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Nia WHITE Belt Training
The Nia " Art of Sensation"White Belt Training is for everybody. For the beginning to seasoned mover, for the person looking to deepen their connection to their body, movement and life; and for the person readty to begin their teaching path. The White Belt Training takes you on a journey of self-discovery through the Art of Sensation. Beginning with the Joy of Movement, you will learn the foundation of Nia – 13 principles that will lead you to holistic health, fitness and wellness for life. Receive the tools to take the magic of your Nia experience off the dance floor and into a “dancing through life" lifestyle.
Laurie leads Nia White Belt online and in person training courses at studios around the world.
2024 Online + In Person Training
ONLINE Art of Sensation Nia White Belt
Embody the foundation of Nia Holistic Fitness + Wellness for your Body + Life from the convenience, of your home.
Embody the foundation of Nia Holistic Fitness + Wellness for your Body + Life from the convenience, of your home.
Training Details
This 16-week training include live 2-hour sessions and access to the Nia Online Training Portal to support your at home embodiment through movement practices, meditations, podcasts, self-reflections, live zoom, online and recorded classes. (32 hours live + 10 online classes + optional at home practices).
In Person Training
SEPTEMBER 21-23 and 27-29, 2024
Been waiting for a retreat style Nia White Belt Course? Join us for our In Person spit-weekend White Belt in this Scottish Castle Hotel near Stirling, Scotland UK. This will include 3 days in between two weekends of training to satisfy your sense of adventure. Before registering for the White Belt, check out this landing page to get check out early registration rates, special hotel lodging rates and more information: Special Scottish Landing Page
Nia 5 STAGES Training
Movement Medicine for Body, Mind + Soul
Nia 5 Stages Training provides the experiential foundation to deeply embody this self-healing, mindful practice based on the stages of human development and movement patterning. Whether you are a Nia teacher, student, movement practitioner, yoga instructor, somatic educator or health professional, this course will add somatic depth to your realm of expertise and expand your movement potential. For Nia teacher members, this training includes a post-trainng onine SHARE program that guides you to sharing 52 ready to deliver lessons plans. Anyone can take the training for personal practice and growth. However, to teach 5 Stages professionally (5 Stages classes + workshops), a Nia White Belt and Nia teaching membership are required.
ONLINE TRAINING
Trainings run over the course of 7 weekly sessions (using ZOOM). All sessons are recorded should you have a calendar or time zone conflict. Course includes access to online resources, weekly journals and classes with Laurie to support your home embodiment and practice.
Fall Online + In Person Dates Coming Soon | GET INFO + REGISTRATION DETAILS
Step 1: REGISTER with Nia Technique>> HERE
Step 2: Pay My Trainer Balance >> HERE
Step 3: Explore the Art of Self-Healing
Contact Laurie (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) to get on her 'interested' in a future training list.
Nia GREEN Belt Training
Nia Green Belt Training ~ The Art of Teaching
Share the Joy of Teaching Nia with dynamice ease, relaxed confidence and skill. This training is designed for every teacher from the novice Nia White Belt graduate to the experienced Nia Black Belt teacher.
You will learn to:
- Craft a Magical Nia Class experience for yourself, and your students.
- Embody Nia Routines - by eliminating effort and creating ease.
- Expand your understanding of Music ~ Sound Resonance.
- Build choreography by Scaffolding from your base.
- Cue with relaxed confidence and ease
- Deepen your relationship to the 7 Cycle Format, including Focus and Intent.
- Expand your authentic teaching self
As your Nia Green Belt Trainer, I am are here to:
- Hold the space for learning, growth and development
- Offer individual and group coaching.
- Empower your 52 Moves Craft.
- Share tools to enhance teaching skills.
- Guide you through exercises for teaching mastery.
- Support your learning style
2024 ONLINE Nia GREEN Belt Trainings with Laurie
Thursdays, May 16 - July 25, 2024 | CLICK HERE FOR INFO + REGISTRATION DETAILS
Contact Laurie (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for information or to get on her 'interested' in a future training list.
Specialty Nia Trainings + Workshop Events
Nia® MOVE It (52 Moves) Specialty Training
Learn + Embody the foundation and language of the Nia 52 Moves for your personal or professional Nia practice. The Nia MOVE it TRAINING takes you into the somatic anatomy and technique of Nia's 27 base, 7 core and 18upper extremity moves.
All bodies and experience levels are welcome. Laurie creates a very positive and dynamic learning environment. The MOVE it trainig will deepen your persaonl experience of Nia resulting in less thinking, more dancing!
NEXT training: Fridays from May 17 - June 28, 2024
Step 1: REGISTER with Nia Technique>>HERE
Step 2: Pay My Trainer Balance >> HERE
Step 3: MOVE it > You get 7 bonus MOVE it classes with Laurie
It will introduce you to
- The MOVE IT Experience and Practice
- Learn, move + energize method of embodying technique
- SCAFFOLDING base, core + upper extremities
- One minute interval timers designed for practice
As a student of Nia, you will gain an easeful confidence in recognizing the move, naming it and developing movement skill.
If you are a Nia teacher, this training is ESSENTIAL. You will gain movement skill, creativity and confidence in this class format. Your somatic skill of modeling Nia movement will transcend to your Nia classes along with the language to craft and guide your students with expertise. Licensed Nia® teachers will also gain a new interval format to add to offerings
Nia® FLOORplay Specialty Training
A 7-week online experiential journey where you will master learning how to move on the floor versus exercising. The art of FLOORplay is blending one move into the next to create a beautiful dance that massages and strengthens the whole body from fingers to toes. Thisunique program stimulates functional movement and self-healing by working with Nia floorplay fundamentals, The Body's Way philosophy and a varitey of music and energy dynamics.
NEXT training: Contact Laurie to get on the list!!
Step 1: REGISTER with Nia Technique>> HERE
Step 2: Pay My Trainer Balance >> HERE
Step 3: Explore the Art of Play
Contact Laurie for one-on-one Mentoring or Coaching sessions
Up-Coming Workshops + Special Events
Contact Laurie to get on her insider's playshop list!
Classic Nia
Nia tones your body and tunes your mind, leaving you energized, mentally clear, and emotionally balanced after every workout. The practice combines simple movement patterns with the energy of the dance, martial and healing arts to get you feeling good, having fun and getting fit in 60 minutes.
Personally, Nia has tuned me into the power, joy and pliability of moving my body in pleasure and living my life with purpose - an empowering movement and life practice.
Move IT: Nia's 52 Moves
An exhilarating 60-minute cardiovascular conditioning class based on the science of hybrid interval training. You’ll shift from one move to the next every 60 seconds, progressively moving through the fundamentals of your Nia practice - the 52 Moves. Beginners with little or no movement skill and seasoned athletes alike enjoy the benefits of isolating moves and integrating the whole body. Creative. Fun. Total body conditioning.
Personally, Move IT taps into a limitless creativity in conditioning - for both my body and brain - minute by minute. I love honing movement skill of each of the 52 moves of Nia and coaching students to success.
5 Stages: A Self Healing Practice
Experience gentle, mindful, self-healing movement as you are guided through five stages of human development – embryonic, creeping, crawling, standing and walking. Re-align, energize and condition your body, mind, emotions and spirit. Move better, feel better from the ground up.
Personally, the 5 STAGES has added a fluid grace to my movement, strengthened my upper body and re-aligned my spine, allowing me to rise up and down with ease. I have replaced chiropractic visits with a mindful, 5-minute daily practice.
Moving To Heal: Feel Better
Nia’s Moving to Heal class experience supports people looking for a gentle approach to Nia and for those dealing with a wide range of therapeutic issues from injury, trauma, grief, short-term to long-term illness. Learn to slow down and personalize movement to fit your body’s way while focusing on feeling better. Improve feelings of wellness regardless of physical condition. Beginners welcome.
Personally, Moving to Heal is an opportunity to hold the space for slowing down, tuning in and tracking the sensation of feeling better, move by move, breath by breath.
Nia FreeDance
A barefoot conscious dance experience designed to awaken the movement artist within, stimulating movement creativity. Participants are guided to explore their own movement and dance, in their own way and time own time to soul-stirring music, eclectic sonic landscapes that provide cellular resonance and evoke self-expression. The 8 Stages of Nia's FreeDance practice provide the frame for integration of the body, mind, emotions, and spirit - free of choreography - yet with a unique focus for each class experience.
Leave feeling expanded and with that you’ve ‘danced like no one is watching’ sensation!
Yoga: Union of Body and Mind
Yoga is an ancient healing art of blending body, mind and breath. It cultivates strength and flexibility through the alignment of physical postures, known as asanas. Yoga centers the mind through awareness, being present, and honoring one’s spirit.
Personally, yoga is an alignment of energy from the inside out, connecting me to the power of presence, the power of stillness and power of moving body, breath and spirit.
Special Workshops and Events
In-depth movement and body education experiences tailored to everybody - movers, Nia belt graduates, teachers or communities. Experiences draw upon: Nia, 52 Moves, 5 Stages, Moving to Heal, Yoga.
Topic include Nia FUNdamentals, Nia Routine Playshops and Immersions, Nia Jams, Introduction to Nia, Introduction to 5 STAGES, Joy of Movement, Anatomy Education – The Body’s Way, The Somatic Voice, Power – Play – Pliability, The Yin/Yang of Nia, Nia Moving Mediation, Fun – Form – Freedom, Your Foundation: Foot Fundamentals, Yoga for Health
Up-Coming Workshops & Events
Top 10 Things You Should Know about Nia
Here is my “Top 10” List of things you should know about Nia:
# 10: You’re going to sweat. Nia offers the ultimate pathway to fitness based on the pleasure principle: if it feels good, keep doing it! Who couldn’t use more pleasure in life? I grew up a star athlete. I crashed and burned as a collegiate athlete. After 2 major surgeries, it was through Nia that I reclaimed my health, my athleticism, power, grace and to living my life in that state of awareness called the Zone.
# 9: Your whole body gets conditioned. Nia utilizes 200/700 movement potential: moving your 200+ bones and 700+ muscles as they were designed up, down, and spiraling all around, opening and closing your joints targeting your base, core and upper extremities. Like yoga, it utilizes total body integration. Nia combined with yoga has done more for my flexibility and balance than yoga alone.
Laurie's Story
My First Class
I took my first Nia class at a local fitness club in the spring of 1999. At the time, I was a self-employed in the retail coffee business~ yes, whipping up the daily espresso, managing staff & using caffeine as an energy source. I was also completely bored with my workout routine: treadmill walking, “light weights” & a little yoga—am & pm. It was just enough to keep the aches, stress and tiredness at bay. A friend thought I might like Nia-that it wasn’t like the run of the mill group exercise classes and that I would have fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I could use some fun!
7 Tips for Beginning Nia
Nia’s way of getting fit, dancing barefoot, “like nobody’s watching” is a tune up for body, mind and spirit. If you are new to Nia, you may have noticed a very passionate community of movers around you. To put you at ease, here are 7 simple tips to maximize your experience as a beginning student:
1. Relax. Breath. Welcome to your practice. Enjoy being new to something. Start with smaller movements, allowing your body to adjust to moving the Nia way. Allow your breathing to support you. As you learn the steps, add range of motion and intensity when you feel ready.
What are the Nia 5 STAGES?
The Power of 5 Simple Moves
Ever wonder about the body’s original blueprint for movement? Marvel that encoded in your DNA is a natural sequence that maximizes your power and potential moving from the ground up? Consider that curiosity, desire and play were the internal motivation for conditioning your body to be upright in the world?
Nia for Men
By guest writer Fred Bass
I frequently team teach Nia with my brother-in-law, Fred Bass. We have a fun dynamic, love taking ½ a class from each other and have really grown as teachers from the experience. Teaching with a man has drawn other men into Nia. I asked Fred to share a bit from the male perspective on Nia. Read on, and thanks, Fred!
Rather than tell you about Nia, or what Nia is, let me tell you in this space, my life….with Nia.
Self-Healing My Feet
I stepped into Nia from the yoga world in 1999, feeling very comfortable with its philosophy of moving barefoot. My yoga practice aligned my body from the ground up - within the dimensions of my mat. Nia offered an incredible sense of freedom, allowing me to move in space, with music and the dance of Nia. My feet were strong. Fast forward a year, add repetitive stress injury that triggered an inflammatory response in my whole body and suddenly my feet were reeling in pain from plantar fasciitis. My feet needed healing!
5 STAGES in London + Linz!
In July, 2015 I journeyed to Europe where I shared my passions for self-healing and body transformation via the Nia 5 Stages training program. I had a wonderful time in London connecting with Nia teachers and movers that I have come to know from previous visits, from dancing and training White Belts with my colleague Dorit Noble. I love that many countries, languages and accents were represented (UK, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Sweden, and South Africa). It was inspiring to witness the transformation in movement, an increased flow and vitality in just a few short days. Here is what Cim Bartlett, Nia Brown Belt, had to say after the training:
What to Wear to Nia
The Evolution of a Nia Fashionista
I grew up with a ‘fashionista’ mom. She infused a sense of style into any activity, whether that was on the golf course, lunch with her sisters, an afternoon of shopping, an evening out, running errands or sporting our school colors at many a ball game. She artfully combined comfortable silhouettes with colors she loved and a little flair that always stood out and still does to this day. I have never seen her wear anything she deemed too young, too tight or simply outdated. Like many moms out there, and perhaps yourself included, she has seen fashion cycle and recycle throughout the decades. What remained constant was her personal criteria: does it fit well, feel good, look good and is it me?
Holistic Fitness
Integrating All of You
Holistic: addressing the whole being, not merely one part. An increased awareness of body, mind and spirit.
I love that Nia is more than a workout for your body. It has a way of working out your mind, tapping into the power of your emotions and opening spirit.
I know in my early exposure I sensed many layers of myself being moved beyond the sweaty physical. Although, I couldn’t always put my experience into words, I do know that my mind was engaged in a focused, relaxed way. I was learning new patterns of movement, breaking habits and enjoying new music. My emotions shifted – I always left class feeling a natural high, happier than when I stepped in no matter my life circumstance. I felt connected to my spirit, to my essence. Similar to yoga, in that I felt deeply connected in body, mind and spirit.
