A former professional dancer with a resumé including performing with Beyoncé, on international tour, and for The Billboard Music Awards, The Grammys, and The Oprah Show, Marja Lankinen is a yoga therapist who teaches wellness practices around the world.

Credentialed in yoga therapy from Loyola Marymount University, Marja teaches from the lineage of Krishnamacharya and through the teaching of her teachers Dr. Larry Payne, Dr. Eden Goldman, Dr. Rick Morris, Dr. Lori Rubenstein Fazzio, and Felicia Tomasko. Additionally, Marja holds a 500-hour yoga certification from Annie Carpenter’s SmartFlow Yoga. She also has trained in trauma-informed yoga with Hala Khouri and Kyra Haglund at YogaWorks Santa Monica.

As the founder of Yoga for Dancers, a company focused on supporting dancer longevity and holistic wellness, Marja has guest taught for Harvard Dance Center, University of Southern California Kaufman School of Dance, Chapman University Dance Department, UCLA, ESPN, Coachella, Sweden’s Gothenburg Opera Dance Company, Shala Helsinki, LAX Paris, and lululemon Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam, Cannes, London, New York, Atlanta, and Chicago. From 2016 to 2018, Marja taught for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s summer intensives in Los Angeles, California. In 2018, she joined the Complexions Contemporary Ballet’s summer intensive faculty.

In addition to yoga instruction, Marja is a poet and aspiring scholar of post-1945 American literature and Black Studies. An alumna of Harvard University, Marja completed her graduate studies in English in 2023. She also holds Associate Degrees in Natural Science and French from Los Angeles Valley College and a BA in English and Creative Writing, with a minor in Spanish, from the University of Michigan. Currently, she is concurrently studying at Harvard University and working on a certificate in African American Studies at Los Angeles Valley College.

As an aspiring scholar, community member, and movement teacher, Marja takes as an imperative what Robin D.G. Kelley reminds us all to do; that is, “Find better ways of being together without hierarchy or exclusion, violence, or domination but with love, compassion, care, and friendship.” Additionally, Marja teaches yoga classes at Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School, and she serves as a rehabilitation aide at Bay State Physical Therapy.

For more information on Marja Lankinen, please visit www.yogafordancers.com.