Local Faculty
We continue to commit to our established local faculty as the heart of our dedicated StudioNia Santa Fe team.
Instructors
Bonnie Bennett
Bonnie Bennett is a Black Belt Nia instructor who has been dancing in our community for almost 10 years and teaching for the last six. Coming to Nia with a background in Yoga, Bonnie brings her unique skills to crafting classes with a balance of spirit, energy, flexibility and fun! Outside of Nia, Bonnie and her husband own and run Kakawa Chocolate House, another way to bring joy to our Santa Fe community!
Diana Cale Kennedy
Diana Cale Kennedy is a Nia Brown Belt and Nia FreeDance instructor. One of the founding teachers at StudioNia Santa Fe, Diana has brought her leadership skills to the dance floor as well as serving as the Studio’s leadership development coach for the past 10 years. She is owner of LeaderShiftNow, which offers transformative coaching and inspires systemic success. Diana also offers expertise in the field of Human Design. Originally from Scotland, Diana’s classes reflect her Celtic spirit.
Jamie Klein
Jamie (Berry) Klein is a 2nd Degree Nia Black Belt, Moving to Heal, 5 Stages and private therapeutic movement instructor since 2009. She is one of the founding teachers of StudioNia Santa Fe.
Jamie has a passion for somatic education and brings her personal fitness, healing journey, deep intuition, love of music and dance, wild sense of humor and playful approach to using movement as medicine. Jamie IS heart-FULL joy in motion.
Jamie presents to organizations including NM Coalition on Parkinson’s, National Spasmodic Torticollis Association and has lobbied for funding in Washington, DC on their behalf. She provides essential therapeutic movement for individuals, and presents workshops and classes at senior residences and recovery centers.
Kate Latimer
Kate Latimer, MA, LPCC, is a founding member of Studio Nia Santa Fe, a Nia Black Belt and Chair of the Counseling Program at Southwestern College. She teaches Nia, Nia Freedance, and Nia Floorplay. She took her first Nia class in 2005 and was deeply moved by Nia’s music, movement and magic. Building on her background as a fitness instructor, educator, and mental health counselor, Kate is known for her dance activism leading Flashmobs to raise awareness about gender violence and equal rights for women and the LGBTQ+ community for One Billion arising and the Women’s March. She sees Nia as a profoundly therapeutic pathway to personal development and delivers a depth of somatic awareness and emotional attunement in her teaching with the intention to cultivate self-healing and enhance the sensation of Universal Joy on the dance floor of life. Kate is a founding member of StudioNia Santa Fe.
Kelle Rae Oien
Kelle Rae Oien is a founding member and owner of Studio Nia Santa Fe. She is a leading Nia® trainer, second degree black belt, and choreographer. Kelle brings a rich understanding of the human form through her training as a Rolfer of Structural Integration, Rolfing Movement Practitioner and 500HR RYT. Kelle has dedicated her life to self-mastery through the discovery of healing through movement and has been facilitating body-mind movement education for over 25 years. Kelle’s love of learning fuels each experience, making her classes dynamic, explorative, fun and powerful.
Hillary Welles
Hillary is a founding member of Studio Nia Santa Fe and our current Studio Manager. She is a Nia Black Belt, Nia FloorPlay, and Nia MOVE itTM instructor who brings two decades of holistic fitness experience to her teaching. She has studied extensively with both Debbie Rosas and Carlos Aya-Rosas, co-founders of the Nia Technique. Hillary is a founding member of the SuperCORE Fit development team and heads up the popular StudioNia Santa Fe SuperCORE program. Hillary is co-author of CORE Intelligence: Driving the New Era of Leadership and co-host of the BodyChat video podcast.
Sarah Mitchell
Sarah Mitchell LM Cpm IBCLC is a Nia Brown Belt, Midwife and Integrative Well Woman provider. She teaches Nia and 5 Stages. Growing up Sarah always loved music and dancing. Sarah began her Nia journey in 2007 with our own Hillary Welles and was profoundly enchanted. Sarah is one of the original teachers and founders at Studio Nia Santa Fe, training under Holly Nastasi, Kelle Rae Oien, Debbie Rosas and Carlos Aya Rosas. She has a love of the human body! For over 30 years she has worked with women in wellness as a somatic educator, midwife and lactation consultant, weaving together her love of the body’s divine architecture, her joy with movement and healing arts. Sarah works at La Familia and has a small private practice in integrative wellness for women.
Tallie Tolen
Tallie Tolen is a Nia Blue Belt and MOVE itTM instructor who has been teaching Nia since 2013. Tallie invites her students to explore sensation and welcomes new and developing Nia teachers into her classes to experience the joy that she has found in teaching Nia. She incorporates the benefits of Nia as she dances through life daily.
Virtual Faculty
We are thrilled to welcome some exceptional national and international teachers who will be teaching for us virtually. Each of these world-renowned somatic educators will add depth and joy to our program. Some of them may be familiar to you.
Holly Nastasi
Holly Nastasi, who holds a B.S. in Kinesiology and an M.Ed. in Health Education, is an inspiring master teacher and trainer of the Nia Technique who began her Nia practice in 1993. Holly is internationally recognized as one of the top Nia teachers and trainers in the world. She is also a choreographer for The Nia Technique. One of the original founders of StudioNia Santa Fe, she now lives in College Station, Texas. Tuesdays 9am MDT and Saturdays 7:30am MDT
Winalee Zeeb
Winalee Zeeb has been a valued member of the Nia Training Faculty since 1997. She began teaching Nia in 1991. She trains and certifies Nia teachers from White Belt through Brown Belt. Winalee’s creativity infuses her teaching. She also teaches yoga and MELT Method hand-and-foot techniques. She is a singer and motivational speaker, and she is the owner of Heartdance Studio in Lansing, Michigan. Fun Fact: Winalee was Kelle’s first Nia teacher! Thursdays at 9am MST
Stephanie DeMay
Stephanie DeMay invites you to kick off your shoes and step into a world of complete and utter joy! Originally from Kansas, Stephanie will be joining us from Christchurch, New Zealand. A longtime professional dancer, Stephanie has performed at the prestigious Westward Ho and Union Plaza Hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada. A Nia teacher since 2009, she is a Second-Degree Black Belt and Third Generation Nia Trainer in Training. Wednesdays at 5:45pm MDT
Joanie Brooks
Joanie Brooks is a First Degree Nia Black Belt instructor, a Nia White Belt Trainer and a Nia FreeDance Trainer. As a Sacred Athlete and Somatic Movement Educator with over 30 years of experience in the healing arts, Joanie is committed to helping everyBody reach their full potential and live a life of pleasure. Her life purpose is to awaken the healing potential in everyone. She fulfills this purpose by teaching in movement studios, fitness clubs, corporations, and with breast cancer survivors. She offers trainings, workshops, retreats, classes and presentations throughout the US and internationally.
Adelle Brewer
Adelle Brewer is a Nia Faculty Trainer, owner of The Synergy Studio in San Antonio, TX, a Second Degree Nia Black Belt, a Transformational Breath Senior Trainer and Coach, certified Yoga instructor, TaijiFit certified instructor, Reiki Master, and professional fiber artist. She brings people together, opening doors of possibility for like-minded communities. Adelle and Joanie Brooks are Nia’s FreeDance trainers, and they are thrilled to be teaching FreeDance at StudioNia Santa Fe.
Toni Bergins
Toni Bergins, MEd, founder and creator of JourneyDance™ and the Embodied Transformations Method coaching program, anchors her professional practice at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. As an artistic alchemist and passionate catalyst, Toni has helped thousands of people break out of their boxes and move into new stories through embodied practice and emotional empowerment. Toni’s humor, wild expressiveness and authenticity make JourneyDance™ accessible to all. We are delighted to welcome Toni and her Master Training Team who will be teaching JourneyDance™ at StudioNia Santa Fe one Sunday per month.
Saffire
My work centers around creating a deep sense of embodiment, self empowerment and self expression through the use of sound and movement combined. It is very freeing and opening while being deeply self-revealing. We create music together, dance together, allow ourselves to see and be seen by others, work with the transition from neutral to activated space, and the energies of transmitting and receiving. We also work with pulse, beat, and rhythm. As long as we are each in relationship with the same pulse, we are in relationship with each other. This is the essence of true community.
Sabine Schacke
Sabine Schacke, a Swiss osteopath, works in the field of functional and shamanic medicine. She is a First Degree Nia Black Belt and part of the Third Generation of Nia Trainers. She will be teaching a series of workshops on topics such as using Nia for personal growth and development as well as collaborative anatomy workshops, collectively known as “The University of the Soul.”
Debbie Rosas
Debbie Rosas, a pioneer and leader in the body-mind fitness industry since 1976, is the founder and developer of the Nia Technique. Dedicated to self-healing, she has played a key role in developing programs for doctors at the Naturopathic School of Medicine, Shriners Hospitals for Women and Teens, and the Arthritis and Autism Departments at Oregon Health and Sciences University. Debbie and Nia have been featured in more than 850 publications worldwide.
Dr. Pam Denton
Dr. Pam Denton is a fitness expert, international speaker, healer, coach, and founder of SuperCORE Leadership and Fitness. She writes a monthly column, “The Unstoppable Woman,” in CNY Woman Online. Her intensively researched mind-body approach to empowerment has helped thousands of leaders plug into their innate power and activate the law of attraction for unstoppable success. She is the author of numerous books, including She Means Business, Leadership Evolution, Messages from Spirit and Journey to Female Power.