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Teacher Training
At StudioNia Santa Fe we are committed to our growing number of Nia teachers locally, nationally and internationally. We offer various continuing education programs for those interested in deepening their personal or professional practice.
Nia Education: Stepping In...
Depending on your goals, Nia is everything from a fun class experience to a philosophy, lifestyle and personal/professional study. While often practiced in a group-fitness format, the true depth of Nia lies in a richly layered bodymind education, which for many becomes a personal lifestyle and/or professional practice.
Nia Intensive Training: The Experience
Nia Intensives are offered internationally, by a team of 16 Certified Nia Trainers who have dedicated years to the personal and professional study, practice, teaching and living of Nia’s principles and education. With some exception, most Intensives Trainings take place over 7 days and include 40 hours of somatic education. In addition to primary sessions with the training group, Nia Intensives include public class experiences, which provide demonstrations of Nia theory and methods as they are applied in a traditional group fitness setting.
The Nia Belt System: Personal and Professional Mastery
The Nia Belt system follows a traditional martial arts model moving students through progressive levels of education, skill sets and proficiency. Nia has 52 principles. Each belt, White, Blue, Brown & Black teaches 13 principles at a time. The Green Belt focuses on teaching technique and working with the craft and is required after the White Belt for all people choosing to teach Nia. We recommend you take the Green Belt within sixmonths after you begin teaching. After the Green Belt, teachers generally wait a minimum of one year before taking the next belt level in order to work with and embody the principles of each level. If you are taking the Nia trainings for personal growth and you do not teach there is more room for flexibility in terms of your pace through the program.
Nia is a body-mind-spirit approach to health and fitness in your body and in your life. The Nia system approaches the body through 4 realms: physical, mental, emotional and spirit – meaning simply, accessing what is unique about each person. The belt system emphasizes these realms in different ways successively providing teachers with more tools to use movement for health and healing in its broadest sense. Throughout all of the belts, learning and embodying happens through self-exploration and personal experience.
White Belt
Focus: The Body’s Way - Intent: To sense Your Body’s Way.
This White Belt is the foundation for teaching and learning Nia. Everything begins with Principle #1 – The Joy of Movement. The principles of this belt focus on the physical realm of the body and learning how to sustain and increase sensation in the body for pleasure and self-healing. The Nia principles are explored through the lens of science, craft and the art of the body and movement. Students will be introduced to the nine movement forms of Nia: Jazz, Duncan, Modern, Aikido, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, The Alexander Technique, The Work of Moshe Feldenkrais and Yoga. Nia’s proprietary system for music appreciation is introduced at the White Belt along with all of the 52 moves of the Nia Technique.
Green Belt
Focus: Honing teaching skills and working with the 13 principles of the White Belt.
In general the Nia Education Program can be divided into five competency areas: Anatomy, Music, Movement, Methodology and Philosophy. In the Green Belt, students will go through a 5-day intensive program that takes all of the 13 White Belt Principles through the framework of the five competency areas specifically to develop teaching skills. In addition to the competency areas, students will continue to perfect their skill at modeling and working with the 52 Moves and demonstrating the moves for different fitness levels. Students will work with the Nia’s 5 Sensations of Fitness: Flexibility, Mobility, Strength, Agility and Stability to deliver the Nia Experience that promises physical fitness through seeking pleasure in the body. Learn more
Blue Belt
Focus: Communication and Relationship - Intent: To sustain and increase your ability to pay attention to detail.
The Blue Belt expands the focus of the White Belt on the physical realm by adding the voices of the other realms: mental, emotional and spirit. Blue belt teaches you to be in relationship with everything as they way to become intimate and knowledgeable. Nia does this through paying attention to sensory details in the body. This is an experiential process to learn how these realms are sensed at a physical level – Nia does this through a practice of being in relationship. Teaching Nia is all about the personal experience of the teacher – everything that she shares with the class is first sensed in her body – visual images, feelings and emotions and the stirring of the unique. This intensive provides practical tools for communicating with your students and sharing Nia with others in an intimate way. In the Blue Belt, students also learn about the Nia Mind-Body-Spirit Class format, continue to work with music and how to balance form and freedom in a class. The 5 Stages of Self-Healing, developmental movement and anatomy, are also introduced at this belt.
Brown Belt
Focus on Sensing & Perceiving Energy - Intent: To explore the metaphysics of the Body.
By this level, students have developed a proficiency with sustaining awareness of the physical body and paying attention to the detail of the voices of the 4 realms: physical, mental, emotional and spirit. Brown Belt explores the experience of living as energy beings. Everything that is experienced as a sensation in the body is an energy experience; shifting our perception through this lens we can expand our consciousness through embodied awareness. Brown Belt explores how energy works and uniquely affects the 4 realms. The pre-training reading for this belt includes topics such as metaphysics, philosophy of Chinese medicine and learning about Chakras. Again, your personal process helps you discover how to use energy in effortless ways to better communicate and co-create the Nia experience.
Black Belt
Focus on Unlimited Creativity - Intent Mastering the Basics.
As a Black Belt, you let go of all you know and enter into The Unknown a place of infinite and endless creativity. You become a Movement Medicine Healer.
Staying Connected: Continuing The Journey
Due to the depth of each level of curriculum, all Intensive Graduates are required to wait 12 months time between Intensive Trainings to fully embody and practice the education learned in the previous Belt level. Each level of Training is further supported by Post-Training curriculum, monthly TeleCourses, Newsletters, a Nia Forum, and personal support from the Nia International Headquarters team.
A Holistic Approach: The Nia Way
Rooted in a somatic (body-based) approach to learning, Nia education is designed to allow students to develop and participate in their own way, embodying cognitive information by engaging the whole person:
- The Body is used for exploration, discovery, and sensory-based experience
- The Mind is used to focus, witness and direct attention
- Emotion is used to create a personal connection to experience, and thus becomes a conduit of body-mind connection
- Spirit (that which is unique to a person) is used to recognize personal power, foster self-healing and expand each person’s potential