Welcome to Week 3 of FreeDance!  Last week, you experienced Stage 2 Being Seduced by the Music- The Art of Listening. How did your listening to sound and silence go?

This week, we will explore FreeDance Stage 3: Feelings and Emotions- Act As If. In this third stage, we begin to explore beyond our habitual dance movements and create gestures and movements that come from our "pretend" emotions. In this stage we give 100% of our attention to acting. By listening to the song, we can interpret the music and tell a story through acting out emotions. This is the time to act, to activate your emotions. Allow yourself to act tender, explosive, angry, joyous, agitated or shy. Play with any emotions that turns you on in the moment.

Experiencing Feelings and Emotions:  Play a piece of music or song--anything works.  Listen, move and connect to the sounds and silence. Use the music to inspire you to pretend, act as if you are ___________(fill in with emotion). Play the same piece and pretend again. This time choosing an entirely different emotion to act out.

Afterwards:  You may want to sit a moment and reflect, recapitulate, your experience.  No judging needed; simply consider what you experienced.  What gestures came your way? Which emotions felt more comfortable, less? What is your emotional body and physical body experiencing right now?

Materials and information adapted from the Nia Technique-R.
www.NiaNow.com

Questions?  You are welcome to contact Jill (jill@niadivas.com) or Lesley (lesley@niadivas.com)

Next week: FreeDance Stage 4: The Creative Source-The Real You.

With Love,

Jill and Lesley

www.niadivas.com

Welcome to Week 2 of FreeDance!  Last week, you experienced Stage 1: Freedance: Anything Goes Movement-Wise.  How did it go?

This week, we will explore Stage 2: Being Seduced by the Music:  The Art of Listening.  Sometimes you hear us invite you to put on your "doggie ears"  to pick up sounds and silences in music.  This helps integrate the music into our being and sets the foundation for integrating the music into our movement.  A valuable tool for Being Seduced by the Music is called RAW.  RAW is an acronym that stands for Relaxed in body, Alert in mind, and Waiting in spirit.  To practice RAW, sit or stand with your spine vertically aligned in the body's way, a relaxed stable upright position, allowing your body to rest in stillness.  Although tempting to lie down, a vertical spine is important to assist with staying alert.  100% attention is placed on listening -- not dancing.  Notice sounds and silences, voice and instruments coming and going.  It doesn't matter if you don't know names of instruments, you can make up a name.  For example, sounds like birds flying or a car rumbling. Ready to experience stage 2 for yourself?

Experiencing Being Seduced by the Music:  Play a piece of music or song--anything works.  For as long as you'd like explore Being Seduced by the Music: The Art of Listening.

Afterwards:  You may want to sit a moment and reflect, recapitulate, your experience.  No judging needed; simply consider what you experienced.  What sounds did you notice? Silences? When did different instrument appear and disappear?

Materials and information adapted from the Nia Technique-R.
www.NiaNow.com

FreeDance!  You've heard Nia teachers call out this phrase.  There's more to FreeDance than meets the ear.  Two words glued together: Free is about exploring; Dance is about moving with pleasure.  The intent of FreeDance is all about stimulateing movement creativity.  Through FreeDance, we can expand movement choices, break habits, and encourage our authentic dance.  There are eight stages of FreeDance and this summer we will explore each stage, one week at a time.

We invite you to grab a CD or tunes on your mp3 player and explore FreeDance experientially.

Stage 1: Freedance (notice the little 'd', it is intentional).  The catch phrase is Anything Goes Movment-Wise. This means that, as long as the movement feels good, you have free reign to move as desired--dancing to the music or ignoring the music. 100% attention is placed on body sensation; no thinking is needed. Be playful and enjoy the exploration. 

'You were wild here once.  Don't let them tame you."
~Isadora Duncan

Experiencing Freedance:  Play a piece of music or song--anything works.  For as long as you'd like explore Freedance--anything goes movement-wise.

Afterwards:  You may want to sit a moment and reflect, recapitulate, your experience.  No judging needed; simply consider body sensations.  You can kinesthetically reivew, journal, draw, mind-map, doodle, or anything you'd like.

Materials and information adapted from the Nia Technique-R.
www.NiaNow.com

Questions?  You are welcome to contact Jill (jill@niadivas.com) or Lesley (lesley@niadivas.com)

I'm really thrilled to be offering a triad of new programs that live under the umbrella of Glo. This program came to me out of the desire to take the feeling of Nia out of the class/studio and into my daily life more. I find when I offer something, I get so much in return. So, because I want to live more in my body on a daily basis, I'm offering that we do that together. Glo is about gaining that natural body-centered Glow. That illuminated look and feeling I have when I feel balanced in body, mind, emotions and spirit. I will admit, just preparing the marketing materials for Glo has me spending more time at my computer and I'm having to pay attention even more to how the computer saps my spirit, even though it helps me bring Glo to you.  It is part of the learning process. How much is too much? When does my spirit and my body start to feel zapped? Do I choose to respond or actively choose to continue typing a way? And what does that choice now leave me with?

During the program of Glo we'll use the morning meditations to get centered, relax into our body and begin to feel how we can set ourselves up for the rest of the day. And then, with the Glo Workshop, we'll do household and office tasks and begin to explore how to make even them body-centered. That should be rich! And because of my years of private training in fitness, yoga and post-rehabilitation (from injuries), I'm excited to begin working with people who want to create a personalized experience.

Here's the link to all the Glo Program information where you can find the details and also register. And of course, if you have questions, please contact me at jill@niadivas.com.

http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2vfz95r77c2bf26

I recently was interviewed by Personal Development Expert, Melissa Wadsworth for her blog. We had a lovely conversation as she was intuitively keen on the many sides of "me" that show up in my world. She captured the essence of Nia beautifully and I am so grateful for her thoughtful words and sincere heart. I wanted to share it with and you can also find more information on Melissa and her dream board business at: www.melissawadsworth.com

Welcome to Manifesting Magic!