Local Nia classes connect people to purpose, inner self

By Anabel Pelham, Special to the Town Crier

Audrey White is a certified Nia instructor who teaches classes twice a week at the Spa of Los Altos. Her students claim that the energy emanating during her classes is transforming.

In Swahili, “nia” means with purpose. Nia also stands for neuromuscular integrative action, a unique form of kinesthetic dance/movement patterns.

Before coming to the Bay Area, White lived in Michigan with two young children. She said that she was “not into traditional aerobics and had no experience in training or fitness.” In 1998, in the midst of graduate school, a friend introduced her to Nia.

“At first, I felt more than a bit uncomfortable in class,” White said. “We gathered in a circle, shared our names and talked before and after class. I could no longer be some anonymous person in the back row. Even though I was uncomfortable, something kept drawing me back to class … the joy of the instructors. It was contagious. I wanted what they were having. And I found it.”

White said Nia helped her get through graduate school and begin a journey toward a new career. “Nia provided me the only place where no demands were placed upon me, a place where I could just be me, losing myself in the dance, inside myself,” she said. “I had no roles, simply freedom of moving with joy and intention. Nia brought me back to myself.”

White recently relocated to the Bay Area, and intends to teach Nia full time. “Teaching has chosen me,” she said. “I love to give people a gift of themselves. I wish for people to lighten up and learn to be light with life. Teaching is about students’ opportunities to explore their bodies, minds and spirits. Nia is about letting go of masks and inhibitions and giving a chance to be authentic and in the moment.”

Nia combines nine types of movement, including dance, healing and martial arts, to offer a holistic, flexible and self-directed approach to health. Unique to Nia is a barefoot approach with zero impact, and vocalization, sounding or breath work. White said that athletic shoes force us to balance on the balls of our feet and can negatively affect stability.

Sounding, vocalization or singing is brought into play to express and release emotion as students call out a guttural “yes” or “no” as they move through a sounding routine of chopping away imaginary entanglements or dancing freely around the studio waving an imaginary scarf.

Carlos and Debbie Rosas, who founded Nia in the Bay Area in 1983, share the barefoot, sounding dimension of Nia with the vision that “imagery promotes natural, personalized, whole body motion and sets up the most important one-on-one relationship, the connection between self and self. It is within this intimate and personalized relationship model that each person begins to create his or her own resilient and flexible boundaries. Within these self-directed boundaries, each person is safe to explore motions and emotions, becoming fully empowered to make their own choices and decisions on a moment-to-moment basis.”

As White’s classes took form, women struggling with serious or life-threatening illnesses began to attend the class and came together. News of hope for healing spread by word of mouth. Today, there is a small group of women in White’s class supporting one another.

Nancy Mau is one of them. Three years ago Mau was diagnosed with breast cancer. She suffered through months of chemotherapy and radiation, during which she saw all her hair fall out.

Following that experience, Mau wanted to take back her life and regain her previous level of fitness. She lay in restorative yoga, moved in Feldenkrais, sat in Guided Imagery and joined lectures and support groups.

In Stanford’s Supportive Care newsletter Mau told the story of her discovery: “Little did I know that my quest would lead me to a practice that not only encompassed physical fitness, but was concerned with my body, mind, spirit and emotions. I had discovered something that would continue to help me immensely with my recovery and healing. When I walked into my first Nia class I couldn’t help noticing that everyone there seemed to be having lots of fun. Fun! Wow! What a concept! I hadn’t had much fun lately … I found that Nia helped me to see my body in new ways. I was regaining something that had been missing from my life since my diagnosis, and that was joy.”

Mau completed her Nia teaching credentials in April and has begun teaching a class (co-created with White) for cancer survivors at Stanford University Patient Services.

Margriet is another woman who has been helped by Nia. About two years ago, Margriet realized that the nagging discomfort in her neck, shoulders and arms had developed into significant pain. It took a very long search, but the sobering diagnosis was fibromyalgia, a debilitating and painful musculoskeletal disorder. She was prescribed exercise, but the traditional aerobic classes did not help her pain and stiffness.

Then she discovered Nia. Now she proudly announces that she is the longest running member of White’s class.

Margriet, too, is sharing her experience with others. She volunteers at El Camino Hospital’s Older Adults Transitional Services, where she borrows Nia’s gentle range-of-motion and sitting/stretching warm-up exercises for her patients.

White holds Nia classes at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Spa of Los Altos, and at 6:30 p.m. Mondays at Stanford Aerobics and Yoga, Rains Hacienda Commons. Mau and White offer a class for cancer patients and survivors through Stanford University Patient Services.

Anyone wishing to attend or help with a donated studio may call Holly Gautier at 723-4268.

Audrey White may be contacted at (408) 712-7105 or For more information on Nia, call (800) 762-5762 or logon to www.nia-nia.com.