Nia Training
Kelle is a unique teacher trainer. From her years of being a Rolfer and Rolf Movement Therapist, she brings a rich understanding of the human form and an ‘integrationist’ approach to looking at, sensing and moving the body. Her classes are athletic and undeniably packed with power, yet her years of work in the Healing Arts bring depth, compassion and choice into every move, making the class experience deep, yet intuitive. Kelle teaches from The Body’s Way perspective, encouraging students to ‘Know Thyself’ in order to become a great healer themselves and to all. Beginner’s mind is a touchstone in Kelle’s trainings, as she brings a sense of curiosity and wonder for being alive. Spontaneity, humor and an undying love for the work of Nia are a few of the unique gifts she shares with her students.
From Kelle Rae Oien:
“As a trained and certified Rolfer and Rolf Movement Practitioner, I have discovered how to get in, move and successfully thrive in my body and my profession with The Nia Technique. How? I use my body and movement as medicine. I invite you to join me in a week dedicated to blending the concepts of Nia and the art of sensation. The Nia White Belt Intensive Training is designed specifically for anyone desiring to add movement tools of body/mind/emotions/spirit into their lives. I love sharing my ‘integrative’ perspective of the body and teaching new ways of creating systemic health and wellness by synthesizing anatomy, movement, somatics and therapeutics. You’ll learn practical body and life movement tools, how to enhance your personal enjoyment of movement, and how to use movement to enhance getting in, and living in your body. I hope you’ll join me in a training, workshop or class!”
Nia White Belt Training
Focus: Physical sensation
Intent: To embody the foundation of Nia
Nia trainings are designed for people of all shapes and sizes, and may be taken for both personal enrichment and professional development. They teach you about sensory-based movement as a pleasurable way to achieve lasting health, wellness and fitness. The Nia Training Structure, like the traditional martial arts model, includes several progressive belt levels with the First Degree Black Belt representing the highest level of mastery. Each belt intensive addresses five core-competency areas (movement, music, anatomy, science and philosophy) while exploring 13 unique Nia principles – except for the Green Belt, which is dedicated solely to the craft of teaching.
The Nia White Belt Intensive lays the foundation for all Nia training and education. In White Belt, you are introduced to the first 13 principles of Nia focusing on the physical realm of the body.
All 13 principles of White Belt are explored with your body and movement through the lens of Science-Craft-Art. During your training, you will be guided to place attention on your self, on your body, and on physical sensation, using movement to develop cognitive and somatic knowledge.
During these seven days you will experience how Nia techniques work on you and your body, and what makes you feel good. This intensive experience will inspire you and help enhance your body and life as we focus on becoming more attentive to and mindful of ourselves.
Five Core Competencies provide a map for us:
Movement
Movement sessions teach you about moving, health and potential. Our movement methodology is unique and guided by technique, safety, comfort, variety and the effect that movement has on body, mind, emotion and spirit.
Anatomy
Anatomy sessions look at the form and function of each of the body parts and systems. We focus on how to consciously use the body the way it was designed.
Music
Music sessions are designed to expand your listening skills, expression and health. We use sonic vibration to affect the body and to achieve enhanced expression, emotion and energy for your body. You will learn a way of mapping and decoding sound that will help you hear and track sounds in a new way.
Philosophy
Philosophy sessions provide an in depth look at the body’s inherent wisdom. Key Nia terms, principles and concepts are taught and experienced.
Principle 1, The Joy of Movement, is the foundation for the entire body of Nia work. This principle teaches you to choose sensation to connect to Joy. In Nia, the word Joy expresses a universal energy, different from emotional enjoyment. As you learn to sense your body, you can invite Joy into the experience of your life. Over time and through Nia practice, you can learn to sustain and increase the amount of Joy you sense in every experience.
13 White Belt Principles
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- The Joy of Movement
- Natural Time and the Movement Forms
- Music and the 8BC System
- Free Dance
- Awareness
- The Base of the Body
- Three Planes of Movement and Three Intensity Levels
- The Core of the Body
- The Upper Extremities of the Body
- X-Ray Anatomy
- Creating a Sacred Livelihood
- Continuing Education
- Teaching What You Sense
In the Nia White Belt, you will learn:
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- A deeper understanding of self: knowing your body, mind, emotions and spirit.
- Techniques to sustain and increase pleasurable sensation in your body.
- Ways to integrate Nia’s nine movement forms: Jazz Dance, Duncan Dance, Modern Dance; Aikido, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do; The Alexander Technique, The Work of Moshe Feldenkrais® and Yoga.
- The 52 Moves of Nia: the language of conditioning and self-healing.
- The Five Sensations of Functional Fitness
- How to work with the 8BC system: Developing listening skills to code and map music and sound.
- The practice of RAW: Relaxed, Alert, Waiting and what it means to be in “living meditation.”
- How to stimulate movement creativity using the eight stages of FreeDance.
- The Body’s Way method for moving and physical conditioning.
- How to listen to the voices of your body.
- How to move Your Body’s Way.
- About your “witness” and how to use it as a tool for self-healing.
- How to create an optimal learning experience working with the Energy Allies.
- How to communicate what you sense in your body.
- Nia’s business philosophy and what it means to create a sacred livelihood based on your unique life purpose.
The Nia White Belt Intensive includes:
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- 7-day White Belt Intensive Training, including 50+ hours of somatic education
- A pdf of The White Belt Learn book
- Subscription to Nia’s monthly e-Newsletter
- Access to the Nia’s online Community Forum
- Nia White Belt (upon graduation)
- Nia Certificate of Completion
Upon completion of your White Belt Intensive Training, if you would like to continue your education and/or teach Nia in a fitness class or professional setting, you may do so by purchasing the Nia Membership Package.
Personal Enrichment & Wellness
Don’t want to teach Nia but want to deepen your practice? Take the White Belt for personal enrichment. You will develop an increasingly refined and expanded skill set, heightened sense of self-awareness, and deepened connection to your body, mind, emotions and spirit. Learn about physical sensation, self-healing, the Five Sensations of Fitness, becoming a Sacred Athlete, how to condition the Body/Mind/Spirit way, and much more! Those who choose to become certified Nia teachers evolve their love of the Nia practice into a viable and fulfilling career. Aspiring Nia teachers follow the same training path as personal enrichment students – though they are eligible to teach after completing the White Belt Training and becoming Livelihood members.
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Upcoming Trainings:
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Nia Blue Belt Training
Focus: Art of Communication
Intent: To create intimacy through somatic relationships
Blue Belt, the second level of Nia education, explores how to create healthy relationships through body-centered communication. This intensive introduces the next set of 13 Nia principles, which focus on the 4 realms of body, mind, emotions and spirit. While the White Belt curriculum focuses entirely on awareness of physical sensation, Blue Belt applies these skills to explore internal sensations as perceived through – but distinct from – physical sensations in the body.
Blue Belt Principle #1: The Joy of Being in Relationship, integrates the sensation of Joy with the awareness that Joy is something outside the self, which we can invite into our physical experience. As a result, we begin to deepen our ability to listen with clarity and sustain awareness of details outside our body.
Upcoming Trainings:
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Nia 52 Moves Training
The Language of Nia
Nia’s 52 movements have been distilled through 30 years of somatic exploration to represent the best in holistic body-mind-emotion-spirit conditioning, originating from diverse modalities spanning dance, martial arts and therapeutic practices. Practiced in isolation and integrated with systemic movement, the 52 Moves are proven to physically condition the body and enhance movement skill. Regularly practiced, they enhance proprioception and perceptual motor skills represented in flexibility, mobility, agility, stability and strength.
The focus of the 2-day training is the art of conditioning applied to the body’s base, core and upper extremities.
How to coach yourself to move better and feel better is the basis of the program in terms of exercise science. Through the process of learning how to isolate each move using three distinct levels of range of motion in your joints you will learn how to achieve 4 types of conditioning.
This training is ideal for those wanting to learn more about how to condition their body and develop movement skill, and also for teachers who wish to craft 52 moves classes for their students.
To take the 52Moves Training, you do not need any belt or prior experience. Anyone may enroll and it is open to all levels and experience.
A highlight of the training is experiencing a preview of Nia’s exciting interval cardio-dance fitness class called MoveIT. This class modality expands upon the 52 Moves training and takes it to a whole new level. The 52 Moves is the pre-requisite for the the Move IT training – the 52 Moves is the “live” training and the Move IT is an online self-guided training.
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From Kelle
The new 52Moves training is dedicated to empowering you with the form of Nia’s 52Moves. We spend two days consciously crafting the Art of Conditioning & Moving. You will learn how to do each move with clarity and gain wisdom about the benefits of each move. Additionally, we’ll focus on conditioning tools that will energize and tone your body. This training is a prerequisite for the post-training called MoveIT.
Upcoming Trainings:
Move IT – Get Nia Fit Training
The Art of Conditioning
Move IT Self-Guided Teacher Training is a self-paced program that builds on the craft of Nia 52 Moves and 13 White Belt Principles. The recommended time to complete the course is 12 weeks. The intent of the program is for you to learn, embody, and ultimately teach Move IT classes.
Move IT is a revolutionary approach to whole body fitness integrating the best of exercise science, modern interval training and somatic movement through Nia’s sensory-based approach to fitness. The 60-minute class promises to bring conditioning to every body part and muscle group. It is distinguished by somatic coaching with 60-second sequential intervals that isolate and integrate Nia movements, and delivers four types of conditioning: aerobic, anaerobic, reflexive, and voluntary.
Benefits
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- Cardiovascular conditioning
- Deepened awareness of your body’s anatomy
- Whole body strength, physical dexterity, muscle tone
- Improve range of motion in all joints of the body
- Skill to consciously direct your movement practice toward your fitness goals
Training Materials Included with the Course Fee:
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- Move IT Teacher Training Course Syllabus + Guide
- 3 Training Choreography Videos
- Audio Lectures with Nia Creator Debbie Rosas
- Language of Nia PDF
- Education worksheets
- Final Movement Assessment
The recommended time to complete the course is 12 weeks, with the intent for you to learn, embody, and ultimately teach Move IT classes.
To teach MoveIT you must do the online course, be a White Belt & a Livelihood member.
From Kelle
The 52Moves from the Nia White Belt experience is different than a MoveIT class. 52Moves is about LEARNING the move, MoveIT is about The Art of Conditioning and is HIGHLY creative, fun and new every time with AWESOME music! With levels 1,2,3 and Athletic, we act as a coach, to help our students get what they want out of the practice. There is a specific language and teaching style in this Nia class. Personally, teaching this modality has been the #1 biggest tool in taking my teaching to the next level! I am MUCH more creative, I can use any music I want, I get to create the moves in-the-moment, and my body has transformed. It’s the ultimate form and freedom class!
Upcoming Trainings:
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Feedback from Students & Nia Teachers Who Have Completed the 52Moves and/or MoveIT Trainings
“I took the 52 Moves Training with Kelle in Cape Town in October 2017. She was in South Africa for the first time and sharde two of her workshops: Sacred & Profane and The Ultimate Nia Experience at Studio Kairos in Johannesburg. Both were sublime. Kelle’s purpose is to inspire her students to live wildly satisfying lives and help them to fall in love with themselves through the gifts of Nia. This was abundantly clear in all of the time I spent dancing with her. The workshops and classes all “packed a punch” with deep levels of cardiovascular conditioning, while at the same time each experience was cleverly choreographed so that I was able to be kind and considerate to my body. The two-day 52 Moves Training allowed me to go deeper into the science, craft and art of each of Nia’s 52 Moves. Kelle’s training style was relaxed, and at the same time her delivery was clear and concise, always mindful of every one of the 27 participants. I am glad that I got to experience this amazing Nia Trainer, and I look forward to dancing with her again soon!”
Kim Hatchuel, Brown Belt (and Green Belt certified) Johannesburg, South Africa
“MoveIT is truly a unique Nia concept that has assisted me in embracing the sensations of “yes more” and “no more/enough.” Since I began Nia as a student and now an instructor, I am seen as being more athletic and ”energetic” than most. I secretly wondered if my enjoyment of pushing my boundaries, the sensation of heavy breathing, and physical exhaustion in a Classic Nia class where we were guided to “seek pleasure” was too much even when my body was telling me “more more.” I was thrilled to find out about Nia MoveIT and train with Kelle Rae and discover that yes, these sensations are important for my greater conditioning. Witnessing Kelle share her passion with this Nia modality has been awe inspiring, as well as motivating for my own exploration into a deeper relationship with the 52 moves and ways to explore their conditioning in an integrated fitness experience. I have found Kelle to be very accessible and encouraging to everybody. If you are interested in coaching others to greater conditioning, jump into MoveIT and the 52Moves. Currently, if given a choice between Classic Nia and MoveIT, my students choose MoveIT!”
Heather Umberger, MS, CMT – Integrative Wellness Practitioner/Nia Black Belt – Richmond, Virginia
“If you want to develop an intimate relationship with the 52 Moves, this is the training for you. Kelle Rae blends her unique background of Rolfing with her years of experience as a Nia teacher and faculty member to truly deliver The Promise. Two things really stuck out for me at my 52 Moves weekend training with Kelle: Taking class with Kelle was the Ultimmmate Nia Experience. I love the sensation of Joy I experienced taking her class layered on with the idea that I have a lot to learn from her and the feeling that I want to learn more from her. YES! Kelle gave me some amazing insights at this training. I will just mention one. Kelle gave me a new experience and new relationship with the move ‘strikes.’ She emphasized pulling the fingers close in and the knuckles back, beyond the line of the palm; tightly pulled back. I had been rather loose with my knuckles not allowing for the contraction, the pull back. Kelle’s wisdom and connection to the move gave me new conditioning possibilities. Her way of striking conditioned my wrist and forearm more deeply and helped stabilize my elbow joint. She just might be helping me avoid future arthritic conditions. Besides, it was just plain fun to have more force, strength and stability while striking. Worth every penny!”
Elaine Wolf, Nia Black Belt, M2H and MoveIT apprentice, MA, MSW, LMFT, Syracuse, NY
“ The TOP 5 REASONS to Take the 52Moves/Move IT Training as a Nia Teacher!
5. I learned a new language to coach my students through movement, “Learn to…” (as opposed to “Everybody sense your…”)
4. Increased my understanding of anatomy and four types of cardiovascular fitness (aerobic, anaerobic, voluntary, reflexive)
3. The structure increased my ability to create on the spot and to hang out with a move for as long as I want/need.
2. MoveIT has generated ease in my teaching. I can show up, anywhere/anytime, flip on music I know or don’t know and teach with confidence. And using the clock is a great way to experience and embody new music before I have learned the choreography for a new routine.
1. Kelle ROCKS! Being in her presence is an inspiration;) She is an open, kind, impeccable trainer.”
Amy Washarwsky – Black Belt Nia teacher from New Jersey, US
“I took the 52 Moves Training with Kelle in Toronto in May 2017. I wasn’t really keen on taking a 52 Moves training since I did not fully understand what it was all about, but now I highly recommend it for EveryBody! I always want to take the opportunity to learn from new trainers. WOW! Kelle ignited a new energy of excitement for movement and body-care. I’ve always liked her energy in the Nia routines, and I was thrilled to discover her authenticity both off and on screen. She is authentic – a compassionate and learned teacher. I even discovered my psoas muscle, who has been neglected for so many years, and made friends with it!”
Lourdes Jimenez, B.Sc., FCMA, FCPA – Nia Black Belt, Yin Yoga Teacher, Life Coach – Manila, Philippines, Hamilton-Burlington, Ontario, Canada
“I will say that the MoveIT training more than any other training has changed my teaching for the better. It’s pretty amazing to see the shift in how I sense and deliver class with so much more ease and so much less in my head. Kelle’s 52Moves training is FANTASTIC! Not only is she a joy to train with, regardless, but the depth of detail, clarity, practice and connection to the 52Moves and how they connect to anatomy was fascinating and thoroughly engaging (and this is from someone who has done a LOT of 52Moves practice). The MoveIT class is SO much more than I expected and WAY more FUN! It is most definitely NOT the “voice prompted cd” 52Moves experience. I also loved learning to ride the edge of “enough” and expand capacity and stamina. I highly recommend the training to everyone – belt graduates and students alike. Our community got a lot out of it!”
Christina Wolf – Nia Black Belt teacher and owner of Embody Movement studio in Centralia, Washington
“This new upgraded version of the 52Moves with Kelle Rae Oien, who worked on it closely with Debbie Rosas (Nia’s founder) is nothing like the original version. Kelle’s expertise in anatomy, coupled by her energetic, fun, playful spirit takes the training and physical experience to a new level. As a teacher, this training has made me so much better in delivery and creativity, and when I practice the Move IT format with my students (as an apprentice still) they absolutely love it!!!”
Noa Kadman – Black Belt Nia teacher from Tel Aviv, Israel