Alaia Dance Movement with Jasjit

Contemporary creative dance movement that has you come alive, strengthen on all levels, and transform your relationship with your body and life.

Experience a seamless path of movement from ease to sweat to play.

Connect more deeply with you. Expand your range of creative expression.

Sundays, 11:00 - 12:15 at The Dance Centre

Buy passes here.

Join us in an uplifting celebration of physical movement and dance!

 

Movement Transforms Us

Personal transformation speeds up through deeper body awareness, connection and expression. The physical body informs, heals, empowers, and adds immense joy, fuelling our presence in the world.

I blend the dance, healing, and expressive arts into soft-impact movement while getting your heart beating (easy on the joints so you can do it barefoot, which increases sensory awareness and provides significant health benefits).

It's a holistic practice...dynamic, playful, meditative, and at times, vigorous...it gives you a fuller range of experience that allows greater expression and freedom in life.

Movement is medicine for the body and spirit. Honouring the design of your body, you'll find yourself conditioning and strengthening to a diversity of music, all chosen to bring more of you alive!

People of all levels and walks of life enjoy Jasjit's classes. Newcomers are welcome. 

  • Cultivate increased vitality and energy in your daily life
  • Move with the design of your body for greater strength
  • Release the build-up of tension and stress to return to lightness
  • Experience the sensation of aligning your body, mind, and spirit
  • Develop agility and muscle tone as you dance through class
  • Expand your flexibility and enhance coordination
  • Move with grace and in the joy of movement!

 

Background & Influences

Jasjit came into dance and movement through an inner calling for greater self-expression, stress release, and empowerment. Seeing play as the portal through which we transform the fastest and easiest, she sought practices that had that spirit and a community energy vs solo practices.

She became a Nia Teacher and taught the practice for 20 years. She was the 1st Vancouver teacher to complete her Black Belt and was also honoured to be 1 of 50 teachers who helped finalize the teacher training level.

Her work has been showcased on tv and written about in magazines.

In 2021, with various studio restrictions in place, she began to feel nudged to expand into more creative movement, explore her own choreography, and use new music. Alaia Dance Movement was birthed and this is Jasjit's main practice and exclusively taught in Downtown Vancouver.

Sense the feeling in this short video...

This short video expresses the magic and joy of teaching the practice of Nia for 20 years.

Movement brings us home in our bodies and awakens us in a way that is impossible without having a deeper connection. The magic is in our cells!

In 2020 I was invited to be a part of a book project with 21 writers and practitioners of different body, mind, spirit modalities from around the world. Our book, "ONE" became an Amazon bestseller. In it you can read my personal story entering dance, the shifts it brought me, and the journey to teaching and using the magic and principles in my coaching work.

Get your copy HERE. And come try a class! You may just find something extra special.

 


Comments from Students & Fellow Teachers

“Jasjit is one of those rare teachers who truly embodies the practice she teaches – her enthusiasm and authentic love of what she shares inspires all who take her classes .” Daphne, Musician

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“I didn’t know my body was missing something, until I took your class.” K. Louis

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“Thank you so much for an amazing class tonight, Jasjit! I feel like a bazillion bucks.” Christy

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"I returned to class last year as part of my healing journey for my childhood trauma. My somatic therapist has a background in Feldenkrais and sessions would often turn to movement and rhythm, and how trauma can steal our rhythm, especially from the spine. I knew it was time to get back in my body and dance has always been a safe access point for me.

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Through your class, and the other personal work I'm doing, I am finally starting to feel how I'd "most like to be" for the first time in my life. Your class is a place to cut loose, shake it out, feel into all those forgotten and denied places, move my body how and when I want to, and reclaim the essence of me. This only happens because the space is safe, there is the gentle invitation for exploration, and the encouragement to have fun. I love being a part of something bigger than myself (the group) that is also of myself. Butterfly and warrior together at last."
Sheryl Thompson, Vocational Rehabilitation Assoc BC President
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“The memories of your class represent a time of stability and serenity which helped me recover from an incipient moment of depression (this you did not know) and I will always be thankful that you crossed my path of life at the right moment. I greatly enjoyed your style of teaching, miss and have not found any similar maestro in Toronto.”
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“Jasjit’s teaching was awesome! I had a fantastic time. She gives excellent instruction and has such a great energy!” Lisa Hanson, YWCA Coordinator
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“I truly LOVE this class. It’s one of the best things about Vancouver! For someone who loves dance, it doesn’t get any better than fitness and dance in one routine!  I've been introduced to some of the best music I ever heard.”  Padma
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“Because I find it difficult to allow myself to just be – my head is a very efficient distraction – the movement helped me get to know myself in a non-threatening setting…sometimes you literally need to sweat to get out of your own way.”
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“Thanks for being such an inspiration to me. I always think of you and how you have created what you want in your life…amazing!” xo, Laura, Nia White Belt Graduate
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“I had the strongest ‘chi’ experience I have ever had with the magnetic energy between the hands that you guided. Wonderful and awesome.” Douglas, Nia Teacher
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“The joy on your face is infectious and encourages a safe place to explore movement!  Appreciate your newsletter, it will help me focus on taking care of the body’s need to stretch and contract and spin and be on all three planes.  Look forward to more exploration and dancing with you again. Remembering inspiration at your classes and freedom to move without watching oneself.” Tom, Nia White Belt Graduate
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“Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your class yesterday. It was fantastic!!  You have a great group of students. Your class inspired me to re-think about teaching again. Thank you soooo much.” Angela, Nia White Belt Graduate
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“Sitting in your skin like a ripe melon for the peeling, allow yourself to explore your true flavour, through movement, and non-thinking intelligence.  Inhabit your molecules and let them breath, dance and bump about. Thank you Jasjit for the stillness through sweat.” Norma, Therapist
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“Regular exercise is so important for expecting mothers, and I truly believe that this is the perfect form of exercise for pregnant women. Its gentle yet invigorating movements are adaptable for all levels of fitness. I recommend it to all my clients.” Christy, Author and previous Doula
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“I have to tell you once more how very cool it was to dance with you yesterday. Your warmth, grace and charm were absolutely magical. By the way, I spoke to a business associate who was there that evening and she really liked your style. Fluid and feminine is how she described it.” Wendy, Nia Teacher
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“It was such a joy partaking in your class last night. I must not let life’s obstacles and “chores” get in the way of the matters that feed my spirit!” Kimberly
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“This is the perfect blend of exercise for the mind, body and spirit. Using varied and carefully chosen music and routines it tunes my body with ease, uplifts my emotions and leaves me feeling joyful, refreshed and focused.”
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“Last night as I watched my body in the mirror attempting to move into the postures with the music I realized just how sedentary I have become, even thought I walk all the time. I saw that I was heavy/robotic in my moves.

Jasjit moved her arms/body like she was a flower gently moving in the warm summer breeze. After a full hour of standing and moving to lively instrumental music, I was euphoric. As I walked home I realized that this was the same experience as a full hour of yoga movements or asanas.  The big difference was more awareness of the air/space/void because I was standing/moving/dancing to a rhythm the whole time. The music worked to help transcend the heaviness.

Towards the end I experienced a brief glimpse of “graceful movement” and I want more. There is no reason in the world not to move the body “gracefully”.  I have let me weight skyrocket over the past few months and I have been pretty much physically inactive and the heaviness has to go, pronto.”  Cavelle, Artist