Dear Friends,
Wear RED or New LOVE Shirts Thursday!
This Thursday, February 13th, we will be celebrating a 75 minute Galentine's and Happy Birthday Stop Drop and Dance class for Eliza Desch at 9:30am @UUMarin (240 Channing Way in San Rafael)! Please wear RED workout clothing or our new LOVE shirt!
There will be NO CLASSES from this Saturday, February 15th until next Saturday, February 22nd for winter break!
All previously-live classes are recorded and available on-demand so that even when classes are canceled, you can keep working out! Members have unlimited access and non-members can purchase on-demand classes a-la-carte.
Sign up to join us in-person or on Zoom here
Don't Have a LOVE Shirt Yet?
We have a few more women's racerback tanks and youth T-shirts leftover from last week's Dance-A-Thon, currently available in most sizes. Order one today and choose "Local Pick Up" to save on shipping costs!
Come to one of our classes this week to get your shirt for the perfect Valentine's Day outfit!
Order your new LOVE shirt here
Happy Birthday Debby Strenkofsky!
Last Tuesday, we celebrated an early birthday class for Debby Strenkofsky before her 7 week long road trip adventure! Since we just had finished the Dance-A-Thon two days before, she had a specific format request: 45 minutes of Stop Drop and Dance followed by 30 minutes of floor stretches!
Debby also chose the theme of wearing favorite sports team shirts or jerseys! The most special part was dancing with her husband Tony and son Brandon for the second year in a row, and daughter Ashley for the first time!
Safe travels to Debby, whom we will miss for the next 7 weeks!
Watch a recap video of Debby's birthday here
Honoring Black History Month
Since February is Black History Month, we dedicated a few of our classes last week to recognizing Black music artists!
On Wednesday, Lisa Butcher made an awesome Strength class playlist to motivate us to lift weights, and on Thursday, we danced to a Stop Drop and Dance playlist made up of our favorite songs!
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality...
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
The Dance-A-Thon Recap
It has been a week since our 4th Stop Drop and Dance-A-Thon at the San Rafael Community Center! Thank you to the 100+ dancers who came to celebrate music, health and community!
A special thank you goes out to our set-up crew of volunteers who came over 2 hours early to help prepare for our major event: Andrea Spencer, Barb Untermann, Brian Su, Dave Chiang, Eliza Desch, Erin Meyers, Karen Shen, Lisa Butcher, Marianne Jacobson, Sandy Aley, Shel Saxon, plus my parents, husband, and daughters! The tasks included everything from folding shirts, stuffing goody bags, making a balloon arch, setting up lighting, prepping drinks in coolers with ice, checking people in when they arrived, and selling Girl Scout cookies!
Thank you also to our photography sponsor, Allyson Josephs, for making time to be at our event, and to Leslie Dinham for baking a delicious chocolate yellow cake for dessert! One more thank you goes to the clean up crew (hope I got everyone!) who helped let us leave our venue in literally half the time because of all the help we had: Andrea Spencer, Angela Hart, Debby Strenkofsky, Eliza Desch, Erin Meyers, Jessica Kissane, Keala Landry, Laura Briggs, Lisa Butcher, Pam Flores, Sandy Aley, Sara Rainbolt and Tanya Burdick.
Thank you for all your help!
From 7 to 83 Years Old...
One of the most special parts about our Stop Drop and Dance community is that it is a family affair. In all our regularly scheduled classes, parents can always bring their youth under 18 to dance too for free! So it was extra wonderful seeing some of the parent-child combinations and even multiple sets of grandparent-grandchildren combinations that came to dance for 3 hours together!!!
Also, thank you to the dancers who traveled from outside of Marin to be in attendance. We had dancers commuting from San Francisco down to the peninsula all the way to Santa Cruz, and a few dancers even flew in from Oregon and Canada!
So grateful to see everyone in-person!
46 Songs = 3 Hours of Non-Stop Dancing
The evening officially began at 3:30pm, when guests started arriving to pick up their new 2025 red LOVE shirts, as well as their goody bags with different marathon energy foods.
Then we danced non-stop from 4pm to 7pm, with different dancers who signed up to come on stage and help lead the choreography! It was not easy, and yet, it was very doable and the time flew by!
We finished the evening with a buffet dinner and time to sit and chat!
Congratulations on the ultimate dance accomplishment!
We Raised $4580 for Danuta!
What made this year's Dance-A-Thon even more meaningful was that we were able to raise $4580 for our dear friend, Danuta Heilemann, who moved to Pacific Palisades last year and lost her home in the fires last month.
We mailed the check to Danuta this week and also gifted her our LOVE tank, and she sent this reply in our WhatsApp Dance Crew Social Group:
"Just wanted to THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart! I feel shocked, humbled, grateful and sooooo loved. Just got a tank and this huge check from all of you. I am sorry I will not be dancing with you during a marathon but I hope to visit Marin soon and pop in the class and thank in person to as many of you as I can. You guys are beyond incredible. Thank you."
Thank you to this community of compassionate, caring, kind, loving, and joyful dancers!
Dance is LOVE.
Dance is our joy.
Dance is our medicine.
Dance is our community.
Dance is our healing space.
Dance is LOVE.
Thank you for dancing with me!!!
Love,
Grace
Click here to see our Dance-a-thon highlight video
Click here to see our Dance-a-thon photo reel
