Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

It is a luxury on these trips when I can stay in a motel room for more than one night. I appreciate and relish not having to pack up the car and check in to a new room.  So this week, I'm living like a king while I stay in the Motel 6 in Farmington, NM for four nights!! The main reason I'm staying here is that I'm teaching Nia in Durango on Monday morning.  Nia at Interplay Studio Smiley Building ;  It was about an hour drive to Durango, so I got an early start. It was cold! This high desert weather... I forget how much the temperature drops when the sun goes down.  I was shivering as I parked in front of the studio and walked River on the dewey wet grass. The class was delightful. The gang at Durango Nia are strong and playful and willing to try new things. Evonne has a strong group of devoted students and many of them remembered me from the three or four past times I had taught there.  In the room, before class started, and also during t...

Today I had no obligations. Nowhere to drive and nothing to do. I decided I didn't want to go far, so I found the closest park and took River for a long romp. It was called Berg Park and turns out it was a really big park with lots of different stuff to do. We walked in the River, which was really muddy. We played in the lush green grass, chasing sticks and pulling on the rope toy. We relaxed on a bench in the shade of the trees. We played near a water fountain. We watched a family playing football. Then the sky changed, dark clouds formed and thunder started rolling in. It was just starting to rain as we piled into the car and headed back to the motel room. The rain never really materialized anything to speak of, but we stayed put on the motel property for the rest of the night. It was great to have a day of total freedom.

There is a quote from a Roald Dahl story called The Minpins. It goes: "Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." I have seen people sharing this sentiment as a meme on Facebook and it always makes me so sad. Well, I have a few responses to it, but sadness comes first. I feel sorry for the people sharing it and the world of delusion they live in. First of all, let's be clear, if believing in something is a pre-requisite for finding it, then it probably doesn't exist outside of people's imagination. If it were real, then someone who didn't believe in it could possibly one day stumble upon it, or you could show it to a non-believer and convince them.  But by their own statement, they assert that "those who don't believe WILL NEVER FIND IT."  That statement proves the case that magic is nothing more than a belief; it's not real.  Taking the concept a step further, if someone does at one point decide to start believing in ma...

My heart sank when I saw how long today's drive was. I really try to avoid giving myself seven hour drives, but for whatever reason, when I was in the planning stage, I thought it was important to get all the way to Farmington, NM from Amarillo today.  In retrospect, it makes no sense. I could have taken this trip in two drives because I don't teach again until Monday. I thought about that every time I passed a Motel 6 on this epic day of driving. But I kept going and made it all the way through.  I gained an hour today, going from Central to Mountain time, so I adjusted the clock first thing. And then I got in a solid three hours of driving before making our first stop. I had some sandwiches already made, so stopping to eat was so easy. I don't know why I hadn't thought of doing this before; eating in the middle of a drive day used to be such a cumbersome ordeal, but now it's as simple as reaching into the cooler and pulling out a baggie.  River lounged ...

Today's first order of business was Nia at MoveStudio . I taught the Profound routine using the same focus I came up with in Houston (Active Recovery). It went over really well with the students whose bright smiling faces said it all after class. And at my invitation to give me feedback, I did get a lot of positive reactions to the class. Something odd has been happening. In the past three days, three different people have reached their hands out to River, who responded by snarling and snapping. He didn't connect to anyone, thanks to the quick reactions of the people and myself. But it makes me wonder what has happened to my message that "River needs to be ignored." I have distinct memories of telling each of the people in the past to please make no attempts to pet or connect with River as he cannot handle the stimulation and I have made a promise to him that I will keep him away from any undue stimulation in exchange for his patience and cooperation ...

The day began by going back to Synergy Studio and co-teaching a Nia FreeDance class with Todd. Adelle had put the playlist together for us and we alternated leading every other song. Adelle had gone to Portland, so Todd was hosting me. We had an awesome class. Both of us were practicing allowing lots of silence between our cues, as it gives the students more of an opportunity to be self-guided and self-aware. I made a commitment to only giving three or fewer cues for each song, and it worked great.  And I hit the highway directly from the studio. I changed, but didn't shower, before getting in the car. But I don't sweat as much in a Nia FreeDance class as I do during a classic Nia class. As always, before loading River into the car, I allow him sufficient decompression time from being so good, quiet and still in the crate during class. We made a few rounds around the parking lot of The Pearl. On one of our laps I saw this very strange plant that I cannot identify, but...

Today was all about Nia at Synergy Studio . It started early in the morning with me teaching my Amazing routine. Adelle was there to show me how to turn on the stereo and introduce me to the group, and I took it from there. I didn't really look over my music for this routine. I trusted that it was in my body and that I could be int he moment. I've taught the routine probably about 70 times at least. And it turned out I was right. I knew all my cues and the class went very smoothly. It seemed like everyone had a great time. I hope I didn't destroy the microphone. About three quarters of the way through class, I started hearing a lot of static interference and then I eventually took the microphone off and went without it. Adelle told me afterward that my sweat was making the mic short circuit. She said then next time I taught that I should use the plastic sweat guard to protect the equipment.  Then I came back to the motel and eat, fed River and chilled. I looked at...