I’m still pacing myself with ballet classes as I see this as a long haul. In 2014, I took a year off from City Ballet to do “On the Town” on Broadway. During that time, I did most of my ballet barres on my own, in weird spaces just like now, and I know it gets old very quickly. For now, I’m finding motivation by filming my ballet barres and posting them on YouTube, offering corrections and things I think about while I’m working.

A week into social distancing, I made my first attempt as a ballet teacher on Zoom. The students were on the East Coast, positioned in their kitchens or bedrooms, holding on to a chair or dresser. The pianist was on the piano at home, and somehow, even with all the distance between us, I saw 12 girls in my gallery view, keeping time with the music and taking corrections. One girl skipped a combination to sit on the floor, later explaining in the chat that she had somehow stepped on the cactus in her room, and needed to remove a spine.

Managing this new routine with a toddler is a particularly chaotic juggle, but we are lucky to have four adults to spread out the responsibility. My husband and I joke that we are going to be here so long that our 1-year-old daughter will have to start kindergarten in Utah.

Having already taken a year out of my ballet career to join a Broadway show, and another year to have a baby, this break doesn’t make me panic as much as I know it would have in my younger dancing days. I have been able to release my grip on my ballet career twice, each time returning with a refreshed body and mind.