Genetically and experientially, Jinza Thayer is a hybrid of both Japanese and American cultures, which might explain her curiosities of worlds (both internal and external). After spending her first six years in Japan, Jinza grew up in Brooklyn, New York. 

She graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received an MFA in Dance at George Mason University. Now based in Mni Sota Makoce, land of the Dakotas, where the Waters Reflect the Clouds, she presents her work as Movement Architecture (MA). 

As a somatic movement therapist and educator, she works with deep internal somatic processes to source the body's wisdom and instigate movement. Jinza is a registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Movement Educator (ISMETA), healing bodies and improving pain and freedom of movement. She is certified in GYROTONIC® Expansion System, Global Somatics™, and Level 2 of the Franklin Method.

Jinza has taught generations of emerging choreographers and dancers during twenty years at Zenon Dance Company and School in Minneapolis. In addition, she has been a guest lecturer for the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), ISMETA, and California Dance Education Association (CDEO); as well as guest instructor at Carleton College, St. Cloud University, George Mason University, University of Minnesota, Gustavus Adolphus College, among others.

Continuing her commitment to education, since the onset of the pandemic she has been offering subsidized somatic training online.

Click here to learn about Movement Architecture.

Click here to learn about Jinza’s Educational History.