Spotlight on Elaine Dunphy of Ageless Grace on the Rock

If you’re someone who spends most of your working hours sitting and staring at a screen, you know how important it is to get up and move and stretch regularly. For that matter, it’s important for all of us to do so, regardless of our occupation. Health is wealth and keeping active is a key ingredient.

For almost a decade now, dancer and instructor Elaine Dunphy of Paradise has been helping people of all ages get in tune with their bodies and minds through her "Nia on the Rock" movement practice. Created in the U.S. in 1983, the Nia Technique combines dance, martial arts, yoga and mindfulness and can be adapted to suit every body. It helps build endurance, strength, balance, flexibility, and it’s a lot of fun. After retiring from corporate life in 2015, Dunphy attended her first Nia class and was hooked.

It wasn’t long before she travelled to Toronto to complete her instructor training and these days, Dunphy happily spends her time showing others in and around St. John’s how to find joy and wellness through movement. (She taught her first class at the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl, and still holds some classes there today.)

Elaine Dunphy

A big source of her joy are her “wellderlies,” those senior participants who are part of her "Ageless Grace" program. Created in the U.S. by Nia teacher Denise Medved, Ageless Grace consists of 21 simple exercises, set to music, that include right and left-brain activities, which stimulate both the brain and body and help create new neural pathways.

"George Bernard Shaw says 'We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing,’” Dunphy says, which sums up how she approaches her movement practice. So far, she’s worked with participants from ages three to 103 and with clients including the St. John's Retired Citizens Association, Anglican Homes Inc., Manuels River, and Epilepsy Newfoundland and Labrador. Now, she’s aiming to market her movement practice to the corporate world.

Whether it’s team-building exercises, ice-breaking sessions, or a post-lunch movement session, the Ageless Grace and Nia programs, Dunphy says, can help break up the day while giving participants a great (and soothing) workout that exercises the body while improving cognitive function. The sessions can be modified to suit the space, whether it’s a big boardroom with chairs or a smaller area, and adapted to suit individuals’ needs.

Elaine Dunphy with some of her Ageless Grace participants.

The Ageless Grace exercise tools, Dunphy adds, are easy to learn and backed by science. Quoting from her brain health program playbook, they "promote the three R's of lifelong comfort and ease: the ability to respond, react and recover efficiently and safely,” she shares.

If the testimonials from Ageless Grace participants are any indication, the exercises are doing the trick, says Elaine Aylward, 1st Vice President of the St. John's Retired Citizens Association. They’ve been working with Dunphy for two years now.

"These are people that didn't think they could do anything for exercise because of all the issues they had. But they do it and they said...you don't even feel like you're exercising, but you're exercising every muscle group in your entire body. And Elaine is so enthusiastic and vivacious. She just exudes joy,” Aylward says.

“People are just loving it...it’s a wonderful program.”

To learn more, visit "Ageless Grace on the Rock” and "Nia on the Rock” on Facebook.