NIA stands for Neuromuscular Integrative Action, and it's basically a modern-dancey/African tribal, barefoot cardio thing. (I'm really oversimplifying this. They have a whole theory of holistic movement and body awarness.) It was created by Carlos and Debbie Rosas. He's an extremely flamboyant Mexican man and she is his Susan Powter lookalike wife. (Judging from the other video covers, this is a new look for her.)

The video contains two parts. Part 1: The Exercise, is the group workout, which I did. Part 2: The Practice, is the section in which they break down the specific movements, discuss form and safety, and encourage you to spend time exploring each individual movement. I did not watch all of this, but I think it would be very helpful for a beginner, for someone who wants more detailed breakdowns of the moves, or for someone who is working on refining their technique. I just did Part 1 because I mostly just want to get in there and go.

I had a TOTAL BLAST!

Parts of it reminded my of Karen Andes' warm-up and Temple Stretch in the Woman Power Workout, and parts reminded me of the standing sections of Kundalini Yoga with Gurmuhk, and parts of it reminded me of Millenium Stretch. It was just so fun to get in there and move. You start just doing total free-form, and then you follow them, and then you do free form, and then you follow them, and then you do a mostly free-form floor stretch. So you're not *totally* at sea if you don't like or know how to improvise, but you do have some great opportunities for exploration.

I really enjoyed a lot of the hip shaking and shimmying (go figure.) My favorite move was what I like to call the "spanky-spanky." Go to the video clip section http://www.globalunity.niawave.com/global11.html and you'll see it in Touching The Void 3. I also like the kickbox-inpsired moves. My favorite combo there was a side lunge-front lunge-kick combination that you can see at Baby 4.

A fellow VFer warned me that a lot of people don't llike the NIA tapes because they can't stand Carlos (too flamboyant.) I'm one of those people who got a kick out of Greg Smithey from the original Buns of Steel, so I wasn't too worried. Oh. My. Gosh. Carlos was delightfully, hilariously, ridiculous. "Plucka, plucka, plucka, plucka!" "Shake your happy body!" "It's a thunder! YOU are the thunder!" Although, it probably helped that Debbie was calm and normal and balanced him out. I was grinning from ear to ear during all of Carlos' sections.

I think this would be a GREAT tape to do with kids. There's a couple of sections where you're supposed to imagine your body is a scarf/that you have scarves, and since I was in my dance room I grabbed a couple of small scarves for that section. You just dip and dive and twist and do whatever to make those scarves float around. (I learned an Andalusian scarf dance last year so I did some of those moves.) Totally enhanced that part and I had a lot of fun. I definitely recommend adding real scarves.

Set: you can see it on the video clips. Kind of dark. Lots of background dancers dressed in black, while Debbie and Carlos wear blue and red unitards respectively. The background dancers follow along during the following parts, but they each put their own spin on the moves. During the free-form sections they are all over the room--very inspiring and fun to watch.

Music: new age and world stuff. Kind of funky. I really enjoyed it.

So, I *love* this tape. The only drawback to me is that the end stretch is not led and is not very long, but I just kept on going on my own and so that was ok.

Will you like this tape? I don't know.

If you hate social dancing and/or are too self-conscious to even bop around in your own kitchen when there's no one home, then no, you probably will NOT like this tape.

However...

If you spent New Year's like I did, doing wild Priscilla Queen of the Desert-style lip synchs to disco tunes in a friend's living room, then I think you might really dig it.

Renee D