Foci for November - "Orbit"

In November we used the "Orbit" routine seven times in Volunteer Park

Here are the foci I used for each class:

Nov 3 - Music/Body Connection Today we are beginning work on a new routine so I want to focus on the music. Today I also want to focus on Mental Energy, but on using as little as possible. Notice how you can bypass your thinking and let the music directly affect your body. Feel the music and express what you feel. 

Nov 7 - Sensing Weight Shift in the Legs This routine has a strong emphasis on the legs. Today let's focus on the concept of shifting our body weight from one leg to another or to distribute the weight equally on both. Notice how proper placement of the feet on the ground and weight distribution in your legs can affect your emotions. Split your focus between your legs and my legs for the purpose of being guided to allowing the choreography to energize you with positive supportive emotions. 

Nov 14 -  Steps and Stances Feel the distinction between a step and a stance. When we are in a stance, we have one or two feet planted, unmoving, on the ground. Our body weight may shift, as we practiced last week, but the feet do not move. You can stand in a one-legged or two-legged stance but in either case, the spot where we place the foot is held fast. In a step, we are moving from one leg to another. Our weight is shifting and one of our feet will lift off the floor with each step. Notice if there are any cases where a stance is called for but you are automatically turning it into a step by lifting one of the feet off the ground. Doing this reduces the stability in favor of more mobility, but in some cases, it is the stability that we seek so we need to be sure we are in a stance when a stance is called for. Also, notice that you can measure the body weight born by each leg as a percentage. For example if I am in a Cat Stance (standing on one leg) the percentage of body weight is 100% / 0%. If I stand in a symmetrical Sumo Stance, the distribution is 50% / 50%. If I am in a Bow Stance, my weight is 70% in the front leg and 30% in the rear leg. Notice that some movements are stances but the weight distribution can fluctuate as we lean into one of the legs. Let the awareness of Steps and Stances and Body Weight Distribution bring a sense of Joyful Power and Ease to your movement. 

Nov 17 - Sensual Inhale Moving today will be energized by the sensual act of smelling. Literally smell things (trees, grass, soil, your hands, etc) and notice what this style of breathing does for your emotional state and how it supports powerful relaxed movement. Let your exhaling be passive, but your inhaling is an intentional sensual act. 

Nov 21 -  Observe Listen Guide You may not be aware of it, but there is a practice that you do when you are a Nia student. It is the same practice you use to learn just about any physical activity, even way back when you were learning how to grab things with your hands or to walk. First, you observe someone doing the movement, then you listen to a comparison of what youre doing to what your teacher is doing. This listening is metaphorical as there is nothing literally to hear, but you listen to the response in your head that tells you whether what you are seeing is similar to or different from what your body is doing. And the third phase is that you guide your body to look more and more like what you are seeing your teacher doing. With every movement in Nia, you Observe, Listen and Guide. Today I want to draw your attention to this fact and ask you to relish the practice of learning through this method. 

Nov 24 - Creative Hand and Arms Expression  This routine has a strong emphasis on the base and a slight emphasis on the spine, but not a lot of importance is places in the hands and arms. Although there is definite choreography for the arms throughout, none of it is terribly crucial. I'm mainly concerned that you get the foot and leg placement and that you properly align your spine, but once those are in place, the hands can basically do whatever they want. So for today's focus, let's give ourselves permission to be very creative with what we do with our arms and hands and fingers. Notice how you can stay with the choreography and still have a lot of freedom to play and express different things with your upper extremities. Let your right brain (the creative side) be lit up by the creative hand and arm expressions that you find today. 

Nov 28 - Loving Choices of Intensity Level Choices can be made to move toward something with love or away from something with fear. Today we will focus on making choices from a place of love to adjust our intensity level within the Nia format.  There are many ways to increase or decrease the intensity of your movement: larger/smaller steps, reaching further or not as far, more/less core involvement, increased/ decrease speed. But we want to be mindful of preserving the Nia format being presented so we must be sure not to change the structure of the movement, just adjust the intensity. And doing so while being aware that we love our bodies and what we can do and desire to do at this moment. There should be no fear of movements or any thoughts about moving away from a danger. We are always lovingly moving toward movements that support our body mind emotion and spirit. This is keeping with the Nia format.