“Life is too short not to live it authentically”

Tomia Mayfield-MacQueen
Founder of The Dance For Life School
inspiredanceforlife@gmail.com
+1(313) 725-1271
Tomia Mayfield–MacQueen has been a dancer for 23 years and a performing choreographer for 16 years. Though her formal training began in her hometown of Detroit, MI, Tomia spent nearly a decade studying, performing, and teaching in New York where she received her BA in Dance and Education from Hunter College of the City University of New York in 2004 (She also holds an AS in the Fine and Performing Arts from Queensborough Community College). In addition to dancing as a principle in the Art of Motion Dance Company in New York City, Tomia received her teacher certification in 2004 from New York State. She has taught in New York City and Long Island schools and continues to perform and teach in the Detroit area. Always looking toward growth as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher, she has also taken post-baccalaureate studies at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. Her 23 years of studies and performing styles include Ballet in the Cecchetti Method, West African Dance, Contemporary and Modern Techniques, Liturgical Dance, Musical Theater, Improvisation, Jazz, Afro-Caribbean, Hip-Hop, Choreography, Folk Forms, and Repertory works.
Tomia also spends a great deal of her time studying and doing research at home in the US as well as abroad, in places such as the UK, Spain, Japan, the Caribbean and Italy. These studies laid the foundation for the DAWB (Dance Around the World and Back) program which she founded in 2003 while still at Hunter College. She continues to incorporate world styles into her choreography and teaching. Tomia is a also a member of the National Dance Education Organization, the National Liturgical Dance Network, and the Michigan Dance Council.

With her passion for dance and her calling to teach, Tomia is the founding director of the Dance For Life School in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, where she lives with her family. She is also the Artistic Director of the Whole Truth Liturgical Dance Ministry in Detroit where she has been a performing member since 2008. She continues to encourage the very young and old alike to find strength in LIFE (Love, Inspiration, Faith, and Empowerment) through the art of motion and the ability to affect the world by first affecting themselves.

Having been severely bullied in school from the 3rd grade through 12th, Tomia credits her exposure to dance with saving her life as a bullied teen. Check out our Founders Note to hear more of her incredible story and why she is so passionate about dance, faith and family,..

Dance For Life –
“Because Life’s too short not to live it full out.” TR MacQueen