THEMES

After the warm-up, which lasts about five minutes, the theme then takes over. Themes range depending on an objective. These include unwinding, loosening, clearing, graceful movements, in-touch-ness, softening, releasing, connecting, balancing, emerging, quieting, touching the sacred, and many more. These types of themes involve many different types of actions. They do not, however, address specific regions or areas.

One of the great benefits to having themes is that you can recruit or engage different parts of the body. For instance, you can have a theme entitled, "loosening the body" or "loosening the abdomen." You can be as general or specific as necessary. Consider how many areas you can "clear." Imagine a theme, "clearing the mind." You can move in specific ways that would support a specific theme. You can have a theme for "opening the heart" or even "opening the heart chakra," the energy center around the heart.

The themes in NMD dance can be as aggressive or as wild as you can allow. Obviously, the older you are, the less intense themes are more appropriate. Always stay in touch with your body. Never move in such an exaggerated way or for such a long period of time that you are more likely to injure yourself. For this reason, consider the length of the theme (the duration of the initiation phase) to be around seven minutes, not to exceed ten minutes. Of course, if the themes are more gentle, you can go a little longer, but keeping this phase to ten minutes maximum is usually kinder on the body. It is certainly more supportive for the body to integrate well.

Themes are limited only by your creativity. Here are a few themes to consider: "expressing gratitude," "unwinding tension," "discovering with your natural rhythms," "helping the body heal," "directing breath throughout the body," "stepping lightly into a brand new world," "expanding peace," as well as others. You can modify or edit one of these themes or formulate a one of your own.