Solar Dog

Solar Dog is a Nia routine created by Debbie Rosas and no longer available through Nia.

In my version, I've changed it considerably, as I do with most routines that I've worked with for years. I obviously think what I've done is an improvement over the original.  That statement is not intended to belittle the work of Nia or Debbie Rosas at all. In fact, I have respected Debbie and practiced Nia for over 15 years.  I suspect that if you took this routine in Debbie's class today, you'd find that she has also changed it quite a bit from what she originally released on video.

The focus of Solar Dog is on the joints: Ankles, Knees, Hips, Spine, Wrists, Elbows and Shoulders.
It uses the music from a discontinued sampler of music from the Planet Dog record label run by Michael Dog.   The first song is focused entirely on the ankles.  The second one on the knees. The third song is focused on the hips and pelvis. The fourth song puts attention on the spine.  The fifth song is an epic 11+ minutes and it focuses on the upper extremities; specifically the fingers, wrists, elbows and shoulders. The routine then cools down and focuses on movement of the whole body with an awareness of all of the joints.

It is a highly technical routine. A friend and student of mine once called it "the corporate Nia routine" because of a distinctly different "feel" than you get from most Nia routines.

Here are a couple of videos of me working on the routine before I got it to a place I considered appropriate to present. You can get a sense of the style of music and movements you can expect in Solar Dog, and you can maybe get a laugh as my choreography falls apart before your eyes.  Rest assured that when I teach the Solar Dog routine, it doesn't have glaring errors like the one you see here.

This is a very fun and exciting routine and challenging both mentally and physically as we isolate and free up the joints while maintaining awareness of precision of the joints throughout the movements. I always have a great time when playing with this one, and I always get very, very sweaty.

If you're interested in the Solar Dog routine, I suggest finding a local Nia teacher who can teach it to you, or invite me to come visit your town and I'd be happy to bring it.

Enjoy the joints!

Comments

Sake said…
Hi Jason, Debbie Rosas did Solar Dog on Zoom this summer and I’ve become intrigued by it. I’m also curious about some (not all) of the music, and hope you can help - Assuming Debbie used the original music, can you tell me what the first & last song are? I know you’ve said the music is from a discontinued Plant Dog sampler, but I like the first & last songs and hope to find there somewhere online. Anything you can tell me may help. Thanks so much. I enjoy reading your posts on all things Nia!
Hi.
As we know it’s always very likely that Debbie switched the music from the original version, but in the original, the first song was called “Symbol I”. (For reference, it’s a 6:33 song that ends with a cool percussive rhythm and a buzzing didgeridoo sound at the end).
And the last song is called “Ultrascope”. (This is a 8:30 song and at about twenty seconds in, and periodically throughout there is what I think sounds like a woman’s voice wailing)
I don’t know the names of the artists. All of the materials I had credited all the songs to Michael Dog, but I learned at some point later that he was the producer and each song was by a different artist. I don’t remember their names. The record label was Planet Dog.
I have looked for the songs on Spotify and came up empty and when I ask Shazam to “name that tune” it doesn’t recognize them.
I don’t know of many teachers that taught the routine but I do know that Mark Frossard did. He’s in Santa Fe and I’m sure you can find his contact information on NiaNow.com.
Good luck in your search.
Sake said…
The good news is - with your help, and a little detective work, I learned that the first song (Symbol I) was by a British band named Children of the Bong. Additionally, it turns out that Debbie ended the routine with that same song so that’s the only one I was looking for. The bad news - It doesn’t seem to be available anyway online. I did find the album it was on, and could purchase it used but that seems a silly thing to do for one 6-minute song. Fun routine; wish I saw the original version. Thanks for your help!

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