by Jenny Block
It wasn’t the kind of class I would have expected to bring me to my knees. Literally. It was a Friday morning Nia class with Jule and I was filled with joy from the moment I saw Jule’s reflection in the mirror. It was my kind of set, with music you can sing to and that you’re as likely to find in a club as you are in a dance studio. I like a good mystical soundtrack as much as the next girl. But sometimes you just need a little Usher.
That’s why I was so surprised. So surprised as a new song began to play, one I don’t remember now, surprisingly. The last song of the class. Jule invited us to heal ourselves and move and stretch and dance however our bodies called us to. I found my way to the floor quickly and before long all of the packed class was on there with me.
The beauty of that moment left me awestruck. All of these bodies moving and rocking and changing. All of these shapes and spirits and forces of goodness and joy. It was beautiful. I mean that in a sunset over the sea, first snow on the mountains, colors in the sky after a spring rain sort of way. A beauty that stops the world if only for a moment.
And as I looked around the room, I instantly began to weep. All around me were these amazing, dancing, warrior women so graceful and so strong, healing themselves and healing the universe.
I wept for everyone who wasn’t there, for everyone who couldn’t be there, who can’t be there.
I wept for corporate America and their tiny cubes and their wastefulness of the human mind and the human spirit and the human body. And I wept for myself and the year I wasted in their clutches allowing them to break me, allowing them to take me, allowing them to make me one of their hollow souls.
Only they never could really. They never could stop me from taking off my shoes or sitting on the floor or laughing so loudly it filled the halls. They never could stop my spirit from shining through even the tiniest cracks. And so they fired me and I am ever grateful for that release. Ever and eternally grateful. Sometimes only someone else can release us from our chains, even our psychic ones.
But I am left to wonder if they would still lie cheat and steal if they had curled and creeped, crawled and walked and danced with us that day. I don’t think they would. I don’t think they could.
And I wondered if a government would declare war on a country full of people that they have danced their joy with. I don’t think they would. I don’t think they could.
And I wonder if man would raise his hand against another, against a child, against an animal, against the earth, if he shared our dance? I don’t think he would. I don’t think he could.
I wondered. Who would we be if everyone in the universe danced? Who would we be if the universe danced?
The creativity and brilliance and humanity and joy that is lost in the world, that is never even given the chance to be at all, leaves me raw and cold and sorrowful. But I refuse to carry that burden of global grief on my back every day. Instead I choose to heal it.
And so until everyone spins and hops and claws and rocks, until everyone sways and stretches and reaches and shines, I will dance for them. And some days, I will weep.
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Jenny Block is a freelance writer and the author of “Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage” (2008 Lambda Literary Award). Among other gigs, she writes a weekly sex column for FoxNews.com. Jenny holds a BA and MA in English and taught college composition for ten years. For more on Jenny, visit her website at www.jennyonthepage.com.
11 Comments
Right on! Well said.
I love it when Nia makes me sob and when it makes me sing.
I’ve been teaching Nia for fourteen years and reading your post makes me want to go take a class right now. Thanks for this glorious description of some of the best aspects of Nia. I share your compassion and empathy for those who don’t have access to it or who don’t know about it or who just don’t get it.
I’m going to forward your post to all my friends.
I hope to dance with you soon, Nia sister.
Love
Jason
beautiful, ‘open-my-heart-and-spirit’ share. Thanks for being so RAW to the power of your experience with Nia. love.
We have come to be danced
Not the pretty dance
Not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance
But the claw our way back into the belly
Of the sacred, sensual animal dance
The unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance
The holding the precious moment in the palms
Of our hands and feet dance.
We have come to be danced
Not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance
But the wring the sadness from our skin dance
The blow the chip off our shoulder dance.
The slap the apology from our posture dance.
We have come to be danced
Not the monkey see, monkey do dance
One two dance like you
One two three, dance like me dance
but the grave robber, tomb stalker
Tearing scabs and scars open dance
The rub the rhythm raw against our soul dance.
We have come to be danced
Not the nice, invisible, self-conscious shuffle
But the matted hair flying, voodoo mama
Shaman shakin’ ancient bones dance
The strip us from our casings, return our wings
Sharpen our claws and tongues dance
The shed dead cells and slip into
The luminous skin of love dance.
We have come to be danced
Not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance
But the meeting of the trinity, the body breath and beat dance
The shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance
The mother may I?
Yes you may take 10 giant leaps dance
The olly olly oxen free free free dance
The everyone can come to our heaven dance.
We have come to be danced
Where the kingdom’s collide
In the cathedral of flesh
To burn back into the light
To unravel, to play, to fly, to pray
To root in skin sanctuary
We have come to be danced
WE HAVE COME.
~ by Jewel Mathieson
What a BEAUTIFUL story. I feel blessed this morning to have found your beautiful thoughts here. Thank you! Many blessings!
You so evocatively and beautifully write what Nia is and feels like – thank you.
You brought tears to my eyes. The passion you share here about your Nia experience is inspirational. I hope to one day inspire the people who come and dance with me, to access these wonderful emotions!
Keep writing about Nia. You do it well.
You just made me weep. Just like Nia does sometimes. Let us dance the world!
Thank you for sharing your soul stirring words. As I prepare to teach my 9th Nia class this week I am re-inspired to be one so fortunate as to guide us back home to our true nature….Joy.
Thank you for sharing and inviting humanity to the dance. I practice and teach Nia to share self-healing and our connection to each other. This is why I dance.
Imagine a world of self-healing, self-loving, self-aware, conscious role models walking a path of truth, the naked truth. We are responsible for our own lives. We are healing ourselves, to heal is to feel.
together the dancing ones will bring the world to dance-someday-sometime-it will be recognized that joy is the way-and we all have the potential to live it.thank you for your truth and your tears. with love and naked feet
Wow ! Strangely I rarely check this site yet I am a loving and very enthusiastic Nia Teacher. It must have been for me to start my morning reading your heart-felt words. I will be sharing them happily. You have captured the essence of Nia so well. As you say, some don’t get it, but perhaps they are not ready for the recognition of their own lifestyles. Thank you so much for writing this. I will carry your words with me to Portland, where I will be taking my Black Belt training next month. I was, by the way, in an open relationship for 5 years. I will have to read your book !!!
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[...] by Jenny Block It wasn’t the kind of class I would have expected to bring me to my knees. Literally. It was a Friday morning Nia class with Jule and I was filled with joy from the moment I saw Jule’s reflection in the mirror. It was my kind of set, with music you can sing to and that you’re as likely to find in a club as you are in a dance studio. I like a good mystical soundtrack as much as the next girl. But sometimes you just need a little Ush … Read More [...]