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Andrea Nicole Ortiz (Nikki)

@nikki_ortiz

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@hybridmovementcompany

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@edmaximus 🖤 by @nikki_ortiz

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a year ago

In 2015 I won the @usayoga national asana competition and recently found a video of my routine somewhere on the internet. It made me look back and reflect on how much my life has changed since, and because of this.

The yoga competition is naturally a little controversial. I learned so much through the process of training for it and competing but hands down the most valuable thing I got out of it was my green card!! Life is a trip. You never know how things are going to align to help you on your path.

At the time I was in NY on a work visa. I had a great job in design with a wonderful boss but all I wanted to do was move my body, do yoga, teach yoga and reconnect with my artist self. With a work visa I was bound to my 9-5 job so I felt stuck.

I did the competition with no goal in mind. @wearejared coached me and I really enjoyed the process of “training” yoga with him, spending hours doing the postures over and over and over again. I did not expect to win. I was genuinely surprised but I was happy to have delivered a clean routine and have made my teacher proud.

The real price came after. Because I was not a US citizen nor had permanent residency, @usayoga + a bunch of people who believed in me helped me apply for a green card. I learned through my lawyer that the fastest route to green card is sports and athletics and because it is technically a yoga sport championship we gave it a shot. My green card was approved in under 3 months, it felt miraculous.

With the freedom of a green card I took a giant leap of faith and left my full time job to pursue circus and performing arts. Sometimes I still can’t believe it actually worked and that I get to make a living teaching yoga and being an artist. I feel so lucky and I’m grateful every day.

I guess the moral of this story is follow your heart! Follow your art! Always always always. It’s likely connected to your purpose. You don’t have to understand how it’s all gonna work out, you just have to keep doing your work and the path will continue to reveal itself. Sometimes I like to remind myself that we can’t hope for miracles, we have to rely on them ✨ by @nikki_ortiz

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133

a year ago

Om mani padme hum

🤲🏽🪷

Cover photo by @juliacomita for the Freedom Project collab with @hybridmovementcompany 🖤

#hairhanging #hairsuspension #meditation #badhapadmasana #boundlotus #ommanipadmehum by @nikki_ortiz

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1

a year ago

Or, you can surrender to God.

Īśvara-praṇidhānād vā
Yoga Sutra 1.23

Suspending at Vigilia feels different than a regular performance. It’s ritual, it’s prayer. It’s release. It’s a meditation I get to share in a very unique container. I am grateful. 🤲🏽

Moments from this Summer’s @vigilia.nyc by @hybridmovementcompany
Captured by @jrobertson.nyc

#hairsuspension #meditation #trataka #surrender by @nikki_ortiz

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a month ago

Some more from this beautiful photoshoot 💛

By @eni.rar at @urnaa.contortionist Mongolia retreat by @nikki_ortiz

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2 months ago

by @eni.rar ✨

From our photoshoot during @urnaa.contortionist amazing Mongolia retreat 💕

I loved how @eni.rar compared contortionists to nature’s gem stones— compressed by time, reshaped by pressure, time and movement.

It was so special to spend a week in Mongolia re shaping my body and pursuing the extreme as I continue to learn this art form that I keep falling in love with.

Thank you @urnaa.contortionist for all the guidance and care, and thank you Eni and Urnaa for creating a beautiful week were you shared so much of yourselves 🤍

#contortion #contortionists #gemstone by @nikki_ortiz

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2 months ago

Back in August I followed @urnaa.contortionist to Ulaanbaatar to train contortion for a week, and it’s been the best thing I’ve done for myself all year. I tried new things (like putting pigeons on my head), got stronger, and met a wonderful group of people who created a really fun and positive training environment.

Thank you Urnaa for such a special week. 🥹

Thank you @wonderful_mongolian_contortion for sharing so much knowledge and inspiration.

I will never know what it feels like to start training contortion at 5yrs old, but I’m grateful that at some point I found my path to this art form that I love so much. I’m grateful to @urnaa.contortionist for teaching me ways to continue to approach contortion sustainably, so I can keep bending my body for as long as it will let me. 👵

And of course thank you @eni.rar for these photos and for your supportive and caring presence throughout the retreat 🤍 taken in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia by @nikki_ortiz

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13 days ago

#MUNDARA, #BM26
the rains had just come,
Ten hours clearing the field, watering the desert
painting the sky more vivid than it had been

slowing everyone and everything down long enough to really see how much of a blessing and a privilege this whole thing is
how much of a miracle all this art-making really is

we gathered at the feet of the Goddess, Mundara- the sustainer.

#AxisMundi is a Latin phrase meaning “world axis,” representing a symbolic center point that connects the earth, the heavens, and the underworld. On this sunset, ancient friends came together to make a prayer that has been making us for lifetimes…

deep gratitude @theartrising for this breathtaking work of art and your work to always weave your people innit, no matter how or where.

@hybridmovementcompany @nikki_ortiz @francoisenvoranger for showing us what is physically possible with these gifted vessels we been given. You’re extraordinary.

@angelenapearlcole for your fairy love, dancing The Beauty Way, gridding the field so generously.

@benji_urbaez for your holy voice singing - it is a medicine to get to create with you my love.

#burningman — ain’t nothing like you. taken in Burning Man Project by @nikki_ortiz

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a month ago

We’re returning to Costa Rica for the third year in a row. We would love for you to join us 🤍

8 days of yoga, meditation, workshops, healthy food, nature, friendship and intentional rest at the dreamy @selvatica_ecoretreat. 🌱

This is an intimate retreat designed to help you reset, recharge and reconnect—with yourself and with nature.

Co-led by me and @francoisenvoranger, we will explore classical yoga, backends, arm balances, inversions and creative movement. All levels and all bodies welcome.

All info in my bio
Spots are limited!

🐣 Early bird discount through Sept 30 with code PURAVIDA

#yogaretreat #costaricayogaretreat #movementretreat #nikkiortiz #françoisevoranger by @nikki_ortiz

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4 months ago

Workshop Drop! Join legendary sound wizard Jason Lindner @flymyspcshp and contortionist yogini queen @nikki_ortiz next week for a fully immersive yogic experience.

Botanical Beverages by the fairy genius Drew Demi behind @sacredsoftware_ . This will be the perfect end to a cute and insane month that July has been.

Enjoy your Sunday evening come-down with us :] Rooftop will be open. Lets all chill tf out.

Space is limited! Reserve your spot now.

Sunday July 26th 6pm - 7:30pm
251 Huron St

Link in bio 🖇 by @nikki_ortiz

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3 months ago

Now|Here is its own universe. We started creating this show during lockdown, using art as a way to process and to connect. It is an on going work in progress, on purpose. We come back to it once a year for a new iteration that reflects where we’re at with the current state of the world. It’s abstract, poetic, profound and also a little silly.

Now|Here is special for all of us in different ways. I started performing hair suspension in this show, so it’s special to me in that way too. It carries my growth and evolution with this practice. 🤍

It’s that time of the year — we’re excited to share the 9th (!!) iteration of this ever evolving work. Please come see it! We’re really happy with this year’s version of it. The cast has more than doubled since the first one, bringing new voices and new perspectives. The spiral keeps spiraling.

May 28 - June 7 @ the Hybrid Lab in Brooklyn
Ticket info in my bio or through @hybridmovementcompany

Some photos by Andrew Foster
of my hair suspension act in this show ✨

#hybridmovementcompany #nowhere #nowheretheshow #nyccircus #hairsuspension by @nikki_ortiz

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5 months ago

A living work,
built in fragments.
Aerial, sound, bodies, poetry, film—
held together for 90 minutes
in a room that breathes with you.

Now|Here unfolds like memory—
vivid, alive, always shifting.
A collage in motion.

Born in isolation.
Still becoming.

Held together by friendship, tension,
and the need to feel something real.

Enter the spiral 🌀

May 28 & 29, June 6 & 7
Hybrid Movement Lab, Brooklyn
🎟️ link in bio

#hybridmovement #hybridmovementcompany #nowheretheshow #nyccircus #brooklyncircus taken in Hybrid Movement Company by @nikki_ortiz

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1

5 months ago