Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

I have recently joined both Spotify and Instagram. I'm not what you'd call an early adopter. In fact, I'm quite the opposite. Instead of suffering from FOMO, I relish being on the fringe of society. I resist joining things and adopting trends; not exclusively having to do with electronics, either.  I am an introvert; I march to my own beat and gravitate toward a 'granola' mentality. Back in the 90s, I procrastinated getting a computer for as long as possible. Even though I owned my own business and had heard about computers and knew that people were transitioning into 'email' and 'websites', but to me it seemed like a superfluous fad. It took me several years to join the crowd. It was 1998, before I finally got a computer; mainly so that I could see what all the fuss was about this "Internet" I kept hearing about. Once I took the leap, I was hooked. I became addicted to AOL chat rooms for a while and now I like the interaction of Facebo...

Starting January 8, 2017, JAG will be teaching Nia classes in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. Classes will be held at Velocity Dance Center 1621 12th Ave  (between Pine and Olive) Sundays 8:45 am - 9:45 am Classes at Velocity Dance Center cost $15 each for drop ins, or you could purchase a VIP card and get classes for only $12. This series of classic Nia classes will include some routines from the vault, like Miracle, Yulunga, Fantasia and Moodfood as well as the latest routines like Sacred, Dragon, Deep Dive and Bring It! JAG will also be presenting his original work; old routines like Goldfinger, Orchestra, Amazing and Frankie Say Nia and routines yet to be created but sure to be lots of fun. There is an all disco routine in the works and a new routine using world and pop music inspired by the old routines of Nia co-creator Carlos Rosas. In early 1996, there was no Nia going on in Seattle until Jason Alan Griffin (a practicing massage therapist / aerobic...

I have temporarily abandoned working on re-creating my version of David Merritt's awesome "Celebrate" routine. Not being a disco fan, I couldn't really take all the time it was requiring me to spend with those songs. Yeah, it's great to hear them in a class once in awhile, and they're fun to dance to, but not to hear over and over again as I'm figuring out the right moves. I had to put the project on hold for my own sanity, but I'm sure I'll be back at it. In the meantime, Spotify was getting the wrong impression about my musical tastes. I was starting to get nothing but disco songs as suggestions, and I wanted to nip that in the bud right away, so I started listening to music just for fun!  This is something I stopped doing in the early 90's when I became a dance fitness teacher and used music as a tool in my profession. So my musical maturity was stunted in the late eighties. I'm really enjoying exploring everything I've missed in t...

As we roll into December, I'm still decompressing from my highly eventful year. It started with a triumphant return to the boards after a five-year hiatus, I found an audition listing just by chance, for a role that sounded perfect for me. Soon afterward, I found myself playing in a slapstick farce and losing about fifteen pounds in the process. I took daily baths to combat the aches and pains inherent in doing pratfalls and stunts every night. To exacerbate the issue, my character was a nervous mess. The stress that the character goes through is something I literally feel and my body really reacts to. My body doesn't know it isn't real, so I actually got sick from the pretend stress. The play was a riot, and I had a great time. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but I was glad when it was over so I could recover. It didn't take me long to return to my normal weight, but it took a little bit longer to heal some of the more serious injuries. My ribs, my shoulders an...