What a year this has been! In February 2020, I was teaching BeSoul classes at On Your Toes & Dragonfly Wellness and getting ready for Ageless Grace Trainings in various locations. Then mid-March, I found myself in my home studio on a fast learning curve on how to use Zoom. I went from driving out to teach classes to turning on my computer and offering dance classes 6 days a week and Ageless Grace events regularly. What I thought it would be a month, maybe two, before going back to the studio, has turned into a year with no clear sense of when live classes will restart. Life had other plans as it often does. Just 3 months earlier, on October 31st, 2019, I had closed Starfish Dance & Yoga Studio in Concord, MA proving that things really are working out for me, even when I do not see the how. The seamlessness of going from studio classes to online classes was sweet. This past year has been all about mastering the ability to adapt multidimensionally.
There are things I have come to love about teaching on-line. First of all is the connection to the group of amazing women who continue to show up. Second is that dancing on-line has invited me to connect to my body and to the other dancers in a new way. I am more in my body than ever, I have been filling my home with my dance and this feels wonderful. I feel the connection between me and those who come to dance as if they were in the room with me. We talk before and after class and somehow still feel that sweet energy of community. There are many things I miss about dancing in person, however, being one who makes the best of whatever I got, I admit, I am loving this time too.
Maria Laura Skinner 