Nia

I grew up in Israel. I have always loved learning, looking forward to my next project, creating and teaching what I know to others. My dance training began at age three. Since then my trainings have been in creative movement, ballet, modern dance choreography and jazz. As a young child I remember myself teaching my friends and siblings–play acting as if I was their schoolteacher.

“Roberta, you’ve got to do Nia! It’s all that you love and do, plus something more!” It was 1995. I was teaching at an exclusive fitness club for women in Toronto, Canada. Helen, one of my favorite Dance & Stretch class students, said those words to me.

The very first time I danced Nia, I was filled with tears of joy and also tears of letting go of pain. What I experienced was so freeing, so in flow with my spirit and felt so good to my body that I knew I had found something more than an exercise program. I’d found something for my whole being.

I began teaching in the fitness industry in 1981. I had a passion for exercise, and although teaching aquatics courses, water exercise and aerobics filled that passion, they were based in traditional fitness practices. That unconscious form of fitness ultimately led me to exhaustion, burnout and physical pain.

When I heard about Nia for the first time I was curious, excited, interested, and tired! I had been dancing on a huge outdoor dance floor under giant redwood trees at the California Brazil Camp (a camp for learning Brazilian drumming and dancing) for a few days and my body was happy, and also tired and sore.

My journey with Nia was sparked one day in 1986, when I received an enthusiastic phone call from my dear friend who said that she had discovered something that combined the things I loved – movement, spirit, and fitness — and was a perfect fit for me.

In all areas of my life – from my performing career on the stages of New York, to working as a Nia Teacher, to giving birth – my Nia practice has enriched everything that I’ve taken on.

I’ve always said that Nia gave me context and confirmation – a place to land with my passion for movement, teaching and community and a place that inspired me to grow in my own unique way and time with the gifts that I have to share with the world.

I am so thankful for Nia in my life. When I began Nia I had no idea that it would become not only a source of personal development, but also one of the fundamental practices I would use to heal myself from a nearly fatal accident.

After taking just two Nia classes, and then the Nia White Belt Intensive, Lynda wanted to quit her fitness job and become a Nia teacher. Nia had changed the way she saw the world.