movement vocabulary, a different familiarity with the music, and a different relationship to the others in the room.

One of my aims with teaching Nia Technique is to give my students more confidence with their bodies. The assurance that they can move the way they want without worry, pain, self-consciousness, or concern regarding ability. 

I want (and Nia wants) students to move from spirit impulse, in response to music, so that they feel good.  Even though there is attention to technique in every class and every routine involves stated principles to make movement safe for EveryBody, Nia class is also about doing movement Your body’s way.  

Nia is crafted in the Body’s way for each person to take, adapt, and use for their own Joy in Movement. When you feel Joy in your body, you will find yourself moving with confidence. In the same way that you need a map to get somewhere new and you might travel to the new place with care and consideration of every street, landmark, and instruction, Nia Technique beginners move at first with care and consideration of every movement sequence, music change, and lead from the teacher.  After a few minutes, or sometimes a few classes, students recognize the calls, the steps, and the concepts and can move with a new, strong confidence.

Girls Night Out

Nia Technique class

Teaching the Nia Technique routine, Girls Night Out, is an opportunity to share the Joy of Movement as well as Our Selves As Women; connecting to the other women in the room, The Goddess, Mother Earth, the feminine side of each of us, and Women Outside of Nia Class. 

When dancing this routine I like to layer on an additional a focus. Recently, I chose to add the focus of dancing energy through the spine, so that each chakra from root to crown can get a clearing from the movement and create a better flow and bigger space. With this, my intent is that we leave class with greater awareness of our Woman Power and feel energized to dance that power and femininity out into the bigger world as we dance through life.  It pretty much always works. Read More→