We are here to serve you, our students of Dance Today. While my video messages and this letter only outlines some of the changes I want to remind myself and all what Dance Today provides for people. A place to feel good, dance and meet awesome new people. A place of POSITIVE CONNECTION. And we will continue to do that, except the only change is that it will be virtually rather than in person. We will continue to provide lessons in salsa, tango and bachata, however we will add more. More opportunities to experience, to learn and to connect.

I know many of you have been asking me for videos for weeks and Coronavirus is forcing our evolution at Dance Today. Maybe you as well are going through some forced evolution of sorts. There’s a possibility that this situation is not just accelerating, but completely birthing new innovations for leaders of organizations, events and communities. Many of these innovations… we may have never even discovered, if it hadn’t been for this pandemic.

We are all going to build a whole new set of superpowers. And these super powers are needed right now. If there are ways you feel we can help each other please reach out. Many of us are creating capabilities and at the end of this will come out knowing more and being able to provide more value.

Things will go back to normal, but the new skills and things we reconnected to that matter most to us will only enhance our future.

One thing that I hope is obvious when you come to our lessons that is part of the mission of Dance today is that: We are here to design fun moments of connection, through dance, games, conversations before, during, and after classes, we aim to deliver a place of learning that develops your happiness, and connection with others ,at the same time as learn a new skill of dance. We do this knowing that dance, that being in community with others and having a positive experience unlocks well-being at many levels. All of this remains true.

What’s changed, is that people are searching for ways to do this while social distancing. How do we create connection, leadership, collaboration, and experiences… from behind screens? This is what we are working on bringing you.

However, we also want you to pause for a second. Consider what we may all be being called to do ...Dance Today feels that there’s a good chance that we are going to serve a mission much much bigger than the one we thought we were here to serve.

There’s something else that’s probably coming… and the world hasn't even started talking about it. The isolation, the seclusion, and the affect all of this has on the economic and psychological well-being of so many people. It’s all leading to a much bigger threat.

A global mental health crisis.

That’s right. Our mission might be so much bigger than what we see on the surface. We are here to help. We will be helping you and people you know… to connect. We will be offering Well-Being workshops and discussions to enable people, families, communities to Connect. To connect to their ability to be resilient. To connect to their inner wisdom. To connect with each other. To connect with ideas for a better future.

Somewhere on the other side of this, maybe we are all part of ushering in a golden era of sorts. It’s funny. The thing that has taken so much blame for causing distraction, disconnection, even isolation - technology… is now the only solution we have, to bring us all together. And it will. History shows that hardship is always the pathway to breakthroughs!

Please remember, it starts with you. Please make sure you are taking care of yourself. Make sure you are connecting with yourself. With your feelings. With others. With nature. And with gratitude for a chance to be alive during this extraordinary time.

We will see you in our virtual playroom.

Be Well, Lot’s of Love,

Nina Perez