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Tiny Rosales prays the hardest when she dances. So when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of powwows across North America, she knew she needed to do something to keep people dancing.

Rosales, who lives in California, started the Quarantine Dance Specials 2020 Facebook group, where people from around the world can post videos of themselves dancing in isolation. The group hosts regular competitions with prize money attached, but some people just use the group as a platform to show others they are still dancing in spite of tough times.

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Monica Bear, who shared a video of herself doing a jingle dress dance alone by Saskatoon’s Kinsmen Park, said she feels beautiful and her heart is “happy and calm” when she puts on her regalia and dances. A jingle dress dance is a healing dance, she noted.

“All this stuff going on right now is giving me anxiety and it’s scary,” Bear said. “I danced for everyone, not just for myself. I have four children, danced for them. My mother that is sick in the hospital, I danced to heal.”