Tired of forcing yourself to the gym for the same old haul on the treadmill? Do you dance at home when no one’s looking, or in the car when you think no one’s looking? Or maybe you just wish you could somehow just feel more in your body. Enter Nia, a form of barefoot movement which fuses martial arts, healing arts and dance arts. And enter Maggie Bokor, the dynamic Portland-based Nia instructor with a generous laugh and a talent for balancing a full-body workout with space for spirit.
“When people ask me what Nia is, I tell them that it’s mind, body, spirit bliss,” says Bokor, who moved to Portland in 2006 and has been cultivating a vibrant Nia community ever since. She discovered Nia in 2004 when living in Annapolis, Maryland. At the time, she’d been doing workouts like Taebo and power walking, but suffered from panic attacks, weight issues and just generally felt “out of my body.” Hooked from her first class, she says “I remember being on the floor in tears thinking I’ve found my body again.” She became a certified White Belt Nia instructor later that same year.
“Nia is for everybody who is ready to get in their body,” says Bokor. Nia was conceived in the early 1980’s by Debbie and Carlos Rosas, two west coast aerobics instructors who were seeking a path to fitness that strayed from the “no pain, no gain” motto of the time. The routines are set to diverse world music that runs the gamut from lively to moving, and are meant to inspire students to find pleasure in their bodies. And though students report leaving feeling a new type of joy in their body—it also provides a very real workout. Bokor shed 50 pounds after discovering Nia.
“What I love about Nia is that because you’re combining so many different movement forms, it allows you the opportunity to find your spark within that hour,” says Bokor.
Maggie, who is also a Reiki Master and artist, teaches several classes throughout the Greater Portland area. You can check out her schedule here.
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