Teaching
the HOW TO of
Ballroom Dancing
Dancesport Academy Tucson
use
the Body School System™ of Ballroom Dancing
The HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing and the Body School™
Who created the HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing and Body School System™?
The Body School System™, which is the HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing, was created by Maja Servé from the principle that she learned from Benny Tolmeyer (her Dance Father) and Janet Gleave (her Dance Mother). Maja created the entity Dancesport Academy” (now “Dancesport Academy Tucson”) as a home for the Body School System™. Most importantly, the uniqueness of the system is not only that it teaches the HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing but in addition can be used in all styles of partnership dancing and with all ages.”
The essence of this HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing called the Body School System™...
The Body School System™ is built on principles taken from the scientific disciplines of science, anatomy, kinesiology, physiology (including walking and healthy movements), and social psychology, as well as philosophy and energy work. Pulling in all these sciences under one system lead to the perfect HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing. The uniqueness of this System is that it teaches the HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing AND can be used in all styles of partnership dancing. The Body School System™ is always taught in an informative, lighthearted, fun and playful manner – in other words a system for all ages. The System is built around Benny’s philosophy that DANCE IS LIFE AND LIFE IS A DANCE and most importantly it should be harmonious, easy, and fun, both to live life, and to learn dancing.
About Maja Servé
Owner of Dancesport Academy Tucson
Creator of the Body School System™ the How To of Ballroom Dancing
Early years...
Maja was born and raised in Denmark. She started social ballroom dancing at age 13. Due to a knee injury that was serious enough to keep her from running, dancing was recommended as a good option to stay active. In the beginning, she was taught by a family friend René Fristed. After two years, he moved to England to further his dance career.
Her amateur career...
Maja’s amateur career began soon after Fristed’s departure to England. She and Lars Jørgensen, her first amateur partner, were 30th out of 32 couples in the Danish ranking competitions. They moved up the ranks and within a couple of years they were in the top 12 in Denmark. Lars wanted to move to England to improve his dancing; since Maja thought living abroad would help her further education, she agreed to move with him. Within 2 years of living in London, they made the top 6 in the Danish Championship and the top 48 in The British Open (aka Blackpool), The International Championship and United Kingdom Championship.
Her life took a big change...
After two years, Maja felt it was time to move back to Denmark to start her university education in architecture. However, fate had a different idea. Her professional teacher Glenn Weiss, asked her to dance with him. She agreed and they started dancing together in February of 1988.
Now having a "Dance Family" ...
When Maja started ballroom dancing, she dreamt of one day taking lessons from the top teachers/coaches of the day. Her newfound “Dance Family” consisted of many world-famous teachers/coaches. These teachers/coaches included Benny Tolmeyer, Janet Gleave, Michael and Vicky Barr, Bill and Bobbie Irvine, Richard Gleave, Anthony Hurley, Sonny Binnick, Robin Short and Peter Eggleton. Maja felt blessed that soon after starting to partner with Glenn, Benny Tolmeyer agreed to be her “Dance Father”, Janet Gleave agreed to be her “Dance Mother” and Michael and Vicky Barr agreed to be her “Dance Uncle and Dance Aunt”. These amazing teachers/coaches poured into Maja, sharing their wisdom, and ensuring that she was able to dance at a level beyond what she had previously dreamed possible.
Her professional career...
The first competition Maja and Glenn danced was the World Championship. As a result of their hard work, they placed 8th after only 3 months of dancing together under the tutelage of their Dance Family, and their dancing continued to improve at an amazing rate. They made the Top 6 in October of that year at The International Championship in London, and from then on, they made the Final in all major championships. Sadly, after dancing together for just 3 years, Maja’s foot was injured in an accident during a teaching trip that required two operations and six months of rest and therapy to correct. Their journey back to competing was difficult and, more importantly, Maja and Glenn had lost their momentum, so after a few months they decided to hang up their competitive shoes and retire. they had lost their momentum.
Retirement and moving to the United Stated...
After the sad turn of event that ended in early retirement, Benny encouraged Maja with the wise words, that the teaching/coaching career would be much longer than the competing career. In short, it was time to move on and put on their teaching shoes. After that they felt there was no reason to stay in England, and they decided to seek out new stomping grounds.
They had traveled the world and experienced many countries and cultures. They had both fallen in love with the United States and as a result of that they decided to make the US their new home. Maja moved to Los Angeles in November of 1993 and started her new life teaching and coaching US amateur and professional dancers.
Life in the US...
Maja feels very blessed to have taught many couples – from beginner to world class. The ages of her student range from 4 years old to 94 years young. Using the Body School System™, she has helped couples reach national titles, world titles and everything in between. Couples have trusted Maja to help them succeed in every style, including International Standard, International Latin, American Rhythm, American Smooth, Country Western, and even Ice Dancing.
In 2008, Maja left Los Angeles, her first homebase in the US, for a suburb outside of Tucson, Arizona. Here she has had a change to make online dance programs, teaching The HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing using the Body School System™, while also furthering her other passions. In conclusion, Maja now lives a balanced life as a dance coach, a life coach, an entrepreneur and a licensed contractor promoting a healthy lifestyle in all aspects of life.
Services
On-line Programs
The Body School System™ is a system created by Maja Servé. She developed the system on the principles taught to her by her “Dance Father” Benny Tolmeyer and her “Dance Mother” Janet Gleave. Most importantly, the principles are based on the scientific disciplines of science, anatomy, kinesiology, psychology (including walking and healthy movement), and social psychology, as well as philosophy and energy work. Not only is it a proven system, but it works with all levels and all ages. It has also been used in all styles of partnership dancing, including Internation Standard, International Latin, American Rhythm, American Smooth, Country Western and Ice Dancing. Maja has developed both Free and Paid programs.
Click below to see all the available programs
Wedding Programs
The Wedding dance program “Your First Dance, Your Way™” was created by Chad Lakridis and Brisa Manis. They based the program on the Body School System™ as taught to them by Maja Servé. It will help you avoid the dreaded “awkward swaying”, or otherwise feeling inadequate and uncomfortable on your special night. The videos in this program provide simple, easy, step by step instruction to make your first dance/wedding dance special and beautiful. The principles you will learn can use the rest of your lives and will make dancing at date night special too. Best of all, you can learn on your own time and at your own pace. Chad and Brisa have created programs to fit every budget and every level of commitment.
Click below to see all the available programs
In-Person Lessons
Maja Servé is a Teacher, Coach, Adjudicator, Author and LifeCoach. She has been teaching/coaching since 1988. Maja, with her partner Glenn Weiss, was 5 times Danish Champion and finalist in all major competitions of her professional career. She is certified to the level of Fellowship in all styles of Ballroom dancing. In her many years of teaching, she has taught couples from beginner to world class levels, and in all the ballroom styles including International Standard, International Latin, American Rhythm, American Smooth and Country Western. All In-Person lessons must be booked with the host when Maja is traveling outside of Tucson, Arizona.
Click below to book In-Person Lesson
Pictures & Videos
Testimonials
“Maja Servé is a world class dancer, choreographer, adjudicator, teacher and coach with whom we have had the privilege to train with. We can only say positive strong things about her and her ideas of teaching methods. Her teaching concept aim for simplicity and understanding, with this in mind we have been able to retain our World Professional Titles for a number of consecutive years. It is a pleasure to work with her whenever we get the opportunity”
Riccardo Cocchi &
Yulia Zagoruychenko
International Latin Dancers/Coaches
“I have known Maja for over 20 years, since she became my sole ballroom dance teacher and coach, when I was 12 years old. Maja has physically and mentally trained me throughout my dance career so that I was able to achieve the following accolades: United States Amateur Standard Champion, World Amateur Standard Semi-finalist, Blackpool Youth Standard Finalist, and United States Professional Rising Star Vice-Champion.
During the course of my career, I have been fortunate to receive Maja’s knowledge and expertise about the phycology of the mind and technique of body motion. I have found that Maja’s greatest strength is her ability to simplify a complicated subject into an action that any person can accomplish. Maja has a strong passion and dedication to helping anyone become the best version of himself or herself. She guides a person’s mind step-by-step to achieve any goal, starting first with a change in a simple thought.
In addition to Maja’s ability to coach the mind, Maja has a clear and organized methodology for teaching dancing. Maja has taken a complex set of steps and body actions and simplified the process into easy everyday actions. I have found the logic and clarity which Maja presents a body action to be the most effective in achieving the correct form of dancing. While most teachers describe how they feel while dancing, these feeling are not concrete to the average person. Maja succinctly describes the exact action to perform, therefore the student knows mechanically how to execute the step.
I believe Maja is one of the most genuine and compassionate coaches that I have met. She has an innate ability to relate to her students and use real life examples to describe ideas and/or actions. I have been fortunate to receive Maja’s knowledge and expertise about dancing and body action.”
Tiffany Fung
International Standard Dancer/Coach
“As we all know timing and with a bit of luck is something that we all need or can benefit from every now and then.
Many years ago, during my competitive career found myself looking for a new dance partner. Luckily for me I knew of a young lady from Denmark that I had had the good fortune to help with her amateur career during our time in London. I thought she was very talented, and I asked her to become my dance partner. Surprisingly she agreed, and that was one of my lucky breaks.
During 3 short years we managed to make the finals of every professional competition in the world, including the Worlds, European and Blackpool Championship.
Maja always had a great enthusiasm and passion for ballroom dancing. She received training from all the best and most knowledgeable minds in the dance world. As you know there are a lot of opinions and information out there for you to choose from. Some of it more interesting than useful.
Through this maze of knowledge and information Maja has managed to find her own way of presenting this information in a simple and understandable way. At first sight some of this information seems complicated, but if you have the same passion and love for ballroom dancing as Maja does and have the patience to study it, you will come to realize that this is all based on very sound and trusted information, conveyed to us from some of the very best and most knowledgeable teachers in the world, but with Maja’s own little twist on it, and this is the way we move the dance world forward.
I wish Maja all the best in her new venture, and I will do everything that I am asked to do to help it progress.
I recommend to you that you take this opportunity to study with one of the most progressive minds in the dance world today.
Maja, I wish you the best of luck. I have no doubt that many dancers will benefit greatly from your teachings.”
Glenn G Weiss
International Standard Dancer/Coach/Adjudicator
“Nicole and I had the pleasure of working with Maja on quite a regular basis. On the first lesson with Maja, I thought she was speaking alien in her gypsy way. As we continued (WOW) we found her approach to be profoundly freeing. This really got us in touch with internal (from the Inside-Out) dancing. She has a great way of explaining and demonstrating concepts that makes it easy to grasp. We firmly believe that Maja’s approach builds champions.”
Dan Rutherford & Nicole Carroll Rutherford
American Rhythm
Dancer/Coaches/Adjudicators
“Maja Servé was an important coach for me in my competitive career, both for American Smooth and International Ballroom/Standard. She taught sound principles of dance that I was able to apply both in and out of closed hold. Her creative open mind allowed techniques to evolve and stay fresh in their approach. I’m also thankful that her approach has enabled me to pass on time tested principles to dancers of today.”
Edward Simon
American Smooth Dancer/Coach/Adjudicator
Thank you and gratitude to the following: Lynn Rutman, Chad Lakridis, Glenn Weiss, Riccardo & Yulia, Tiffany Fung, Dan Rutherford, Nicole Carroll Ruhterford, Edward Simon, Dale McManus, Levi Hagen and Logomakr.com
Custom Website by Maja Serve