Developing Our Practice …17 Years Later…

The development of @themessymovementlab is something I’ve been dreaming about for over a decade. I grew up in dance, training for 8+ hours per week at minimum. I also spent the majority of my life working with my mom in the only Black-owned dancewear store in the city of Chicago, servicing a global community in the ’90s because she was the only retailer selling dancewear up to a 5X for traditional classes and liturgical/praise dance. Dance has been my life.

Hosting classes online did not come easy because it’s a different modality of reaching students when you’re not in person. I struggled to find the right mix of equipment and process until I finally found what worked. I started building these classes from scratch, paying close attention to detail in order to create the best online experience.

What was birthed from that quest was a multimedia class experience that supports both you as the student and me as the teacher in having a phenomenal experience.

I’ve had pushback. People question why we’re not hosting like everyone else in the dance space, but we’ve stood strong in defining what makes a class meaningful in the lab—and also inclusive.

I’m so deeply proud of this work and the way we’ve been able to cultivate this space.

Come join us on the dance floor for an experience like no other!