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Nia: A different kind of dance workout

Nia instructor Jo-Ann Pinel, centre, and students, from left, Joanne Lucas, Annette Verhagen, Ellen Martin and Laura Martin. Glenn Ogilvie Journal Staff Bill Emeis is dancing to his own drummer.
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Nia instructor Jo-Ann Pinel, centre, and students, from left, Joanne Lucas, Annette Verhagen, Ellen Martin and Laura Martin. Glenn Ogilvie

Nia instructor Jo-Ann Pinel, centre, and students, from left, Joanne Lucas, Annette Verhagen, Ellen Martin and Laura Martin. Glenn Ogilvie

Journal Staff

Bill Emeis is dancing to his own drummer.

He turns and pirouettes in his bare feet while a bass-heavy electronica tracks fills the gym of the Strangway Community Centre.

“It keeps me going,” say Emeis, a retired engineer and former Japanese prisoner of war preparing to celebrate his 90th birthday.

“You use every joint and every muscle.”

For five years now Emeis has been a practitioner of Nia, a fitness program that combines martial arts, modern dance and yoga in a workout set to music.

Though little known here, Nia emerged in the 1980s in California as a conditioning program that uses non-impact aerobics – hence the name.

On this day, seven practitioners are on the floor blending a variety of Eastern and Western moves with the goal of stimulating mind and body.

Leading them is instructor Jo-Ann Pinel, a retired nurse. The vivacious 67-year-old said she discovered Nia while living in the U.S. before returning to Sarnia in 2008. She recently earned her brown belt as an instructor.

Unlike traditional dance and exercise routines, Nia allows for a lot of free dance, Pinel said.

“No pain, no gain does not exist in Nia. The first principle is the joy of movement. It’s an expressive and creative undertaking.”

Pinel can be reached at 519-333-9247 or [email protected]

Nia instructor Jo-Ann Pinel leads a class at the Strangway Community Centre.  Glenn Ogilvie
Nia instructor Jo-Ann Pinel leads a class at the Strangway Community Centre.Glenn Ogilvie


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