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!
Chloe Goodwin
Chloe has been a committed student of Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms™ for over 20 years, and an accredited teacher of the practice for over a decade. The movement spaces she cultivates are grounded in somatic sensibility, embodied inquiry and realness. She leads with heart and humor. Her facilitation calls on music as a medium, movement as an ally, and community as a catalyst. For more information go to chloegoodwin.com
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 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. 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.
Jennifer Portnoy
Twenty five years ago, Jennifer Rae Portnoy DPT, discovered that yoga was the perfect bridge to help her transition from her professional dance career. She found yoga offers a more gentle, nurturing means to embrace movement without the competitive edge of the performing arts. Jenn received her 500-hour yoga teacher certificate from Pranakriya School of Yoga Healing Arts and loves to teach flow, restorative, gentle and meditative classes. As a physical therapist Jenn leads entering and exiting postures safely with guidance toward injury prevention. Jenn recently moved from Philadelphia to Santa Fe to open a pelvic health physical therapy practice (pelvichealthandrehab.com) and uses yoga principles in her work as a physical therapist with outstanding results. Jenn utilizes the therapeutic philosophies of yoga beyond what a traditional physical therapy practice offers. “I access grace, joy, and internal energy in every yoga posture I practice, and I feel honored to create a safe space for students and patients”.
Gurukiren Ramos
Born and raised in Mexico City, Gurukiren (Guki) Ramos discovered Nia while recovering slowly from decades of sports injuries incurred as an athlete. After receiving her White Belt in 2019 she slowly started teaching and always dreamed of sharing her Nia passion in Spanish, adding
an extra layer of playfulness while moving/dancing in a foreign language. She brings decades of somatic wisdom through yoga, pranayama and meditation techniques, martial arts as well as an insatiable curiosity towards the Joy of Movement, from which it all starts.
“A traves del movimiento encontramos salud”. Fue este el lema de Nia el que me inspiro a buscar la manera de gozar la totalidad de mi cuerpo al máximo. El cuerpo es el vehículo mas maravilloso que alberga nuestra chispa vital. Solo tenemos uno. Y cada uno es increíblemente diferente. Solo tu cuerpo sabe como se siente, como le gusta moverse, que tanto puede moverse y hasta canto puede llegar. El cuerpo también sabe como disfrutar, como vivir, y como regocijar al bailar y moverse de una manera que beneficia al cueroo.
Todo esto y mucho mas es Nia. Y es lo me inspira a compartir lo que he aprendido en Espanol.
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.
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.
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.
Lori Brown
Lori has practiced Pilates since 2005, and received her Pilates Teacher Training in 2007. She has continued training through Advanced Pilates Reformer, CCB, Chair, and Injuries and Special Populations.
She practice and teach Pilates to maintain her own intrinsic core strength. In understanding the importance of core strength, she incorporate blending modalities such as MELT (Instructor since 2013), MELT NeuroStrength and MELT Pilates, and Nia (Instructor since 2015) to fully embrace our body’s unique needs, at each stage in our lives. Lori is a first degree Nia Black Belt.
Lori prioritizes Mindfulness and Breathing Techniques to enhance mental clarity, and to lower anxiety and stress levels. All of the techniques she teaches, she personally practices to help support and maintain her health. Lori believes that being mindful means finding balance in our lives in maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle.
Lori’s Pilates class can help you gain flexibility through the spine, improve our balance, stability and strength. Pilates also helps boost the immune system, while reducing stress and anxiety.
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
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.
Ann Dussel
Ann is a SuperCORE, BreatheFit, and GoddessCORE Fit Coach and specializes in empowering women through movement with fun, joy, and positive motivation. As one of the SuperCORE Fit team leads, Anne uses her positive motivation and deep relationship with movement and body transformation to inspire women to feel energized and amazing from the pelvis up! She holds many specialty certifications including, 1st Degree Nia Black Belt, Barre Above, Drums Alive, Dance for Parkinson’s Disease, Moving to Heal. Tuesdays 9am MDT and Saturdays 7:30am MDT
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
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.
Karen “KK” Taylor
KK is a SuperCORE & BreatheFit Coach and specializes in empowering people to claim their warrior healing power through movement, breathwork, and relaxation techniques. kk believes that the body must move to heal and she is an amazing motivator for transformation! kk has danced, exercised, walked, and spread the joy of movement for most of her adult life. She holds a BS in Speech and Drama and Masters classes in elementary education. Her active movement licensing and certifications include: Nia Technique Black Belt, Nia FreeDance, Nia 52 Moves, Nia MoveIT, TaijiFit, TaijiFit for Veterans, TaijiFit Bamboo Fusion, BreatheFit, SuperCORE & TaiChi Fit Relaxation Therapy Leader.
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