In February I started going to NIA classes once a week. NIA immediately hooked me (read about my first class here), and I’ve continued to attend classes Friday mornings ever since.

Between musical theater in high school, noodling around to Phish in college, and raving through my 20s, dancing with people is the thread that’s held much of my life together. I think this is part of why NIA resonates for me — it gives me a new place to dance with people. But with a little bit of a fitness/well-being focus. God knows I need more aerobic exercise in my sedentary computer-lump life, and it’s just too perfect that I can get it through slightly woo-woo dancing.

NIA combines all my favorite things: the jazz-squares from my years of musical theater and the TAZ (temporary autonomous zone) of my raver halcyon days. Half the music that gets played in class is in my personal collection (Natascha Atlas, Justin Timberlake, Banco de Gaia) and the flexibility of the instruction lets me shake it how ever I want.

That said, NIA has its cheezy moments. Sometimes I hear a teacher say something like “Move like a scarf!” and I step outside myself and wince a little inside. But then I move like a scarf and it feels good and I politely stick a ball-gag in the mouth of my jaded internal critic.

The best part is how NIA has stretched my dance repertoire. Not that I toss out jazz squares on my favorite dirty dance floors (but ok sometimes I do), but I’d gotten in a bit of a raver-rut when it comes to movement. Sometimes I dance like the mid-’90s relic I am, and while that’s awesome because there’s simply nothing that feels as good as the reckless abandon of my beloved kick-step, it’s nice to remember other forms of movement.

I wish I could recommend NIA to more people. I guess I can say that if you’re a former musical theater hippie/raver dancer type who needs some aerobic exercise, you’ll love it. The rest of you would probably make fun of it, and that’s ok, too.