Helen Terry and Kristie Bryant recently purchased the 3,000-square-foot building and adjacent house, and after extensive renovations, opened Studio NiaMoves this month.

This is the second Woodland Heights fitness facility for the business partners. Since 2004, they have offered a variety of classes at NiaMoves, 3221 Houston Ave., which they also will continue to operate.

Before doubling the class schedule this January, NiaMoves had a class attendance of 1,000 per month.

Combining dance, yoga and martial arts, Nia is a body-mind-spirit fitness and lifestyle practice that offers a number of advantages over other forms of exercise. "Besides finding that it's gentle on the joints, people who practice Nia find that it also improves mental, emotional and spiritual health," Terry said.

"We are passionate about Nia and about making a difference in people's lives," she said. "It's been a dream of ours to own our own facility, one where participants show up because they love their class experience rather than coming because they have to exercise."

With the two studios, the pair now offers 70 classes per week, with 35 of those being Nia. Other offerings include yoga, pilates, belly dance, Feldenkrais, hoop dance, Rosen movement, aikido, tai chi, qi gong, the Art of Exotic Dance for Everyday Women, Ecstatic Dance, TranceDance, T-Tapp, Continuum Movement and Zumba, Latin dance fitness.

Nia training consists of four levels: white, blue, brown and black. Terry, already certified to offer the white-belt training, recently became one of only four international blue belt trainers and the only one in the United States and Canada outside of Nia founders Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas of Portland, Ore. This month, Terry offered her first blue-belt training at the Pecore location with 11 participants from three countries. Terry has been teaching Nia for 15 years and is in demand internationally for teacher training and special events.

To mark the opening of the second location, Terry and Bryant have scheduled a weekend of activities Feb. 2-3. The public is invited to a grand opening party at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, and an open house and class sampler beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 3.

For more information about Nia and a schedule of classes and upcoming activities, go to www.niamoves.com, or call 713-864-4260.