I LOVE learning and taking safe risks, and find one of the most fascinating ways to get out there and teach is to play with the new routines "unseen and unheard".
One way is to teach a MoveIT class (where the teacher shares the familiar 52 Nia moves, one move per minute) with the “yet to be known” music. On an “express” 30 minute Nia class, we change the move every 30 seconds!
Other ways I also enjoy learning include
simple kata - one base move per song
use moves from a previous (well known) routine
draw moves from the latest routine learned
I download the playlist from Nia HQ, resist the desire to listen to the music, and teach a class.
Participants share how they enjoy the creative process and feel an integrated part of the improve experience.
Here’s what a Nia Blue Belt teacher shared about her experience….
“I just did your 30 minute Express class....
It was SO liberating to know that you were hearing the music for the first time - that gave me extra permission to relax into it.
I could really sense how 25 years plus of Nia devotional practice has led you to do that!
I could feel YOU feeling and sensing the music - the ‘ones’ and the drops and the spaces and where ‘something was going to happen’.
As a student, it was so much fun - choosing my favorite kata and personalizing and sensing my body and the freedom.
As a teacher, I learned loads about adding moves like claw hands or strikes or energy shifts to the same base move...
And how to simplify.
I never look at the routine until I’ve got the music in me....
Basically I LOVED it - you are a genius - THANK YOU!”