Week 6 is in the books! It seemed to be a tough one for people, judging by the protests in different areas of the country and a few states deciding to allow businesses to reopen, despite warnings that it’s too soon to be relaxing our guard.

As for me, I’m proud to say I was more on point with my fitness intentions this week! I worked out three days, including a Zumba class. I also got two grocery deliveries and jumped on the quarantine baking bandwagon with homemade apple crisp. I had actual work to do for the day job, so overall it was a pretty productive week.

Yesterday was the live premier of the Giving Your Best Performance online workshop, taught by Caitlin Camarda. I was really looking forward to this workshop because I knew I needed more support in staying connected to my inner dancer who found joy in performing. I felt good about the workouts, but I was still feeling less than motivated to work on my ballroom.

The workshop was awesome! Caitlin went through the best timeline to use when preparing for a performance, tips and tricks for getting out of your head and into your body, and specific techniques you can use for enhancing your emotional expression. This was one of my favorite quotes from her lecture:

In the current reality of social distancing, focusing on connecting with our own bodies fits right in! If you’re struggling to feel motivated to keep dancing on your own in your living room, I highly recommend you check out the replay of the workshop, available here.

As I start another week at home, I’ll continue to explore different ways of connecting with my passion for dance. It might be fun to try the four facial expressions Caitlin taught us in the workshop with different dances! I intend to continue doing a few workouts a week too, so feel free to hold me accountable with comments.

This is the part of the “adventure” when the novelty of it starts to wear off. We knew it would be tough (more for some than others), but necessary. We believed we could handle it. Just stay home for a few weeks. We can have food delivered and hang out with our friends on Zoom. We’ll make funny memes and parody videos to pass the time.

It’s not so funny anymore. We’re tired of playing Pandemic and more than ready to get back to “normal.” The problem is what was normal doesn’t exist anymore, and we don’t know how long we’re stuck in the current reality before a new normal emerges.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride. Even in a productive week like this past one, I swing back and forth between feeling like I’ve figured out how to thrive in this reality and feeling completely unmotivated to do anything but sit on the couch and wait for the “stay at home” orders to be lifted. Through it all, I keep up my efforts to stay connected to dance, even if it’s just turning off the TV and listening to music for awhile.

I know it sucks right now, but I encourage you to keep connected to your dance! Whether it’s working on your performance with Caitlin’s workshop, taking virtual lessons with your teacher, or just listening to music that makes you move, don’t give up. We lost the way we’re used to dancing, but that doesn’t mean we’ve lost dance.