Archive for Nia Technique – Page 3

Stepping, or How to Walk

by suzannah
April 27th, 2009

 

feetThe first thing that Nia students learn is a heel-lead step.  The body was designed to step heel first.

If you look at the skeleton of the foot, you will see that the structure suggests which part would be most likely to bear a strike and weight, and which part would be suited to providing a greater surface area to help with balance. 

Try this: Take some careful steps; one foot after the other.  Just notice how you step.  Then, become super conscious about leading each step with your heel.  Your steps should repeat this: Heel, whole foot, and then push off the ball of the back foot. Right foot: heel, put the rest of your foot down, left heel rises, you push through to the ball of the left foot, and so on.

The second lesson in Nia choreography is the clock.  The easiest way for students to move the same way all together is to have them stand on an imaginary clock face.  Standing feet together, twelve o’clock is straight in front of you and six o’clock is straight behind.  The rest of the numbers on the clock fall where they normally do between twelve and six, no matter where you are in the room.  Read More→

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Studying Sexi (the Routine)

by suzannah
April 21st, 2009

 

techniqueNia Technique routines are always choreographed with a focus in mind.  Sexi is about the spine.  The Intent is to stimulate Mobility and Stability in the spinal cord.  The Nia Technique moves that do this most effectively include:

chest isolations,

shimmy,

undulation and spinal roll,

hip bump,

pelvic circles,

head and eye movement.

And use those moves we do.  There are three categories in that list of moves.  They are divided into moves of the head, chest, or pelvis. These are the three body weights that are connected by the spine.  Read More→

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Stiff Neck Relief

by suzannah
April 14th, 2009

 

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.

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Dreamwalker – Healing

by suzannah
April 7th, 2009

 

articles_clip_image006I had a pulled muscle in my left calf.  I was unsure if I could dance on it, but rather than skip the classwork, I decided to explore the healing possibilities that Nia offers.

We started class by rubbing our hands together and creating some heat from friction.  We placed our hands on the part of our body that we felt needed some extra healing.  From there, we used the moves of the routine DreamWalker to continue sending healing energy to our in need parts.

Having the focus of healing helped to determine the language I used to deliver the instructions for dancing the routine.  Every move I invited the students to do was directed to comfort, adjust, and heal their bodies.  The attention to healing through movement caused awareness.  I asked, how can you tweak this move so that it feels good in your body?  What does your body need right now to heal?. Do smaller moves make you feel better?  Is having both your feet on the floor a better sensation for you?  How can you adjust your moves to be more exact in technique so that your joints will be used in a way that allows the most ease?  Do you like, need, or want the sensation of dynamic energy – strength? Do your muscles yearn to be challenged by resistance? Read More→

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Girls Night Out with a Martial Arts Focus

by suzannah
April 3rd, 2009

side-kick1I had another request to teach Girls’ Night Out and because there was a visitor, I decided to just go ahead and do it.  I had planned to do DreamWalker and to focus on the Martial Arts energies.  I kept the focus, but applied it to GNO.

I found it amazing how well suited to the change of focus the dance was. Nia Technique has 52 basic moves and only some of them are drawn from the martial arts, but you can play with the different energies no matter where the move originates.  This is what is so clever about Nia Technique: the way the body of work can be ever-changing and never boring.

  • Tai Chi – the slow dance, meditative, grounding, soft edges, smoothness, contemplative.
  • Tae Kwon Do – bursts, power, hard edges, energy away from or directed to the center point, reactive, precision, technique.
  • Aikido – harmony, spirals, breath, swirling, arcs into circles, circles into spirals, going with the flow.

An example of a move with a change of energy is a front kick.  A front kick with Tai Chi inspired energy would resemble more of a lift.  A soft raising of your limb. Change that to a Tae Kwon Do energy and the knee leads, followed by the snap of the lower leg – precisely where the kicker means it to go.  Heal leads and “lands” exactly.  The kick is recoiled in the exact opposite manner.  It is crisp and exact.  Enter Aikido – the front kick develops from arc, seen best by following the path of the foot. It’s got a mix of strength and flow. The energy flows from your center line along the leg bones, and out through the foot. The ending might be more of a flow back to earth rather than a lowering or recoiling.

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