AYA Dance Meditation

03/23/2026

Focus of the week: the sensations of safety. ✨
I hope you had a most wonderful spring break week, friend. We are back from a quick camping trip, and I can’t wait to get back to the dance floor with you.
This week, let’s dive into a somatic exploration of safety…
The big questions of the week:
1). What does safety feel like? What do you sense in your body when you feel safe? Unsafe? What do you sense/notice in your:
Feet
Shoulders
Face
Heartbeat
Belly
Breath
Eyes
Muscles
________
2). Do you move (or hold yourself) differently when you feel safe vs. unsafe?
Let’s dive in. We’ll dance and sense our bodies in class… but also, what do you notice beyond the dance floor?
We can then also explore things like:
1). When, where, and around whom do you feel more safe? Less safe? What do you sense in your body?
2). How can you help others feel more safe? Your Aya dance-mates in class? Family? Friends? Coworkers? Neighbors? Fellow humans?
3). How might you cultivate more sensations of safety within yourself? Perhaps sometimes cultivating a sense of safety involves avoiding people, places, consuming content, or activities where we feel vulnerable or less safe… But perhaps sometimes the opposite is true…? Is it ever helpful to give ourselves more exposure to environments, people, or activities that feel somewhat vulnerable or scary at first in order to build a sense of safety?
For example, do you remember your first time dancing Aya? How vulnerable/nervous did you feel that very first time? New place. New people. New ways of moving. Oh my gosh, what’s she going to have us do next? What does she mean “flow?” Why is she yelling hi-yah? What am I supposed to do when she says “free body?” And then, fast forward to now… as you dance today... Now that you’ve Aya’d 10x (or 300x)… Do you feel more safe now that you know what to expect? Now that it’s all so much more familiar? Now that you know more of the how’s and why’s behind what we do? Now that you’ve danced with the same people, in the same space, over and over again? Now that you’ve sat in the circle and know that it is ok to share? Or to not share? Now that you’ve witnessed me (and other classmates as well) be vulnerable? Now that you’ve had more experience doing what we do in class?
Or another example… Think of someone with whom you feel very safe. Did it always feel that way? Or did exposure (being around that person time and time again) help to build that sensation of safety slowly over time?
4). When it comes to feeling safe, how important are things like: repetition, predictability, consistency, and more detailed/intimate information or understanding?
5). Does the content you consume (books, social media, news, TV, movies, etc.) ever impact how safe you feel?
6). A long time ago, I remember seeing the directive to: Do one thing every day that scares you. When was the last time you did something that scared you? How important do you think it is to regularly do things that scare you? For example, I used to be terrified of putting a video of myself dancing on Facebook (eek! what if someone makes fun of me!). But, after this past Dancember (where I put a song of myself dancing up on Facebook every day for a month), now it is truly no big deal. I’m out there. I did it. I didn’t die. :) And, to be honest, I can’t believe I let my fear of what strangers on the internet might think keep me from sharing more about Aya (which I love so very much) with the world for soooooooooooo long. In a way, Dancember felt like exposure therapy. Each day was easier than the day before it.
7). How much does it help to have support from friends/loved ones as you do something that scares you? If you ever want a friend & cheerleader as you lean into something hard or scary, I’m here for you!
Ok. So… That’s a lot for us to explore. Thoughts, friend? As always, can’t wait to dive in with you. See you soon!
Much love,
💛 Dani
CLASS SCHEDULE
• Sundays, 10 AM central, on Zoom
• Mondays, 5:45 PM, at the Cedar Falls Woman's Club
• Tuesdays, 5:30 PM, at Dani's house
• Wednesdays, 5:30 PM central, live on Zoom
• Thursdays, 9 AM central, live on Zoom
1st time? Welcome!
Please be my guest and enjoy a free trial! Code: FIRST
ayadance.com

03/21/2026

Helloooo, friend! I hope you had a really lovely Spring Break week. 💛 We are back from a sweet little family camping trip, and I’m sooooooo looking forward to dancing with you! 💃 Classes resume right away starting tomorrow! See you soon! ✨

03/14/2026

Reminder: no classes this coming week. ✨ Happy Spring Break! 💛

03/10/2026

Big HAPPY BIRTHDAY hugs to our friend Jen today! 🥳✨

03/09/2026

Big HAPPY BIRTHDAY hugs to our friend Erin today! 🥳✨

03/09/2026

Looking for a deliciously joyful & uplifting way to move & experience your body? Join us tonight for our next Monday night dance at the CF Woman's Club! ✨

Simply swing on in to enjoy a free trial. Our community is ever-expanding and we'll be excited to meet you (the more dance friends, the merrier)! 💃

Mondays, 5:45-6:45 PM
304 Clay St., Cedar Falls

03/08/2026

Big HAPPY BIRTHDAY hugs to our friend Shantel today! 🥳✨

03/08/2026

Happy Sunday, friend! Here's a link to our Aya focus for this week. ✨ This one's a little longer than usual, so here's a link to a format that's easier to read (or skim for main points). In it, I share about aerobic & anaerobic conditioning, the many awesome benefits of each, and how class can be a sweet playground for exploring them both. 💃 See you soon!

💛 Dani

Hello, friend!This week, we’re going to dive back into our Cultivating Organic Fitness series with a special focus on two sweet modes of training. Remember that old story about the tortoise and the hare? You know—the one where they race, and the really cocky hare speeds away at the start? Then t...

03/01/2026

Focus of the week: Ease & just being here now. ✨
Yeppers—- it’s time for another ease week, friend.
After our last 3 deep dives into our breath, heart, and then feeling our feelings, let’s take a week to eeeeeeease our way on into this beautiful month ahead of us.
“Ease & just being here now” is a focus we come back to often. While we can still move as vigorously as we’d like throughout class, we can think of this focus (once it is familiar) as a bit of mental rest week. Instead of diving into a new mental concept or practice, this is a familiar focus that helps us to settle our nervous system, release excessive tension, rest a bit mentally, and further integrate all that we’ve recently explored.
This beautiful focus always has 2 parts:
Part 1: Ease
We’ll dance (and move as vigorously as we’d like) while inviting ease into our body. Ease in your shoulders. Ease in your feet. Ease in your jaw. Ease in your hips. Ease in your spine. Whatever we’re doing, we’ll simply invite ease to be a part of it. Easy does it.
Part 2: Being Here Now
We’ll also simply be here now. As we dance, we’ll tune in and sense our body as a way to stay present (and embodied) moment to moment. We’ll dance, sense, and just… be… here… now. Hello, body.
Ahhhhh, I love it so much! :)
As always, can’t wait to see you! See you soon!
Much love,
💛 Dani
CLASS SCHEDULE
• Sundays, 10 AM central, on Zoom
• Mondays, 5:45 PM, at the Cedar Falls Woman's Club
• Tuesdays, 5:30 PM, at Dani's house
• Wednesdays, 5:30 PM central, live on Zoom
• Thursdays, 9 AM central, live on Zoom
1st time? Welcome!
Please be my guest! Code: FIRST
ayadance.com

02/25/2026

If you are wondering who
your people are, they are
the ones who make your
heart feel seen and your
nervous system feel calm.

Yes, it’s that simple.

-Yung Pueblo

02/22/2026

Focus of the week: Feeling our feels. ✨
Thanks so much for another beautiful dive into our cardiorespiratory system last week. I’ve been really loving our Cultivating Organic Fitness series (and I hope you have been too). We’ll come right back to it again in a week or two, but we’re going to shift our focus in a bit different direction this week.
Whereas last week we were tuning into our heart to sense it’s rate, effort, cardiac output, range, etc., this week, we’re going to tune into our heart (as well as the rest of our body) to simply notice how we’re feeling emotionally.
And, by that, I mean feeling (any and all) the feels.
We’re simply going to tune into our emotions and notice them.
✨ We can even start right now. ✨
Simply turn your focus inward, sense your body, and explore this question: How am I feeling?
That’s it, babe. That’s our main practice this week.
• No need to judge what you are feeling.
• No need to label them as good feelings or bad feelings.
• No need to limit what you feel, or how long you are feeling it.
• No need to stay in any one feeling—perhaps it is very fleeting.
• No need to explain our feelings or justify them to ourselves.
• And definitely no need to limit ourselves to just one feeling at a time.
We’re simply practicing sensing and noticing our feelings as they arise. We can think of it as a week to just check in with, and spend a little quality time with our emotional nature. :)
✨ Feel it to heal it. ✨
Often in meditation practices, guides will say things like “your thoughts are just like clouds in the sky, passing by. You can simply observe them, notice them, and let them float on by.” Similarly, our practice with noticing our emotions this week is kind of like that. We’re simply going to notice our feelings, and allow them to keep on moving through us.
There’s a common phrase in the mind-body world that says: “feel it to heal it.” I love how it emphasizes the importance of allowing ourselves to feel our feelings. And that’s what we’re doing this week, friend. We’re simply going to give ourselves time and space to feel however we feel.
Not attaching
Not ignoring
Not forcing
Not avoiding
Not stuffing down
Not dissociating
Not distracting ourselves from
Not hurrying
Simply feeling how we feel.
✨ Want more to explore? ✨
Ok, so simply feeling how we feel is definitely plenty…. Buuuuut, if you’d like more to play with, here are some additional experiments that might be fun to observe this week.
In class we can check in periodically as we dance:
• How am I feeling?
• What body sensations (i.e., tense shoulders, clenched jaw, smiling face, fluttering heartbeat, lightness, relaxation, etc.) are connected with what I’m feeling emotionally?
• How do I feel when I listen to this song? How about the next song?
• How do I feel when I am moving this way? How about the next kind of way (for example, flow, kicks, splashes, hip circles, bouncing around the room, etc.)?
• Does how I feel change throughout the duration of class?
• ________ (Anything else you’d add to this list?)
And then throughout your day and week:
• How am I feeling?
• Do the sounds or sights around me have an effect?
• How about the activity I’m engaging in right now?
• Does sleep affect how I feel?
• Do different foods/drinks alter my feelings?
• How about the content I consume (feeds, books, shows, etc.)?
• How do I feel when I am using ____ app?
• Does the location, weather, or environment have any effect?
• How about the people who I am with?
• ________ (Anything else you’d add to this list?)
Again, no need for us to judge any of it. We can just stay ever-curious scientists, collecting data, noticing our authentic feelings as they flow through us. Perhaps seeing if any interesting patterns arise.
As always, I can’t wait to see what we discover together on the dance floor this week. See you soon!
Much love,
💛 Dani
📸 Beautiful photo thanks to Cat Mccombs ✨
CLASS SCHEDULE
• Sundays, 10 AM central, on Zoom
• Mondays, 5:45 PM, at the Cedar Falls Woman's Club
• Tuesdays, 5:30 PM, at Dani's house
• Wednesdays, 5:30 PM central, live on Zoom
• Thursdays, 9 AM central, live on Zoom
1st time? Welcome! Please be my guest! Code: FIRST