I have been VERY fortunate lately to be in the presence of Masters of their craft, namely Zumba and Nia, and I have been pondering why this lights me up!  In both cases, I took classes from teachers who embody what they teach, which was very powerful for me to experience. 

I love taking classes from other teachers who inspire me, make me want to be better, and help me identify how I can improve my own teaching. In my opinion, this is part of the road to mastery of anything – learning from others who are ahead of me on the road.  I LOVE this – I always leave so inspired and ready to up my own ante.

In the Zumba class I took from Zumba Jammer Lisa Marie Torres, I saw how she effortlessly commanded the energy of the entire class in a variety of ways:  she removed all breaks between songs, creating a seamless transition of music, she taught facing a variety of directions, depending on how easily we could catch on to a new move, and she used the whole room, making contact with each student during the class.

In the Zumba class I took from Zumba Education Specialist Karla Mead, I saw how to effectively break down moves, introducing either arms or feet first so students can build the moves during the song.  I also experienced some great new songs that I can almost immediately add to my repertoire because of her effective teaching and simple choreography.

Finally, in the Nia classes I recently took from Next Generation Trainer Kelle Rae Oien, I really GOT for the first time the power of music in a class. She has a talent for leading the energy of the class seamlessly through music choice, varying intensity, mood, and vibe perfectly so that I just lost myself in the movement.  She calls it “not frying people’s nervous systems” by varying the intensity of the music, although she may still use intense moves.  Additionally, I experienced the most athletic Nia class of my life, which was very appropriate for the audience we had, and I was so excited to experience the power of Athletic Nia.  I have always wanted more athleticism for myself and to deliver more to my students, and Kelle showed me how to achieve that and still stay true to Nia.

So now, here I am, totally fired up in a location that doesn’t offer many opportunities for me to be exposed to mastery in these 2 modalities.  I am going to ration out my enthusiasm so it will last until I return home to the U.S. for Christmas, where I can again drink from the wellspring of Mastery.