Mia Donna has a deep love and lifelong commitment to studying movement! It all started at a very young age, when she entered studies as a dancer and equestrian. Growing up in these modalities set her mind to understanding the physicality behind human and equine bodies. Mia Donna graduated in 2005, with a Degree in Exercise Science and double minors in Dance and Psychology from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. While in college, she began mentoring under and performing alongside Carrie Konyha. Carrie was a well-established dancer and managed Mia in the world of professional Belly Dance. Mia completed her dance certification in 2002 while teaching Middle Eastern Dance, Dance Fitness and Interval Training. Upon graduation, Mia traveled the country, teaching and performing.
While teaching at a resort in Sedona, Arizona 2007, Mia met fitness icon, Christi Taylor. They became fast friends and seamlessly flowed into a mentorship. Mia Donna completed "Rock Star Teacher Academy", elevating her teaching style. Shortly after, Christi offered Mia a job as her right-hand assistant, running group fitness for 11 clubs throughout the Phoenix valley. This magical experience provided the opportunity to hire, teach and train certified fitness instructors and level up their instruction to teach at the club level of "excellence". When the club sold, Mia's focus went back into dance studios and expanding knowledge to therapeutic movement modalities. At this time, she opened her own dance studio and returned to training horses and teaching riding lessons, putting her focus on the biomechanical function of horse and rider.
In 2016, a horse Mia was training, flipped over on her, leaving her with a broken back. This was a critical time as all doctors were pushing for a quick surgery that would guarantee the wearing down of function and mobility, more surgeries to come, and giving up her passions of fitness, horses, and dance. After a lot of research and a few great notes of wisdom, Mia made the choice to heal herself. She dove into the world of physical misalignment, nerve function, fascia, restorative practices, somatics, chiropractic, and body care of all kinds. In this time, she took full coursework on fascia and did an internship with her Chiropractor to gain deeper knowledge on system connection and became certified in Movement and Dance Therapeutics. Through this, Mia was able to come back to fully functioning and better than before! Six months post-accident, Mia was slowly beginning to try physical modalities again—crying through yoga and feeling such weakness in weight training. At this time, a friend invited her to try a Lagree class. This class was a pivotal moment.
After the whirlwind of a first-time class, Mia felt her body engage, stabilize and isolate in ways she had not been able to attain since her accident. The Megaformer gave her the ability to exercise without compression in the spine or any other joints. Mia made a promise to herself, "I'm going to do this for a year and if I'm still in love with it, this is the direction I will take in fitness." Mia also created PPSST: Postural Programming and Structural Strength Training. This modality is a fascia-based, biomechanical marriage of posture training and fascia massage therapy. Helping individuals pre- or post-surgery, injuries, scoliosis, EDH, athletes, dancers, equestrians, and every body in between and beyond. She also provides PPSST for Equines. Mia Donna became an Official Lagree Fitness Master Trainer in the fall of 2021.