The Nia technique is a somatic movement practice that combines dance, martial arts, and healing arts to promote holistic fitness and well-being. Developed by Debbie Rosas and Carlos Aya Rosas in the 1980s, Nia is based on the belief that movement is medicine and that the body’s innate wisdom holds the key to healing and vitality.
Posts filed under Dance and Movement
Namaste, Katie: OUr Fall 2023 Yoga Column
Whether you're a seasoned yogi or getting ready to roll out your mat for the first time, here you'll find a variety of useful tips from local yoga instructor, Katie Hoener.
Body Wisdom from Our Ancestors—Combining Trauma Informed Movement and Art Therapy
Awareness of the universal impacts of trauma on the mind, body, and society—large and small—has been growing over the past few decades. Fortunately, this awareness has promoted understanding of what type of approaches might help support healing as well. Some of these approaches were known by our earliest ancestors, including creating images, movement, dance, music, and singing. Today we call these expressive arts therapies.
Leaps of Faith: Arogyaveda
At the end of a quiet lane, I found the building where Pradeepa Ryasam invited me to meet her. I had asked if she could share her experience as a new business owner offering holistic wellness services at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. As I walked toward the building, I noticed rabbit footprints in the new snow, and several birds greeted me before Ryasam had a chance to open the door to introduce herself.
Becoming Me, Again: The Dance of Transformation
My greatest gift is that I lead with the heart. Like a blooming yellow rose, I experience my life as a continuous, golden unfolding. Despite the daily stresses that human life brings, abundance, gratitude, and joy are my daily diet—synchronicity, intuition, and faith are my guiding lights.
Namaste, Katie...Our Spring 2022 Yoga Column
Whether you're a seasoned yogi or getting ready to roll out your mat for the first time, here you'll find a variety of useful tips from local yoga instructor, Katie Hoener.
Moving Meditations and Comparative Prayer Forms: An Exploration of Altering One's Consciousness Through Movement
One day while teaching Tai Chi—somewhere between forms—I was no longer cognizant of my body, my students, the studio, not even time! There was suddenly nothing except delightful whiteness, bliss, and an ethereal consciousness. When I came back to the immediate physical surroundings, I admitted to my students, “Ummmm I lost count. Was that two or three Part the Horse’s Mane?” We all laughed. Later, I recalled having had other similar experiences during movement as well as sitting/lying inert.
Namaste, Katie... Our Yoga Column, Fall 2021
hether you're a seasoned yogi or getting ready to roll out your mat for the first time, here you'll find a variety of useful tips from local yoga instructor, Katie Hoener.
The Transformative Power of Raqs Sharqi – Belly Dancing with Sheila May
Raqs Sharqi, or in Westernized terms, “belly dance,” is a classical style of Egyptian dance utilizing complex movements of the torso, arms, and hips. It is widely known as a playful and sensual dance that celebrates the feminine form. Belly dance movements have been inspired by a long history of dances ranging from within Egypt to other cultures across Eurasia.
Dance Meditation Technique: Dance Your Way to Self-Realization
On an unusually warm Sunday in January, people are milling around inside Detroit’s archaic Scarab Club (the sign out front notes, “The scarab, an Egyptian symbol of rebirth…”). True to the venue’s name, a tribe of Dance Meditation Technique (DanceMT) practitioners, as participants are called, has been showing up every Sunday for a chance to be reborn with more vibrancy and vitality.
On Flying: How Contemporary Circus Arts Teach Adults to Play
By Kathleen Livingston
When most people think of the circus, they conjure up the big top and the three rings of a traditional circus. A caravan rolls into town. A big collared cat jumps through a fiery hoop. A child rides on a saddled elephant’s back.
