Interview with Katherine Hartsell: from Boston Ballet to Tune Up certification

From Boston Ballet to Tune Up certification! Your Tune Up Fitness community will continue to amaze you with our passionate movement leaders like this month’s featured instructor, Katherine Hartsell.

Katherine made history as the first Tune Up Fitness® Certified Teacher to earn all three certifications online and pass the online exams associated with each program.

Interview conducted by Meg, Brand Engagement Manager at Tune Up Fitness, with over 25 years of dance experience, having started in Dallas, Texas, and has now traveled the country performing and teaching. After years of repetitive dance movements, Meg’s shoulder, hand and foot pain were relieved using the Roll Model® method. This new knowledge inspired Meg to take more Tune Up Fitness classes; She continued to take the Body By Breath and Yoga Tune Up® teacher certifications to share them with her students and rekindle her love for anatomy.

Katherine Harstell has been teaching in various movement spaces, dance studios, physical therapy clinics and fitness studios since 2006. She began teaching yoga through her studies with Bo Forbes and has diversified her offerings over the years, building on her roots as a professional ballet dancer, offering a wide range of somatic training, lessons learned from her training in psychology and her experience as a physical therapist assistant approved.

Katherine is excited to be a Tune Up Fitness Certified® instructor and enjoys teaching a hybrid of practices from this scanning system, emphasizing conscious conditioning and recovery. She taught classes based on resistance to CONCRETE studios in New England since 2014 and continues to train dancers privately, in groups and online. Katherine also runs Jai Dee Studioa virtual space that provides dancers with resources for embodiment and self-care.

Learn more about Katherine in this month’s Teacher Highlight interview below.

Meg: How many years have you been teaching?

Katherine Hartsell: I have taught in various movement spaces, dance studios, physical therapy clinics and fitness studios for the past 18 years.

Meg: Why did you start teaching?

Katherine Hartsell: I first began teaching yoga to further immerse myself in the practices, spaces, and communities that graciously welcomed me as a student and person. I was still dancing professionally with Boston Ballet when I began teaching, and it was significant that the end of my dancing career was surrounded by the beginning of my teaching career. Becoming a teacher and the support I received in this new role brought much-needed texture to my life, helped me free my voice, and challenged me to embody a broader, healthier sense of self .

Teacher’s tip:

“Be generous with your authenticity and confident with your curiosity. –Katherine Hartsell

Meg: What is your number 1 tip for teachers?

Katherine Hartsell: Be generous with your authenticity and confident with your curiosity

Often, without our awareness or consent, the world demands mastery from us and shapes us to present ourselves only in a filtered, refined, and curated way. Tune Up Fitness gracefully moves away from these cultural models and recognizes that one of the most refreshing and generative things we can practice for ourselves and our students in this method is authenticity.

One way we show our authenticity when we teach is to lead with curiosity. As we interact with ourselves and our students, curiosity broadens and softens our gaze to complement the precision and clarity with which we wish to teach. Curiosity strips us of our masks of performance so that we can skillfully hold space as teachers and playfully inhabit that space as lifelong learners. This spirit of inquiry values ​​process over performance and frees us to be exploratory and collaborative with our students. Choosing curiosity naturally brings out our shared humanity, centers choice in our classrooms, and inspires collective creativity. When we lead with curiosity and learn without hiding, it is contagious in the best possible way for our students, immersing us all in a vibrant state that sparkles with embodied inquiry, discovery, and connection.

Meg: What is your favorite deployment?

Katherine Hartsell: Lateral abdomen massage with core ball: this is my non-negotiable daily deployment. I do this one every morning and am constantly amazed at how profoundly helpful it is for down-regulating my nervous system, releasing tension in my heart, supporting my digestion, and sensing where I am and what I need. I need that day. I love that this series can blend myofascial release, meditation, and breathwork into a state-shifting experience that is gentle and nourishing but also deep and confronting.

Sometimes I spend just two minutes curling around the ball with abdominal chest breaths, and other days I spend a luxurious amount of time on each side, wandering up and down, rocking back and forth back, undulating my spine, incorporating various breathing practices. and finally I work my way towards a soft-bodied French touch. After both sides, with this softer, more fluid center, I like to add a few turns of Diaphragm Vacuum, which proves easier and less restrictive after this preparation for deployment.

Meg: What is your favorite move?

Katherine Hartsell: Sidewinder is one of my favorite movements because it is a fun and original way to restart lateral flexion in a positive and limited way. I love experimenting with different tempos and pairing this after Side Abdomen with the Coregeous Ball for the ultimate deep dive into the side self.

Body surfing is also a favorite because I can playfully strengthen the back of the body with important but often underworked pulling muscles to balance the more common pushing elements in yoga.

Meg: How does the Tune Up Fitness Certified® training impact your teaching?

Katherine Hartsell: Becoming Tune Up Fitness Certified® has helped me build a renovated, strong, durable (and beautifully inspiring!) home for my teaching. Before TUF certification, I had become a bit of a nomad, offering my work in pieces but longing for a container for it all. Thanks to TUF, I now have a well-designed foundation on which to build, organize and integrate. my knowledge and ongoing explorations. Today, I teach students with greater clarity, insight, and increased confidence. All three programs have also renewed my deep love for teaching, and I will be forever grateful that these rigorous, comprehensive, and supportive training sessions are offered online.

Tune Up Fitness certification has also led to many new teaching neighbors and learning opportunities – the value of which cannot be overstated. I feel supported, connected, and invested in this beautiful community of diverse members who all bring something unique and yet share a shared respect and interest in embodiment. In my teaching today, I feel more firmly grounded in my sense of purpose while also being part of this larger collective movement.

Meg: How to find yourself online?

Katherine Hartsell: Jaideestudio.com is my current heart project. It is a slowly evolving virtual space with resources to support the embodiment and self-care of dancers and dance lovers. I’m beyond excited to roll out Tune Up Fitness Certified® classes here this fall, and I’d also love to feature other teachers in the TUF family.