Fitness Teaching Mission

fitness teaching mission

One evening Johari Mayfield played Jenga with a lively bunch of architects at a party and failed miserably.  The game’s instructions were simple enough-- a balancing act with an unquestionable end point of “success” or “failure.” This pedestrian event inspired a rethinking about dance, fitness, and the act of teaching. When do we take a risk? How much do we risk? When do we need to establish stability in order to invite mobility? How do we transcend the binary of success and failure?

As a dance instructor and lifelong child at play, Johari reminds her students that we are all movers.  Every person has their own physical and emotional architecture, and the act of learning about personal balance, risk, sensitivity, adaptation, surrender, and control are paramount to the act of knowing one’s self.

She creates a safe and inclusive environment where all movers can be in the immediate moment of not knowing, learning from themselves, and risking failure.  She believes in everyone having a working knowledge of anatomy, a diverse movement vocabulary, an appreciation of gravity as both resource and teacher, and a sense of humor.

Johari encourages students to leave behind the win-lose, success-failure outlook and embrace a view of dance where foibles and missteps are the building blocks of discovery.  Each student works to combat inner critics with joy, simplicity, and wisdom, and to play, laugh, and grow.