December

Massage on MTV

An episode of the MTV program MADE that began running in November featured the Minneapolis School of Massage.

Each episode of MADE features one young (15-21 years old) person who wants to become something—class president, the member of a sports team, a professional performer, for example—and provides him or her with a coach and the opportunity to fulfill that dream.

In one episode, in addition to her stint at the massage school, Alyssa Williams also tried running a coffee shop, landscaping and improv.

Joan Crawford-Dietsch, the Minneapolis school's director of education and Williams' massage coach told MASSAGE Magazine that Williams has innate talent for hands-on therapy.

According to Crawford-Dietsch, both students and teachers enjoyed having MTV's camera crews with them in the classroom. One teacher told Crawford-Dietsch that it made her feel proud and honored for the school to receive national exposure on the TV program.

In the end, though, Williams doesn’t think she'll become a massage therapist; her exposure to improv made the greatest impression on her. "I want to be an art teacher or a kindergarten teacher," she told the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper. "The reason I like improv isn't the attention or anything, it's how I made someone laugh. Laughter is so important."

The episode was scheduled to air 14 times between November and January

—Karen Menehan