Nia Winter Workshop

What a great workshop both Viktoria Dohandi and Melinda Nassif had on Thursday night. The workshop started with a warm up of Freedance – Anything goes, movement wise, following your own bodies rhythm and pulse. Free dance is such a great way to be your own dancer and let go of anything that no longer serves you, to shake it all out and enjoy the pleasure of dancing free form. There are 8 stages to the freedance and in Thursday nights workshop we explored all stages to understand how to incorporate free dance into your Nia class and practise.

After a great warm up of freedance, we then focused on the Base of the body. Nia has 52 moves which is incorporated into the practise and part of these 52 moves is the base of the body. Focusing on 27 moves, including the feet, stances and steps, this gives great conditioning to the body to feel centred, grounded with stability, so when we stand and hold ourselves with the base of the body we can allow ourselves to move freely in other ways, with the base of the body and even the upper body. This was a great part of the workshop to understand the foundation and core of Nia, learning to support your body while moving and listening to it’s design.

The next part of the workshop was a shared teaching with both Viktoria and Melinda of a one hour Nia Class, and what is usually taught in regular classes. Much fun was had by all,with the variety of skills and songs to move with. It was loads of fun, including so many elements which Nia shares. Towards the end of the routine, it was guided by the cooling down on the floor, which lead to the next stage of the workshop, with Floor play.

Floor play is similar to Freedance but on the floor. So it was welcoming movement in different ways and shapes on the floor. With floor play the focus on Thursday nights workshop was incorporating FAMSS – Flexibility, Agility, Mobility, Strength and Stability in floor play. Going through 5 sensations to explore how your body can move in different ways on the floor, asking yourself how to connect to these sensations.

And what a beautiful way to end the workshop with a guided meditation. In complete stillness, sensing relaxation and completely allowing the body to switch off for rest.

The class walked out with such gratitude, liveliness and an understand for where their bodies were at with complete acceptance.

This workshop will be taking place again on the 13th August at The Bondi Pavilion from 7pm – 9pm. Come along to experience the joy of Nia, bring a friend to share with. For enquries please call Melinda Nassif on 0402 115 437 or email on melnas81@gmail.com.