About Us

Aimee Ret­zler
Aimee loves watch­ing peo­ple dis­cover the prac­tice of Nia.  Aimee began her Nia prac­tice in August 2007 and received her blue belt in April 2011.  Other joys in her life are her hus­band and three young chil­dren who like to explore the out­doors, cre­ate fam­ily meals together, and enjoy lis­ten­ing to all kinds of music.  She vol­un­teers for the Nevada City School Dis­trict on the com­mu­nity rela­tions team and is Pres­i­dent of Live Healthy Nevada County Food & Nutri­tion Action Com­mit­tee.  Pro­fes­sion­ally, she con­sults with busi­nesses and non­prof­its to develop and imple­ment strate­gic busi­ness and mar­ket­ing plans.

Alli­son Rivers Sam­son
Alli­son has been prac­tic­ing Nia enthu­si­as­ti­cally since 2007, when her daugh­ter was 9 months old. “I started danc­ing for­mally at age 5 and stopped at 15. When I became a Mama many years later, I quickly real­ized that I needed an expres­sive outlet. Discovering Nia reminded me of who I am and has reawak­ened my entire being, ben­e­fit­ing both myself and my fam­ily. In addi­tion to a fab­u­lous phys­i­cal work­out, Nia expands my emo­tional, spir­i­tual and men­tal bod­ies through an invi­ta­tion to explore and play. Come expe­ri­ence the Joy of Movement!”

Karishama~Deanna Darby
Deanna is a licensed psy­chother­a­pist spe­cial­iz­ing in somatic psy­chother­apy. She has trained in a vari­ety of body-work modal­i­ties and has a master’s degree in depth psy­chol­ogy. Deanna’s work is based on the fun­da­men­tal role of the body and move­ment in cre­at­ing mean­ing, rela­tion­ship, and thought.

Airakah Bot­telf­son

Devo­rah Bry
Dev has been deeply involved in mat­ters of move­ment, mind, and embod­i­ment for over 20 years.  Dance, Psy­chol­ogy, Spir­i­tu­al­ity, and Rela­tion­ship (and where these worlds meet) have been her pas­sions and her med­i­cine from the very begin­ning.  Devo­rah received an ordi­na­tion from the IM School of Heal­ing Arts in 2004 and com­pleted her for­mal stud­ies in Somatic Psy­chol­ogy at CIIS in 2007.  She has trained exten­sively in the Hakomi method, Con­tin­uum move­ment, and a vari­ety of body­work meth­ods.  Dev teaches move­ment classes, sees indi­vid­u­als and cou­ples as an embod­i­ment coun­selor, and relaxes on warm river rocks in Nevada City, CA.

Kath­leen Ames
Kath­leen has been prac­tic­ing yoga since 1992 and has been teach­ing since 2001. She has had train­ing in over seven dif­fer­ent yoga styles and is a mas­ter of ther­a­peu­tics. Kath­leen is also influ­enced by Hanna Somat­ics and Con­tin­uum Move­ment and has healed her­self of many afflic­tions includ­ing the effects of four car acci­dents. She loves to share the many health and heal­ing ben­e­fits of her very own Mind­ful Move­ment. Kath­leen has also been a prac­ti­tioner and instruc­tor of Pilates (group fit­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tion through AAAF in 2010), mar­tial arts (Nevada state cham­pion in 1988 & 1990) and Belly Dance; per­form­ing pro­fes­sion­ally since 1993 and teach­ing since 2002. She also was the direc­tor and chore­o­g­ra­pher for Troupe Tryanga of New Jer­sey. Her Belly Dance classes are a unique offer­ing allow­ing the female form to explore its play­ful sen­sual side. So it is through her love of dance, move­ment and other modal­i­ties Kath­leen cre­ated her God­dess Work­out class which is offered as not only a full body work­out but a spir­i­tu­ally uplift­ing expe­ri­ence as well. What­ever Kath­leen teaches, she does so with a warm heart and a sense of humor.

Mona Line­han
I turned 50 in 2006 and was look­ing for some­thing to keep in shape. I have never done well at the gym and quite frankly never been great at any one sport. I have, how­ever, always loved music. When I took my first Nia class my thoughts were ” Oh I don’t know about this” but as we went started into the sec­ond or third song I was hooked, the music, the move­ment, the free­dom! I signed up and got my white belt in 2007. I have had my teach­ing cer­tifi­cate now for 3 years but just recently started to teach Nia & Zumba combo! There is no“WRONG WAY” of doing it. Any­one can do this and it’s FUN and Aerobic!

Tessa Ely
After thrash­ing her body run­ning Cross Coun­try and Track in High School, Tessa was always search­ing for a more fun and holis­tic form of ath­leti­cism. She found that and more in Nia and has spent the last two years grow­ing into her­self as a dancer. When not in the stu­dio, she loves the out­doors and con­sid­ers thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail her great­est accom­plish­ment to date.

 
Sheri Hoss, M.Ed.
Licensed Inner Radi­ance Qigong Instruc­tor
Edu­ca­tion and Move­ment Spe­cial­ist
Sen­sory, Motor, and Reflex Inte­gra­tion
Rhyth­mic Move­ment Train­ing &
Licensed Brain Gym Consultant/Instructor

Lau­ren Borowsky, LAc, LMT, CYT
As a ther­a­pist & healer, I spe­cial­ize in Acupunc­ture & Ori­en­tal Med­i­cine, Trans­for­ma­tive Mas­sage, Cran­iosacral Ther­apy, Chi Nei Tsang & instruct­ing Yoga and Qi Gong. I offer this class as its own syn­er­gis­tic heal­ing modal­ity, designed to be acces­si­ble & effec­tive for all ages & bod­ies. It is my inten­tion to pro­vide an envi­ron­ment in which you feel safe and nur­tured. I strive to lis­ten care­fully and sup­port you in your jour­ney of heal­ing transformation.

Michael Logue
Licensed Inner Radi­ance Qigong Instruc­tor
Web­site Design: m@michaellogue.com