In the last few weeks, I’ve gotten back into Nia, which, for the uninitiated, is “a body-mind-spirit program incorporating cardiovascular fitness through kinesthetic dance/movement patterns. Nia blends Eastern and Western movements including Yoga, martial arts, dance, Tai chi, and Aikido.” The main Nia site is down right now, which has my favorite description of Nia, that it blends the martial arts, the dance arts, and the movement arts. Basically, it’s all about “the joy of movement” — and it is joyful to do it.
There’s several Nia classes in the area, and when I first moved out here, I was thrilled that they were taught at the local rec center. Over time, however, I got less enthusiastic about the classes — whether it was because of the time (8:45am on Mondays and Wednesdays) or the teacher, whose style didn’t fit my tastes as well as my NY teachers had. But in the last few weeks, feeling inspired, I also started taking classes at the Littleton Y (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 10:15). The time is better for me, and the teachers are wonderful.
And so I’ve been thinking about testing for my White Belt. Nia is a belted discipline, like many martial arts, and though I’m not sure about teaching, I like the idea of an in-depth study to deepen my understanding of Nia, and get better at it.
It’s not a small commitment — about $1,500 and a full week of classes, all day. But I think it’s something that I could enjoy doing for years to come.
I’ve certainly thrown as much money at other strange attempts at fitness — stage combat classes, anyone? But this has more lasting benefits, I think. There’s a white belt test in Boulder in January, I think. Anyway, I’m thinking about it.
Anyone else planning anything big?
