Business & Tech

Nia Studio Turning 1

Studio Joy's One-Year Birthday Community Celebration is from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8.

A local Nia fitness studio turns one soon partly due to a train ride to New York City. 

Studio Joy owners Jenny Silverberg and Amy Podolsky hold a One-Year Birthday Community Celebration from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8 at the First Parish Northboro, Unitarian Universalist Church, 40 Church St. Tickets are $25, cash or check only.

Podolsky recalls that she and Silverberg  began talking during a train trip to New York City for Nia teacher training – they had known each other through the community – and ultimately became business partners. 

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“We both have a real passion for this work, and we have such a good time together, it’s really pure joy,” Podolsky says.

Nia “pulls from martial arts, it pulls from dance, and it pulls from the healing arts,” Silverberg says. 

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Studio Joy offers hour-long classes at 10 a.m. Mondays, 6:45 p.m. Tuesdays, and 6:45 p.m. Thursdays at the First Parish Unitarian church.

Silverberg said she discovered Nia “about six months after my second child was born.” 

“I was a good 30 pounds overweight, and just felt pretty miserable,” says Silverberg, a Westborough resident.

Silveberg says she then took what she thought was a Pilates class but actually was a Nia class, “and I just never looked back.” 

“Even though I didn’t lose 30 pounds in that one hour all those years ago, I felt energetically I had lost 30 pounds,” she says.

Silverberg says she started Studio Joy a few years ago, when “I had an opportunity to create a studio inside a studio, renting space.” 

“Then I realized, being in business by myself was exhausting, and I got burnt out pretty quickly,” she says.

So, after a year, she invited Podolsky to join her. 

“When she said yes and started teaching classes for me, it just sort of naturally grew,” Silverberg says.

The new Studio Joy opened in a new space, the First Parish hall, in January 2013, Podolsky says. 

Podolsky says she discovered Nia at a friend’s suggestion.

“I have a history of an eating disorder and an exercise compulsion,” Podolsky says. 

“For me, exercise was either running my body or the opposite, I was sitting on the couch doing nothing.”

Podolsky says she “started dabbling in yoga,” and liked Nia because she“always loved to dance.”

Silverberg and Podolsky will lead a Nia class during the Feb. 8 celebration.

The event will feature the Better Her Than Me dance band.

“They’ve got a joyous energy,” Podolsky says.



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