Download this issue’s Educational Handout: The Head - The Voices of the Realms

More for Intensive Grads and Teachers Only on the Nia Teacher Site (password required)

Just Released! New Product!

Nia Unplugged
Dance to Drums

The latest Nia workout for the general public
Intermediate to Advanced / 60 minutes

Join the creators of Nia and discover its extraordinary power and passionate nature. As you dance to live percussion, let the music seduce your body, mind, emotions, and spirit to unwind, and let go! Unplug from rigid exercise and everyday stress by plugging into your own rhythm and passionate ways of moving. There you will find your own pulse and spirit!

Coming Soon!
Two New Mixes from NiaSounds™

ZenSation

ZenSation is a stimulating journey filled with sound and silence. Move and sense the gift of the body and connect to the ultimate healing sensation for your body, mind, emotions and spirit—ZenSation, the sensation of Nia!

Featuring the music of: Thievery Corporation, Bliss, Shakatura, James Asher, Frontera, Adham Shaikh and Catherine Potter, Slowdeck and Liquid Zen.

Canta

Not your typical singing, Canta celebrates the human voice, unearthing a primal, wordless expression of emotion that conjures up memories of ancestry and community, the breath of life, a timeless resonance of past, present, and future.

Canta is the alchemical process of breathing, combined with emotion to generate vocal sound to manifest beautiful music.

Featuring the music of: Makyo, Adham Shaikh, Gaudi, Crosstown Traffic, Biddu and Kenya Masala

The Body’s Way Education

In Nia, we use The Body’s Way as a map to guide us through the stages of becoming fit, experiencing personal growth and creating a lifestyle practice of well-being.

Watch and learn as Nia Founders Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas discuss Mobility.

Mobility - Energy in Constant Motion

Definition of Mobility

Energy in constant motion without stopping once you start.

Sensing for Mobility

• Mobility is sensed as energy in constant motion moving all around and generally within a range of motion that varies slightly.
• Mobility is the physical feeling of juggling power and creates a sensation of continuous energy flow and excitation of the nerves around the joints.
• Mobility is nurtured by continually opening and closing joints, neither opening nor closing them all the way.
• Mobility is cultivated and maintained by balancing the action between stability (non-moving bones and joints) and mobility (moving bones and joints) and the action of muscles working with bones and joints to sustain movement.
• Mobility is a vibration you can physically recognize as playful tension or energy of an elusive quality being moved in ways where you can sustain moving your whole body so the voices of your body say, “I am gaining mobility. I feel free.”
• Mobility feels like controlled agitation and excitation around the joints. It continuously engages muscle with bones and joints.
• Dynamic Mobility is the perfect balance of excitation and relaxation sensed as youthful freedom.
• The benefit of sensing Mobility is in knowing you have the ability to consciously move your body and engage specific muscles to achieve a desired result, such as more mobility in the hip joints.

Losing Mobility is sensed as...

Tightness, stiffness, pain, fatigue, discomfort and loss of power and range of motion. The physical signs you are losing mobility are a diminishment in power, balance, grace, speed, coordination and in your body’s inability to remain strong yet relaxed.

The Voice of Mobility

I am the voice of Mobility. A free spirit, I am energy in constant motion. My sensation is similar to the rolling action of the ocean, constantly alive, moving, undulating, flowing, seeking to fill and empty spaces. I reside in your synovial fluid. You know me in the sway of your hip and in the shifting gaze of your eye. Through me, explore space. Like petals on the breeze, I move effortlessly in twists and arcs, lofting over and spiraling in corkscrews, I eddy and flow like the ebb tide. Go to grasp me and I will slip through your fingers, for confinement extinguishes me. Release your joints to activate me in the spaces between your bones. Soften, and I will slip along the smooth contours of your bones and muscles, releasing energy through the gateways of your body. Like an otter in the surf, I love momentum and dynamic ease. Through me, discover the play of life. Utilize me to get where you want to go. Master me and know the dance of the slow and the gift of the swift.

Mobility Pearls

Constant, alive, front, back, side to side, up, down, in, out, undulating, fluid, sway, corkscrew, momentum, slow, swift, slip, eddy, rolling

How to Use Mobility and the Head to Create Nia Conditioning

With the right tools, you will discover how to release tension from your jaw, neck and shoulders and make your head movements more powerful and efficient.

Tips to Take Mobility and Nia Conditioning Into Your Life

Feather Up: Imagine a feather extending along the back of your neck and head, extending up into the clouds so high that you tickle the clouds. Use the energy of mobility to keep your feather “feathering up.” Feathering up creates movement in your neck to maintain space and to lighten the load of your head. Feathering Up with mobility improves your overall posture, breathing, elimination and digestion.

Lower Jaw Hang: (This issue's tip) Relax and let your lower jaw hang loose. Use mobility to create subtle, small, continuous movement that will release tension in your neck, shoulders and upper back, lighten the head weight and eliminate stress along your entire spinal column.

Listen to Your Voice: From time to time listen to the sound of your voice and listen for ease (powerful and sustained resonance), not effort (weak and on-off sound that can not last). Right alignment of the head opens up air passageways to improve sounds and the ease of transmitting air in and out. Align your head by moving it up and out, away from your torso. This will diminish stress in the vocal chords, making it easy to breathe and speak continuously and effortlessly.

Look to Move: Use your eyes to look before you move, focusing all your energy in the direction you intend to move a body part or the whole body in order to improve speed and efficiency and create stress-free movements. Use mobility energy to keep your eyes active and your head integrated with your whole body.

The Voice of The Body

The Head

Listen as Nia Co-Founder Debbie Rosas speaks the poetic Voice of The Body. This month: The Voice of The Head.

Want to know more about the Voices of the Body? Read the Voices of The Body Structure in the Newsletter Archives.

Take your Nia practice to the next level. Download the Educational Handout The Head - Voices of the Realms.

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Events & Happenings

Nia Tele-Courses

Shoulder Girdle and Breathing
December 3, 4, and 5, 2007

Join Nia Co-founders Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, along with Nia Trainers and Teachers, for Nia’s Free Mentoring TeleCourses for EveryBody™.

These powerful courses provide in-depth personal and professional mentoring in three different free TeleCourse programs which take place the first week of each month.

Everyone interested in Nia may join the TeleCourse for EveryBody™ on the first Monday of the month. This course provides direct access to the most knowledgeable Nia practitioners who give in-depth information on how to develop yourself while on your path of wellness. Nia Graduates and Nia Teachers can go even deeper into the teachings of Nia with the TeleCourses on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of the month. All these educational TeleCourses follow the topics of the Nia Newsletter and are provided at no cost as part of Nia’s program to share knowledge with the world about The Body’s Way.

Carlos Rosas Presenting at Kripalu

January 18 – 20, 2008

Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
Lenox, Massachusetts, USA
To register, visit: http://www.kripalu.org/program/view/FI/CNIA81/

Dancing is not something you do; it’s what you are. Dancing Through Life is expression on the largest possible stage—life itself. It’s about discovering life as sensation and movement as pleasure. This three-part transformational movement lifestyle program is a prescription for enjoying life in a body and includes:

• Dancing Through Life: the art of living in the body through pleasurable sensation, learning to turn the movements of your life into a healing and transformational dance.
• Living Meditation: utilizing moments of stillness throughout the day to reap the benefits of traditional meditation without taking time out.
• Life as Art: shifting your perception to see all things in life as art and as pleasing, thus finding beauty and inspiration in every part of the world around you.

This is an exploration of movement, stillness, silence and sound. Dare to find meaning, healing, personal connection and magic in your life and in your world.

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Nia Tip Now in Video!

The Lower Jaw Hang

Learn “The Lower Jaw Hang” with Nia Co-Founder Debbie Rosas in this video Nia Tip.

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The Power of Nia

Truly Myself

Erika Ruber, Nia Brown Belt Teacher
Portland, Oregon, USA

When I do Nia, I feel truly myself, perhaps because Nia has intersected with my life in countless ways – both personally and professionally. My relationship with Nia is much like the dance that Nia is – dynamic, joyful and spirited. This relationship began in the spring of 2000 while I was visiting a dear friend in Boulder, CO. She took me to a Nia class, saying that she always thought of me when she did it. After my first Nia class, I felt a combination of relief and excitement. I felt relief that I had finally found a practice that resonated so deeply with me and I felt excitement to find that I just happened to be living in Portland, OR, the international headquarters of the Nia Technique!

It was during this same time that my husband and I began to talk about spending some of our newlywed time overseas. As we took steps to make this dream come true – quitting jobs, looking for work overseas, packing up, selling cars, and getting flights–I began each day with a Nia class. Amidst the chaos of huge life transition, Nia provided me with increased physical energy, gave me the courage to move forward with our dreams and gave me the tools to stay grounded. I felt stimulated and immersed in a way that no prior movement class had given me. When it came time to leave Portland, I felt a huge loss. I was scratching the surface of a practice that really spoke to me and now it was time to leave.

We decided to settle in Copenhagen, Denmark. For the first time in my life, I had no plan and no idea what I was going to do. Suddenly, I was living in a place where I knew no one, didn’t speak the language and didn’t have a job. Prior to moving, I had inquired about Nia in Denmark and found out that while no one was yet teaching, there was a Nia White Belt Graduate from Hamburg, Germany, Sunniva Engelbracht, living in Copenhagen. I called Sunniva a couple of days after we arrived and learned that she lived about three blocks from us! We met for coffee and I told her how much I loved Nia and how I felt so at ease when I practiced it. She said, “So why don’t you teach it?” It was one of those questions that immediately provided me with clarity. I felt a shift inside, and two months later in September, 2000, I boarded the train to Hamburg, Germany and attended the White Belt Training with Carlos Rosas. It was during the White Belt that I realized I had found a practice that not only moved me in such a profound way, but one I wanted to share with others.

I returned to Copenhagen, and with much determination, persistence and passion, I launched a Nia program in Copenhagen. As a foreigner who didn’t know anyone and didn’t speak the language, I had to really trust that the work of Nia would speak for me…and it did. I spent the next year teaching about 12 classes a week in Copenhagen.

After spending some time traveling around Europe, my husband and I returned to Portland in order for me to pursue my goal of obtaining a Master’s Degree in Social Work. Living in Portland, Oregon (the International Headquarters of Nia) provided me with a community of truly creative, joyful, and soulful people, and my relationship with Nia grew exponentially. While I attended graduate school over the next two years, I taught Nia in a variety of clubs, dance centers and community centers throughout the Portland area.

As I delved into my clinical social work study and practice, I became intrigued by the ways in which Nia principles related to my work in mental health. I implemented a Nia class in the elementary school where I did my graduate school practicum. I did extensive research on other forms of body-centered therapies and how science supported the involvement of the body in healing and becoming whole. As a graduation gift to myself, I attended a Blue Belt Training in June, 2003. I became a Blue Belt and an MSW within two days of each other! Layering my Nia foundation with the depth of the relational/emotional component of Nia was a stepping stone for me to continue to bring Nia into my clinical practice.

About a month after becoming a Blue Belt and an MSW, I began to work as a Child and Family Therapist for sexually abused children. For the next four years, I was involved with incredibly creative and transformational work with a very experienced and seasoned team of therapists. I became known at my agency as “the body person” – the one who researched and advocated for the use of body-centered approaches – movement, visualization, stretching and breathing–in the treatment of trauma. I applied for and received a grant to create a “body mind workshop for sexual abuse survivors,” and I began to delve deeper into utilizing Nia in trauma treatment and my clinical practice.

In December, 2004, I became pregnant, and I literally danced my way through the pregnancy and the birth of our son, Zander. I taught three Nia classes a week until I was 36 weeks pregnant, and I attended a Nia class with Debbie Rosas four days prior to giving birth. My relationship with Nia shifted and expanded along with my growing belly! Doing Nia during my pregnancy connected me with my ever-changing body, offered me an intimate experience of dancing with my growing baby, built my strength and stamina for childbirth and my journey into motherhood and helped me become a better teacher – experiencing movement from a different body!

After the birth of my son, I felt a need to create a shift in my professional pathway. I was drained and discouraged by the constant horror and toxicity of child sexual abuse, and my heart yearned to work more proactively, creatively and holistically by promoting health and wellness through the integration of Nia. I began to offer workshops at high schools and in clinical settings. I knew that part of this shift would entail taking Nia Brown Belt, so in June of 2007, I embarked upon yet another layer of my Nia practice and profession.

Following the mandate of spirit, I gave my notice at the mental health clinic. About a week later, Debbie Rosas emailed me and asked if I would like to be the Director of Specialty Application Nia – and here I am! Shortly after that, a local school district hired me as a Wellness Consultant – integrating Nia with the school’s counseling and P.E./wellness programs. I currently work part-time in both positions, teach 3 Nia classes a week and play with my beautiful son and family. Nia has provided me with endless opportunities–a way to live dynamically and the tools to truly support myself and others in healing and celebrating their bodies, minds, emotions and spirits.

NOTE: Before beginning any exercise program, consult your health care provider. Always remember to stop and slow down if you feel out of breath, dizzy or unable to perform the exercises in a conscious and balanced way. Build gradually and monitor yourself on a moment-to-moment basis. Give yourself time to safely create changes.

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From the Founders

The Sensation of Mobility

In the past, Nia was unique, but today there are many more fitness choices that engage the body, mind, emotions and even the spirit. Yet there are still none quite like Nia, none as sensuous, passionate, functional and effective at integrating and touching the whole body and heart. No other fitness choice is as easily adapted to address all levels, ages and needs, and certainly there is nothing better at making people fit and healthy through pleasure and love. So what is it about Nia that makes moving so much fun?

Is it that we make noise and yell “yes” and “no?” Is it that you get to jive and boogie and act as if you are martial artists, kicking and punching? Is it that you are given the freedom and the time to feel what you’re doing? Is it the shifting energy–from soft to hard, big to small and quick to slow? Is it moving in ways that are natural to your body or something even more elusive? It’s all these things and something more, something magically natural and constantly in motion that stimulates the body. It’s called the Sensation of Mobility: a vital energy that is constantly moving through you to keep things healthy. It is what keeps the body’s molecules moving! It is the energy responsible for keeping your heart beating and your lungs filling and emptying even when you’re asleep!

You can sense mobility as energy constantly moving in all directions, at all kinds of speeds, and within a range of motion that varies from slight to great. It is a vibration you can physically recognize as playful tension that never pulls too much or too far in any one direction. Mobility combines both action and rest, providing you with power and grace. It is what you need to sustain moving for short and extended periods of time. It often feels like controlled agitation, and at the same time there is a feeling of relaxation moving around the joints and through the muscles. Mobility engages your muscles, bones and joints and keeps you in motion without starting and stopping the action. Once you find the right speed of mobility for your muscles and joints, you never have to say, “Slow down; I can’t continue or I will lose control and balance!” This perfect speed is what we call Dynamic Mobility, what you sense as the perfect blend between contraction and release. It is the kind of stimulation with push-pull tension that strengthens, stretches and relaxes the body.

To the body, mobility is like juggling. It is what your body does to keep the energy moving to create the environment needed to feel centered, balanced, relaxed and powerful. As one of the body’s five sensations, mobility is important in maintaining heath and fitness, not only for physical health, but also for mental, emotional and spiritual health. It is the energy needed to keep dreams, ideas, and love moving in healthy and healing ways.

The physical sensations of losing mobility are stiffness, pain and fatigue. The physical signs you are losing mobility are a diminishment of power, balance, grace, speed coordination and your body’s inability to remain strong yet relaxed. These signs mean you need to reduce your range of motion and slow down. They mean you need to turn on your Sensory IQ. Read more about Sensory IQ on pages 84-85 of The Nia Technique: The High-Powered Energizing Workout That Gives You a New Body and a New Life authored by Nia creators Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas.

Here’s how you can increase the health and wellness of your body with the sensation of mobility.

• Cultivate the sensation of mobility by moving your body about without stopping. Get used to the sensation of “go-go-go” and the sensation of breathing deeply and more quickly for ten to twenty minutes at a time. This kind of mobility sensation will increase your aerobic conditioning, strengthen your heart and lungs, and help you burn calories to reduce and maintain weight.
• Move about without stopping and open and close your joints rhythmically, without locking, neither opening nor closing them all the way. This kind of mobility sensation will increase your balance, awareness of your body in space and intrinsic (internal small muscles) flexibility
• Balance the action of stability (non-moving bones and joints) with mobility (moving bones and joints). Consciously Personally Train yourself to move one part of the body and not another, moving one part sensing mobility while the other part/s provide stability. This kind of mobility sensation will increase your body awareness and your ability to direct individual parts of your body to do what you want them to do.
• Move your bones and take your attention off your muscles. This kind of mobility sensation will increase your ability to relax and move from the inside out, and it will greatly improve your ability to safely increase your range of motion.

Here’s to finding your Joy,
Debbie and Carlos

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Nia In the Media

Nia is featured in the media all over the world. Below are just a few items that have recently been published or aired. To see more articles about Nia, visit Nia in the Media .

Oprah Magazine (South Africa)
August, 2007

“Take A Risk To Get A Life (Leap of Faith)” by Lisa-Anne Julien

This article depicts the path of five extraordinary women and how they changed their lives to follow their dreams. One of the women, White Belt Brenda Loukes, is a vital woman committed to art, mothering and movement through Nia. She shifted from being a high paced television producer to her true nature as a Nia instructor.

“I am fulfilled because by dancing for myself, and offering Nia to others, I can help make the world a better place one dance at a time.” – Brenda Loukes, Nia White Belt Instructor

“From the radiance she exudes, I would say that … through the Nia Technique, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing can be achieved.”– Lisa-Anne Julien, Writer – Oprah Magazine

The Times (New Jersey)
September, 2007

“Joining the Dance of Fitness” by Pat Summers

This article describes Nia not only as a fitness practice, but also as life enhancement giving information about the benefits, history, the belt systems, personal experience, and the widening popularity of Nia.

“It’s a total body cardiovascular conditioning that also involves philosophy and thought. It’s more than just exercising your body.” – Carol Heffler, Nia White Belt Instructor

“Nia allows for emotional expression. It might be accurate today to say that Nia has borrowed the best from other programs and, overall, the effect is graceful though undoubtedly rigorous.” – Pam Summers, Writer–The Times

Natural Awakenings (USA)
September, 2007

“Dance As Fitness” by Kim Childs

This freelance piece posted in all the local Natural Awakenings throughout the country follows the popularity of dance fueled by recent television shows and how it has tipped into the fitness world. It mentions Nia as a more freestyle dance.

“For men and women who prefer more freestyle dance, classes like DansKinetics and Nia combine elements of yoga, martial arts, and dance for a workout that encourages creative movement while getting the heart pumping and muscles working.”– Kim Childs, Writer, Natural Awakenings

Sheila Kelly’s S Factor Studio News (online)
October, 2007

“Enjoy Another Benefit of Being an S Girl” by Sheila Kelly

Sheila Kelly, creator of S Factor, mentioned Debbie Rosas in her monthly newsletter as a presenter in the Fall Mastery Program of Mama Gena’s School of the Womanly Arts.

“This program, led by the brilliant Regena Thomashauer (aka Mama Gena) takes you on an ecstatic empowering ride along with teachers and fellow revolutionaries Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Steve Bodansky, Debbie Rosas and Barbara Stanny.” – Sheila Kelly, Creator of the S Factor

DailyCandy (www.dailycandy.com)
September, 2007

“Dancing Queen” by Editor

A great kiss to Nia on an online daily tip site for groovy ladies. (Yes, Nia really is like chocolate!) It features Nia Black Belt Lisa Geddings and her wonderful classes!

“You regulate the intensity of your workout, which feels more like a Saturday night out than a grueling exercise regiment (but by the end you’ll feel it). – Editor, DailyCandy