BODY SCHOOL™
“Walking is simplified dancing”
The "HOW TO" of Ballroom Dancing
Benny Tolmeyer
Who Created the Body School
The Body School™, which is a “HOW TO” system 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). It is a unique system that not only teaches the HOW TO of Ballroom Dancing but in addition can be used in all styles of partnership dancing and with all ages. Because of the versatility of the system, the Body School has become a popular system with many dancers from world-class dancers to beginners.
The essence of the "HOW TO" of Ballroom Dance
“I am grateful Maja has been able to put the principles and ideas that I teach into an organized system. This system helps the improvement of dance for all ages and all levels”.
Benny Tolmeyer
The Body School Creators
The Dance "Father" and Dance "Mother" of
the Body School
Benny Tolmeyer
Benny was one of the best teachers in the world. He had a unique and enate way of teaching. One of the most important things of his teachings was to keep it simple and logical. Many couples experienced the many sayings he used to promote the simplicity of learning.
Benny taught most of the leading couples from the early 1960s until he left this world. Among them were Bill and Bobbie Irvine, Peter Eggleton/Brenda Winslade, and most of the top 12 couples of the 1990s including Glenn G Weiss and Maja Servé.
Janet Gleave
Janet Gleave is one of the best teachers in the world. She uses logic and simplicity to teach her students the basic principles of ballroom dancing. Because she took lessons with many leading teachers during her competitive career, she can understand and clarify the confusion that can occur when taking lessons from many different styles of dancers.
Janet has taught most of the top couples in the world since the 1980s including Glenn G Weiss and Maja Servé.
“You learn by using simplicity and then evolve to complexity. When you know the complexity, you understand the simplicity.”
Benny Tolmeyer
What Dancers have to say about the Body School
Walking
Walking is a big part of learning to dance using the Body School. Benny talked about walking in just about every lesson he taught. The solution he used most often was to tell students to walk.
Benny would say over and over again “Just Walk, Just Walk.”
There is a story experienced by Maja, that is often shared in the Body School, showing the importance of walking.
The walking story
Maja was teaching a couple from Taiwan when they would come to visit England. He would take lessons by himself while the wife would sit on a chair, by the door, watching the lesson. Benny saw this happening almost daily for weeks.
One day he walked up to the Lady and asked he why she was not having lessons. She said, “Oh, I can’t dance”. She spoke the words that Benny disliked with a passion. He asked her “Can you walk? and she answered, “Yes, I can walk.” He put out his hand and invited her up to dance. She accepted his invitation and got up from the chair.
As Benny led her to the other side of the floor close to the stage, he noticed that she was limping. Unbeknown to Benny she had polio as a kid and one leg was shorter than the other. When they got to the stage, Benny took dance hold with her, and they danced the Tango all the way back to where she had been sitting.
Everybody, that was in the studio that day, stood in awe and looked at what was happening. Benny had touched everybody and not an eye was dry. When they got back to the seat Benny gently sat her down and said “See, you can dance.” He smiled at her and said, “If you can walk you can dance!” From that day forward, the couple set aside time in each lesson, to dance a little Tango.
“Great dancing should feel like a walk in the park. If it is harder than that, you are working too hard.”
Benny Tolmeyer
"The Walks"
It was very clear to Maja that walking was important to Benny and that he would want that to be a big part of the system. The importance of walking is reflected in the Body School in the form of a drill named “The Walks”. There are 15 “Basic Walks” with a total of 33 variations to the “Basic Walks”. There are also 8 “Change Position Walks”. This makes “the Walks” drill have 54 different walks.
The understanding and excursion of this drill is important as it covers all dance steps ever done or possible in Ballroom Dancing.