A  professional actor for over 30 years, Kate Finlayson found Nia in 2005 at the age of 50 after living with chronic joint pain, frozen shoulders and low energy. "Nia connected me directly to an internal source of Joy, and my life has changed radically!" When the music played and her body began to dance in rhythmic flow, she knew she was Home. Her journey has brought amazing self-healing and self acceptance, focus and patience, life-force energy, deep conditioning, weight loss (25 pounds!) and immense pleasure in movement. After taking classes for 3 months, she trained with Stephaney Robinson and became a White Belt instructor in the Chapel Hill-Durham, NC area. After Blue Belt training with Debbie and Carlos in Asheville, she started on her dream path creating her business “Nature Nia”, bringing her enthusiasm of the natural world, birds, acting and Nia together. In 2007, Brown Belt in Portland brought Nia Nicaragua into reality, dancing at 4,000 feet in the rainforest with a group of women and men from North Carolina. Her Black Belt training in 2009  poured pure love and creativity into her Nia practice and a renewed commitment to bring conditioning, healing and Joy to all who partake. Kate loves teaching and deepening her Nia practice and brings this enthusiasm to all her classes, jams, playshops, Nia trips to Nicaragua, Greece &  Brazil and now to her White Belt Intensives ! She has recently become a 2nd Generation Nia Trainer and lives in the New Orleans area with an unbridled passion about delivering Nia healing to the Gulf!