Welcome to NIA

I am glad you found your way to NIA and by this way also to me!  NIA is an expressive fitness and awareness program, filled with depth , tenderness and clarity.  NIA is a dance between Mind, Body and Spirit and it enhances your overall fitness.  Its a living system that supports the natural wisdom and intelligence of your body.

Laura’s Biography 

My first experience in the realm of systemic movement was studying West African drum and dance in Spokane WA and in 1995 I joined a dance co. called Malidoma. For five years I danced , took professional workshops and performed.  This was a huge opening for me to explore free styled movement patterns.

And in 1998 I came in contact with NIA.  I was an undergraduate at the university of Idaho and took my first NIA class.  When I stepped into my first NIA I really experienced a new way of moving my whole body and it was by feeling my body and sensing my body.  When my NIA teacher Britta Von Tagen graduated and moved on from Moscow, I had decided I wanted to know more about the practice of NIA.  So I went to take my white belt in Portland in 1999.

I have been a teacher and student of NIA ever since.  In fact NIA is what I am most passionate about.  I taught for the University of Idaho for three years.  I then moved Portland, Oregon,  where I taught and soaked up all the NIA I could from Debbie and Carlos Rosas as well as ,many other NIA teachers and other movement practices such as Soul Motion and Gabrielle Roth’s Five Rhythms. Like a sponge I was either teaching NIA or taking as many classes as I could. I was invited teach NIA at SPA D’EUS in Tuscany Italy, Sept-Nov 2002.

Then I taught as a guest instructor at The Esalen Institute in Big Sur. I have just moved back from Carmel California.

I am back where I started, in a community that I love. It has given so much to me. My friends and family are here.

In the last two years I have learned a lot about NIA and I am ready to share with you what I know and what magically can happen in the moment.  .I am excited to help you discover where your body is in relationship to the POTIENTIAL of your body.  Teaching NIA has always been a great challenge and opportunity for me.  It gives me great pleasure to witness how it influences the life of my students and myself.  I look forward to moving with you.

Peace,

Laura
lauramarkman@yahoo.com
509-489-3399