Irena’s Journey into Nia

Things accelerated when I started doing Nia 4 times a week as part of the demo team dancing in bookstores during Debbie and Carlos’ book tour in 2005. When I danced with the creators of Nia in person in Asheville, NC, I felt the magic and I sent my deposit to Denise Medved the next week to take my WB the 1st week of April 2005.

In June, I started teaching at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center while I was still practicing and struggling with Agolo, I felt I wasn’t ready but yet I really was. I knew I had been initiated by the power of Nia’s energy and I was stepping into the world of teaching. My love for Nia and my trust in her made it possible for me to see myself as a teacher. This was no small feat, considering the fact that I grew up very shy and becoming a teacher was never a profession I even remotely contemplated. Being in front of a group of people was extremely uncomfortable for me when I was young and it wasn’t till I went to college that I started changing. I realized that shy girls do not have all the fun and I opened my self up to transformation. I started dressing in unusual clothes which opened the door to many fun and not so fun remarks from strangers on the street. My involvement in the second feminist movement in the late 70’s also empowered me. The 80’s in Amsterdam were wild, dark and adventurous. I associated myself with punks and squatters and experienced many exciting and scary moments. I wore army boots, short skirts and leather jackets, my hair was dyed jet black and my eye make up was rather creative to say the least. All this playing with looks and watching the effect it had on me and on other people created a whole new awareness about myself and my body. I loved getting all the attention! I like to look  at people myself who dress in bold beautiful colors and who tell the world “here I am”; it is an exchange of energy and a form of celebrating the Human Body. This concept became my natural link with Nia and this is now the focus that I bring to my classes and my play shops. Creating an environment in which women and men feel accepted, respected and realize that there is no separation between them and their body.

Feeling the Fire, Creating and maintaining Self Love, Pleasure and a sense of Empowerment are the driving factors and why I feel so passionate about teaching Nia.

In my classes I focus on creating a safe place in which students experience a sense of Pleasure and Empowerment, create and maintain Self Love as this is the only way we can begin to connect to the Authentic Self! 

 

 

 

 

Irena in Amsterdam July 2007

Nia took me by surprise; she turned me into a teacher. When I took my first Nia class in 2001, I hadn’t exercised for years. While living in Amsterdam I didn’t own a car so riding my bike everywhere was my daily exercise besides my weekly African Dance classes. Moving to Durham, North Carolina, American drivers took away my desire to ride a bike as I feared for my life on the streets. Also, my husband and I were starting a new import business, we traveled a lot and exercising fell by the way side. A friend of mine invited her Nia teacher to our book club and the next morning I took my first class. I liked Nia from the beginning but it was not a hot love affair as it is for many people; two small children and a husband in Iraq kept me pre occupied. When my husband returned, my teacher Mary-Beth Grinnan gently starting coaxing me into taking my WB.  

Nia by the Sea