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!
Dean Johnson
Dean is a spiritual teacher and counselor who has been practicing meditation for over 25 years. Dean was a monastic in his 20’s and whose Sadhana, or spiritual practice, led him to deep experiences of Non-Duality. He teaches Non-Dual Yoga meditation, pointing his students to the nature of being, a place of peace and true fulfillment that can only come from within. This method of meditation isreferred to as Atma Vichara, or self-inquiry. Atma Vichara is also known as the direct path.
Dave Herndon
Dave is a Nia White Belt teacher who has completed the White Belt, 52 Moves, and FreeDance trainings. A wordsmith by profession, Dave has had the opportunity to assist with the editing of several of Nia founder Debbie Rosas’ books and other training materials. He has also collaborated with Kelle Rae Oien in creating workshops on the dynamics of flow and creativity in Nia practice. As a FreeDance DJ, Dave is on a mission to facilitate groovy mind-body-spirit experiences for Nia practitioners and newcomers alike. It’s good medicine!
LeAnn Brightwell
LeAnn came to Feldenkrais from a dance background and found the work due to a car accident in her mid 30’s. After curing her back spasms with Feldenkrais classes, she was hooked. She studied with Moshe’ Feldenkrais in his very last training. She has been teaching Awareness Through Movement classes for over 35 years. She believes that
this work is vitally important because it makes conscious what
is unconscious. “As we age, the aftermath of all we’ve done or not done is upon
us.” Moshe’s most famous quote is: “You can’t do what you want until you
know what you do”. As a master teacher, LeAnn’s classes are gentle yet powerful.
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.
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.
Kelle Rae Oien
Kelle Rae Oien is a founding member and the owner of Studio Nia Santa Fe. She is a leading Nia® trainer, second degree black belt, choreographer and Rolfer of Structural Integration, with a resume as diverse and far reaching as the geography she’s traveled to work and dance. She is trained and certified in every one of Nia’s individual modalities. Kelle brings a rich understanding of the human form through her training as a Rolfer, Rolfing Movement Practitioner and 500HR RYT Yoga Instructor. 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 30 years. Kelle’s love of learning fuels each experience, making her classes dynamic, explorative, fun and powerful.
Michele Caskey
Michele Caskey has been teaching laughter yoga for 20 years and is an Ambassador for Laughter Yoga International. As a student of Nia and a White Belt, the 52 moves play a role in her classes. She is passionate about demonstrating how intentional laughter can reduce stress, broaden creativity, calm worry and revive a zest for life. She has brought laughter to artists, cancer care centers, memory care units, senior living exercise classes, hospice and corporate settings. Increasingly she is viewing laughter as vibrational medicine for self-healing as theresonance of laughter in the body is the same frequency as angelic light.
Aiyana Pendleton
Aiyana Pendleton is a Certified Soma Breath Instructor and has completed level one certifications in Reiki and Pranic Healing. She incorporates elements of these energy practices into her classes, as well as elements of dance and mindful movement, isometric exercises, yoga, and Qigong. Aiyana is passionate about helping individuals access their own healing potential, transforming their physical, emotional, and mental well-being through energy work, breath practices, and mindful movement.
Anita Schultz
Anita Shultz is a Nia Blue Belt instructor. She has been practicing since 2000, and came to Nia with a ballet and Afro-Cuban dance background. She has been a solopreneur (freelance jeweler) in the US Virgin Islands, Canada, and many locations in the US. She is owner of Jewelweed Sprouts, and is pursuing a graduate degree in Counseling. With a lifetime of movement, art, and theatrical practices, her classes are infused with play and imagination. Having traveled far and wide and lived in a variety of places, she loves world music and funky beats.