Erotic Dance Yoga was conceived one snowy New England afternoon when two sisters reunited through their passion of dance and yoga. It was Christmas of 2000 and my younger sister, Jessica, and I had not seen each other for months. One of our favorite ways to connect is through dance. From the time we were small children, Jess and I loved to dance together. I have fond memories of twirling, spinning and shimmying to music that spanned Bach to Madonna, “The Nutcracker” to “Beat It”. Here we were once again acting like children, laughing and dancing across our mother’s living room, when suddenly inspired to combine erotic dance moves and yoga poses. We are both passionate yoga teachers. Although completely spontaneous, it seemed a natural leap to fuse our two passions, dance and yoga. Serendipitously, a playful and silly reconnection between sisters has become a life mission.

Soon after the conception of Erotic Dance Yoga we began demonstrating our funky new fusion at parties and social gatherings. Every single person who witnessed this strange new concoction encouraged us to choreograph a class and begin teaching it. So, we did! We taught our first class to a small private group of Santa Barbara women in February of 2004.

I taught my first public class at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center in April of 2004. It was a hit! Women loved it so much I was asked to teach the workshop monthly. I have been teaching ongoing workshops ever since.

There is another more serious aspect of my history that has been a major catalyst in propelling Erotic Dance Yoga forward. I am an incest survivor. It was not until my late twenties that memories of the abuse first came to me during a ten-day vipassana meditation retreat. This information was a major revelation and catapulted me onto a path of healing and recovery. Until this point I had spent much of my life feeling confused and overwhelmed by my body and my sexuality. At times I felt incredibly powerful and at others deeply ashamed.

I learned from my family and the surrounding culture to hold two contradictory beliefs about my body and my sexuality. On the one hand I believed that I must be beautiful, attractive and sexy all the time. I hyper-sexualized myself and believed my only value was based on what I looked like on the outside. On the other hand I felt deeply ashamed and dirty for expressing my sexuality.

I placed so much emphasis on my outward appearance that I developed an eating disorder in my mid to late teens. I got caught in the trap of believing that I am only lovable and desirable if I am physically attractive, in particular to men. Soon I became obsessed with my physical appearance. Because of my history, I confused attention from men with being valued and loved. I attracted some very unhealthy relationships and situations into my life. I have been date raped twice and had numerous pregnancies.

Through many different healing modalities including yoga, tantra and sacred sexuality, twelve step programs, and personal therapy I have come to heal many of my sexual wounds. It is an ongoing process, though. Erotic Dance Yoga is a synthesis of all the healing I have done thus far as well as part of the journey. Through this work I intend to bring hope to women who struggle with being a woman in this culture. I want to inspire women to love, honor and cherish their bodies and their sexuality.

Niav’s Credentials

I bring a depth of personal experience, creativity and passion to my teaching. With almost twenty years of yoga practice experience and six years of teaching experience, I am knowledgeable in many forms of hatha yoga including Iyengar, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Bikram and Forrest. My teaching focuses on mindfulness of breath and body, safety in postures, and emphasizes the development of core strength. In addition to completing my teacher training with yoga master, Ana Forrest, I have studied with internationally recognized teachers including Cyndi Lee, Baron Baptiste, and Shiva Rea. I am also a 20-year practitioner of vipassana or insight meditation.

I have been actively walking a path of healing and recovery through various personal growth movements since 1992. Currently, I teach ongoing yoga classes in Santa Barbara while finishing an M.A. in Clinical Psychology specializing in Pre- and Perinatal Psychology.