A Year of Gratitude and Healing through dance: Lessons from the Dance Floor

Looking Back with Thankfulness, Moving Forward with Intention

As the calendar turns and a new year begins, I find myself doing what I always do at this time of year, pausing.

Pausing to reflect.

Pausing to breathe.

Pausing to take in the fullness of what this past year has offered me.

Dance has been the backdrop of so much of my life for decades now. It has held me through grief, guided me through healing, and taught me how to stay connected to my body when my mind wanted to disconnect. But this past year felt different.

This was the first year where dance was no longer the only thing that created joy in my life, it was something that added to an already joyful, grounded, connected life.

And that shift feels profound.

As I look back on this year, through competitions, social dances, teaching, travel, community, and quiet moments at home. I am filled with gratitude for the lessons the dance floor continues to offer.

Because dance is never just about dance.

Healing Through Dance: What My Body Has Taught Me Over the Years

For much of my life, dance was a place of regulation.

A place where my nervous system could soften.

A place where I could come back into my body.

A place where movement helped me process what words could not.

Dance was one of my earliest somatic healing tools, long before I had language for trauma, nervous system regulation, or grounding tools.

The dance floor taught me how to:

• listen to sensation,

• respond instead of react,

• and trust my body again.

  
  

This year, I realized something new.

Dance no longer needed to heal me because my life itself had become more regulated, joyful, and connected.

Dance shifted from being medicine to being expression.

And that distinction matters.

Lessons from the Competition Floor: Effort, Ego, and Letting Go

The competition floor has always been a teacher.

It has taught me discipline, resilience, and how to hold pressure. It has also taught me humility, especially when outcomes didn’t go the way I hoped or expected.

This year, I noticed a shift in how I approached competition.

I cared less about proving something and more about how I felt while dancing.

Was I present?

Was I connected?

Was I enjoying the moment?

Somewhere along the way, I realized that no amount of points, placements, or external validation could ever outweigh the feeling of being fully alive in my body.

And even more importantly, I learned that daily connection, with myself and with my family, matters far more than any number attached to my name.

There is nothing wrong with goals.There is nothing wrong with ambition.

But this year taught me that no title is worth disconnection.

Social Dancing: Where Connection Becomes the Point

Social dancing has always been my favorite classroom.

It is where I get to dance with people of all levels, all backgrounds, all stories. It’s where presence matters more than technique, and connection matters more than choreography.

This year, social dancing reminded me of something simple and beautiful:

Dance is a conversation.

A conversation between bodies.

A conversation between nervous systems.

A conversation that transcends language, culture, and geography.

Through West Coast Swing, I’ve had the gift of connecting with beautiful humans all around the world. People I might never have met otherwise, yet instantly felt connected to through movement.

This year, I allowed myself to fully receive that gift.

To enjoy it.

To savor it.

To let joy be enough.

Teaching: What My Students Continue to Teach Me

Teaching has always been one of the greatest honors of my life.

Every class, every private lesson, every shared breakthrough reminds me that teaching is not about transferring information, it’s about holding space for growth.

This year, my students taught me so much.

They reminded me that:

• courage often shows up quietly,

• growth doesn’t always look dramatic,

• and that learning to trust can be one of the bravest things a person does.

  
  

Watching students soften into their movement, find confidence, reconnect with joy, and begin to trust themselves again never gets old.

Teaching continues to refine me, not just as an instructor, but as a human.

Dance as Passion, Not Just Healing

For a long time, dance was the place I went to survive.

This year, dance became the place I went to celebrate.

I learned that it is okay, more than OK, to experience this much joy.

That joy doesn’t need to be earned through struggle.

That pleasure doesn’t require justification.

That passion can simply be lived.

This was the first year where dance didn’t feel like a lifeline but like a playground.

And what a gift that is.

Somatic Wisdom: Living in a Regulated, Joyful Body

One of the biggest lessons this year offered me is that healing doesn’t end; it integrates.

The tools I once used intentionally to regulate my nervous system have now become how I live.

Breath.

Movement.

Presence.

Connection.

They are no longer practices I “do”; they are how I exist.

And from that place, joy flows naturally.

Dance simply amplifies what is already there.

Gratitude for the West Coast Swing Community

West Coast Swing has given me more than I can ever fully articulate.

It has given me:

• community,

• creativity,

• global connection,

• and a place to belong.

  
  

Thank you to the mentors who guided me, challenged me, and believed in me.Thank you to the friends who danced beside me, laughed with me, and supported me.Thank you to the students who trusted me with their growth.

And thank you, West Coast Swing, for continuing to be a space where expression, connection, and joy are always welcome.

Gratitude for Family: What Truly Matters

More than anything this year, I learned this:

Daily joy and family time matter far more than WSDC points.

I am endlessly grateful for my husband and my family. For their patience, encouragement, and unwavering support.

They remind me that the greatest successes are not measured on a dance floor, but in the moments we share around the dinner table, on quiet evenings at home, and in the ways we show up for one another every day.

Dance adds to my life, but it does not replace what matters most.

Carrying Gratitude into the New Year

As this new year begins, I do not feel the need to chase more.

I feel grounded.

I feel connected.

I feel grateful.

Dance will continue to be part of my life, deeply, passionately, joyfully. But it will remain what it is meant to be:

An expression of a life already lived fully, and a sharing of my passion with others.

Here’s to a year of gratitude.

Here’s to choosing joy.

Here’s to connection, on and off the dance floor.

And here’s to remembering, always, what truly matters.