About
About the "Father" of the Body School
The Body School is built on the principles, thoughts, ideas and teaching methods developed, created and put into ballroom dancing by Benny Tolmeyer.
Benny Tolmeyer was a brilliant teacher/coach. He was a master and had an innate ability to make the most complex of information simple and easy to understand. In addition, he would make it fun and harmonious with self and partner. Due to this ability, he was revered by many and often talked about as being the best teacher/coach in the world. Lessons were always taught with fun, laughter, jokes, and stories.
The Body School philosophy and purpose
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, philosophy, energy work and Benny’s Teaching method. Pulling in all these sciences and way of teaching under one system led to the perfect HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing. The Body School™ is a system that 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.
Introduction to Benny and the principles
Maja was as first introduced to Benny Tolmeyer when she started dancing with Glenn G Weiss. Benny soon after took Maja under his wing and taught her how to think, be, dance, teach, and adjudicate. It was clear to Maja that there was some kind of a system to what and how he was teaching. When Maja asked for him to teach her his system he laughed and told her there was no system, just a series of principles.
The creation of the Body School
Maja spent the next decade organizing the principles that she learned from Benny Tolmeyer (her Dance Father) and Janet Gleave (her Dance Mother). She showed Benny how she had organized the notes into 4 categories. In the system, she had named 3 of the four categories into the Traditional School of Thought, the Round School of Thought, and the Square School of Thought. She wanted Benny to be part of the naming the organization of his information. Benny was impressed with how the system was presented. Together they decided to call the system the BODY SCHOOL OF THOUGHT or the short version of the name the BODY SCHOOL.
About your Instructor Maja Servé
Maja's 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 then started dancing with Lars Jørgensen, her first amateur partner. When they first started, they 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 as an architect, 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 Professional Career
In 1988 she started dancing with Glenn G Weiss. 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.
When Maja started dancing with Glenn, she soon gathered a 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, their wisdom, and ensuring that she was able to dance at a level beyond what she had previously dreamed possible.
Career stopped abruptly, now what?
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. A few months later they decided to hang up their competitive shoes and retire. After retiring Maja decided to stay one year in England to learn all she could about teaching, and the system Benny was sharing with her.
Change of scenery and next level for the Body School
After that one year she moved to the United States. She continued developing the Body School™ while training many couples to the ranks of world class using the Body School system. In 2020, she made an online series on the Body School system. Then in 2022 she started working on an online dance course. Maja was asked for many years to write books on the Body School system and in 2023 she published 6 books on the system. The online course was launched in July 2024.
