Mifa Ko is a classically trained professional ballerina and Gyrotonic / Gyrokinesis instructor. She has taught aspiring young ballet students for over twenty years, and was a principal dancer with Ballet Florida, Minnesota Dance Theater, and the James Sewell Ballet in Minneapolis, where, in 2006, she was awarded the prestigious McKnight Dancers Fellowship. Before adopting the US as her home, Miss Ko was rigorously trained with the loving encouragement of her family in her native Tokyo, and also at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow, the Boston Ballet School, and the Princess Grace Academy of Classical Dance in Monaco.

She has danced many lead principal roles of classical ballet, such as Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Le Corsaire, August Bournonville’s La Sylphide, and Balanchine’s Bugaku, Raymonda Variations, Serenade and Allegro Brillante.

She was also very coveted as a guest principal ballerina, performing such pivotal roles as Sugar Plum Fairy in Nutcracker in seven different states, as well as gala performance appearances in Bournonville’s La Vivandière and Flower Festival in Genzano.

Mifa has also danced various contemporary and modern pieces by José Limón, Elisa Monte, Alonso King, and Dwight Rhoden. She worked with contemporary choreographers, many of whom created pieces on her, such as Desmond Richardson, Lise Houlton, and Gioconda Barbuto.

Since 2009, Miss Ko has mastered the specialized teaching methods of Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis, blending the insights gained from her many years of professional dance career with her training in these holistic approaches to movement.

Mifa is certified as a PBT trainer, and most recently, she completed Hilary Cartwright’s Yoga Narada in The Hague, Netherlands.

She is multi-lingual, speaking English, Japanese, and Korean with equal fluency, highlighting her unique combination of strength, elegance, discipline, and cosmopolitan intelligence. She likes to spend part of her free time with advanced level knitting.