Nia Mia

Brought to you by yours truly, Lord of the Dance.

OK, I exaggerate. I am not nearly the Lord of the Dance. I might qualify as a handmaiden of the dance on the best of days. But on Sunday night, I gave it a shot anyhow. See, about a year ago, I wrote a story about Nia (click for more), a form of low-impact aerobic dance, for my former employer, the Award-Winning Magazine. Nia incorporates types of movement from several art forms in addition to dance, one of which is martial art.

During the course of the interviews, my background in martial arts and especially T'ai Chi came to light. The Nia instructors, Jill and Marie, remarked that it would be interesting to have a T'ai Chi person come and demonstrate some postures for other Nia teachers sometime. I said sure, give me a call, and that was the end of the matter.

Until last month. Then Jill e-mailed me to invite me to actually come and do this. So I did. The theme for the evening was the four elements (earth, air, fire, water), so I tried to incorporate those ideas into my talky bit. But for the most part it was T'ai Chi show and tell. I explained some of the principles of the form and demonstrated how a few of the postures could become dance steps. It was very low-key, but everyone seemed to catch on quickly. I enjoyed the main dance portion of the class that preceded my part, too. I might just have to go back.

As an aside, I'd just like to mention that yesterday I gassed up the Subarushi for the first time since Easter. Gotta love taking the train.

Today around the world: April 18 is Health Day in Kiribati (click for more).