Portal Unlocked

I have to tell this story. It's not the beginning, per se, but it is a critical plot twist point. 

The Unapologetically Bronx Social Crawl hosted by Ideas42 that happened this past March (2025) was incredible and it inspired me to want to tell the world about it. I recorded a video the day afterwards to share my thoughts (you can see it here) and I really wanted to write about it also. I drafted a beautiful blog post about it a couple months later that got accidentally deleted before it went live, but I realize that just created space for this moment. A moment where I'm starting to truly see what that event did for me beyond my initial experience of feeling supported and excited at what my home borough has to offer. This is a moment of witnessing a bigger play at hand.

Welcome To The South Bronx Street Art Mural, Mott Haven in the Bronx

That social crawl experience of seeing my home borough through renewed lenses led me to explore some of the businesses in the South Bronx Mott Haven area. On a rainy day this past June, I decided to adventure to one business in particular that I had walked by on the crawl and had previously heard about from a friend, The Lit Bar, pausing to enjoy a magical experience at the neighborhood Maria Sola Community Greenspace on the way. The Lit Bar is a black owned book store and wine bar with a refreshingly restorative relaxed vibe and healing for the social and intellectual body. The way the books are displayed invites hands and eyes to explore the shelves, and in doing so I found From Generosity To Justice by Darren Walker. This book spoke to me, so much so that after enjoying the sensory experience of holding it in my hands I found myself walking around the store with it. Clearly my spirit chose this one. Unable to afford it at the moment, I vowed to get it from the library, and when I did, its pages were a portal.

Maria Sola Green Space, Bronx NY

So my friend thus far you have been led on a journey to understand how I got to the place I'm about to describe to you. The journey is as important as the revelation, you needed to walk it with me so that now, when I describe the picture that has been clarified for me, you also understand the impact of each step along the way.

Darren Walker's From Generosity To Justice posits a spectrum of philanthropy encouraging those who would like to give to consider not just the legacy of a charitable donation as extolled by The Gospel On Wealth by Andrew Carnegie, but the other root-focused, bigger picture, solution-based justice end of the spectrum as well. In reading this narrative, my own perspective opened as "what to do with all this much money?" has never been a question for me and it was a strange conundrum to me. The conversations Walker has with various philanthropists expounding what justice based giving looks like sparked a conversation within myself about my own philanthropy. Where is my privilege? What do I have to give? How do I give it?

All answers point to Talitha Dance. My privilege is not financial but rather spiritual and energetic. I was hatched and grown in an environment full of sacrificial unconditional love. That allows me to more easily connect with, and be authentically, who I am - without apology or fear. I can build a life that acknowledges, respects, and supports my natural way of being. I am creating the freedom that allows me to devote my life to following my purpose. I know my calling is to help nurture and restore people. All of this is a privilege, fought for with sweat and tears but a privilege nonetheless. 

Talitha Dance is what I am doing with that hard earned gift. This is my love, my energy, and my ability to create safe healing spaces put to work to lift my community. What started as a desire to bring lifted fitness to others like me who were financially low and looking for wellness spaces, revealed what the world needed my contribution to become. Processing the concepts in From Generosity To Justice opened up how Talitha Dance can evolve to better fill that need. I am still working to understand the scope of this expanded vision, but I now see that Talitha Dance is not just a boutique fitness studio. It's not just a mobile wellness center. It is a multi-faceted community center home-based in the Bronx, serving our tribe throughout NYC. 

This new clarity and direction has me so excited. My soul is on fire and I'm bringing all of this light straight to you. So prepare yourself, we ain’t seen nothin yet.

Breaking Free

I'm hearing more and more these days "wow, you really did it. You broke free and you're living the life". I didn't feel that about myself because I'm in the day to day trenches and it's tough to see the forest for the trees sometimes from down here. When the first person said it to me, I paused and took a step back to try and see what they saw and it finally hit me as true. When the second person said it to me, it got me thinking about how I can share this so that others can feel that they too have broken free and are living their best life fulfilled and able to dance to their own beat.

So here it is, I'm doing my best to give you all the tools that helped me. In addition to actually giving this energy to you in our fitness classes and events, I'm writing it for you so you can learn a little of what my journey has been like, and you can take whatever resonates with you for your own journey.

For me, and I guess for all of us, it all starts with a passion. I mean, how can you march to the beat of your own drum if you don't know what that beat is, right? For me, dance was something I'd always loved and had been wanting to bring back into my life for a long time. There was every reason why I couldn't - scoliosis, money, age, lack of formal education - but only one reason why I should - it made me feel better, more free, more me. So before you go any further, have you divined your rhythm? Have you figured out what that authentic beat is for you? If yes, then awesome! Finding your passion is actually a huge part of the battle. If you haven't found it yet, don't let that stop you! Stay open and keep treating yourself to new experiences, that's the only way you're going to find it.

Once I had it in my heart that following this passion is something I want to do, it took seeing someone in real time that broke through their can'ts and was living their passion to show me what life could be like for me. Their passion wasn't the same as mine, I loved dance they loved design - but seeing them live the daily grind in that passion space with a mindset of abundance blew my mind. I saw that they were not rich, but I also saw them give generously when they had it. I saw them always have what they need because they tapped into all their avenues and resources to make it happen. I saw what moving in faith looked like when applied to living passionately. I needed that example because my past generations' moving in faith was powerful enough to get me here - stable enough in my basic needs to be able to dream and confident enough in my identity and ability to know I have what it takes to get a job done. This new example showed me how to step up on that foundation to reach for living in energetic authenticity. It's true what they say about the people you surround yourself with and the things you consume. Do the things you consume help you visualize your success? Do the people that surround you support you in finding your own path?

From there, for me it took initiative. I was determined to infuse that passion into my life however I could. I knew I didn't have all the logistics figured out yet but I was ready to take the first step. So I started small with a google search: "volunteer dance opportunities". I picked the first one on the list and went to a meeting. As with a child learning to walk whose first steps are usually small and oftentimes made without even having a proper shoe on, these steps are less about how prepared you are or how far forward you get in one bound and more about building the confidence to make moves and trusting the urge to do so. What's a baby step that you can take now to get you started? Is there a group you can join? A place you can volunteer? A convention, class, or workshop you can check out?

After finding that first foothold, it took dedication to consistently immerse myself in that passion space regularly. Learning what it feels like to tap into that source of energy while experiencing different phases of thought, emotion, & bodily sensation helped build a full relationship with (and understanding of) my passion. It became multiple things for me when I approached it from different internal spaces. An understanding hug at the end of a rough day, a celebration on joyful days, soft self-care on depleted days, accountability on days when unhelpful old routines came calling. Feeling fulfilled and recharged by it were amazing rewards for that commitment. When you choose to commit regularly to your goal as you navigate life cycles, what does it become for you in each phase? How does your relationship with it evolve? What are you learning about how your goal serves you?

Taking time for self-awareness to see how this new addition to my life was affecting me and honestly evaluating the changes I saw and felt in myself were critical in building internal support for moving forward. Even on my roughest day, I loved volunteering to lead those movement workshops, it gave me back the energy I put in. It was now much bigger than just feeling uninhibited, it made me feel like an unlimited source - able to share this energy with others. It showed me what it feels like to do work that energetically reciprocates. Taking that moment to gratefully acknowledge the positive effects of incorporating this new habit helped solidify conviction not just in body and spirit, but in the mind as well.

That's critical because it then fed the courage needed to start shifting things I already had in place to make space for more of this passion in my life. I started thinking about how my life would look if I followed where this calling was taking me. I started to mentally prepare myself for leaving my day job so I could devote my life to living this dream. I decided to take a non-degree course to fulfill pre-requirements for the master's program leading to a degree that would open doors for me. Shaking up the foundation to make room for a new brick is scary, but this dream will never become a reality if there's no room for it in the support structure. How can your dream become part of the support structure of your reality? Maybe getting to this step has made it part enough for you, in which case cheers to creating the life you wanted! But if you find you're still not as free to live life on your terms as you want to be, let these bold visualizations and big courageous steps brace you for the leap to come.

It took BIG faith to act on the belief that not only was this best for me, but also when I choose what's best for me I get what's best for me. I know it sounds simple, but go ahead and try it and see what I mean! I left my day job with some things now newly inserted into my foundation to help support the new life I was building, like teaching Zumba classes. Now, the challenges were not just ye olde life changes, they included internal battles of self-doubt, mental fights with conditioning that no longer aligned with my chosen path, emotional and psychological storms of feeling overwhelmed by navigating uncharted waters while building the paddles as I went along. Believing that this was still the best move for me was the biggest weapon in my arsenal, enforced by the new neurological pathways formed in my system that understood this deeper level of joy, fulfillment, and peace this choice has already brought me. I had to recognize that those internal struggles were just that - a battle inside my psyche between old me and new me. What helped me most was faith in the valid foundation that new me stood on knowing that this was best for me and committing to consistently do what's best for me. A big leap indeed, no less scary than those first baby steps taken so long ago - the significance is the same though. This leap is about building the confidence to walk in your new life.

Like a marriage, once you act on faith now it takes consistently choosing to commit to this new life everyday. Consistently employing new tools to manage the lows, new resources to tap into what you still need to learn, renewed connection to support networks that help move you forward into growth and success, continuously opening your perspective to embrace the fullness of your new life - the highs of living your passion and the lows of the daily struggle.

Knowing the daily struggle is just part of life no matter what route you take helps ground me in the decision to commit and do the work to live happy and fulfilled. Now, when I'm faced with the unexpected external twists and turns of living or the internal battles of constantly evolving, I can manage them from a place of having my cup full instead of depleted. I'll gladly give my life for that.

If you made it to the end of this article, I hope you found some useful energetic insights to assist you on your journey toward dancing to the beat of your own drum. I hope one day someone sees you living your life authentically and is inspired to do the same!

As always,

Live free and be well.

-Talitha