Want to know something that had me smiling mid-pant, mid-sweat, during a cardio dance workout?

A (grand)matronly older woman booty-popping and mouthing the lyrics to Britney & Rihanna – right next to me, a lanky mom in her 40s who can’t fully shake her rigid balletic roots, attempting to twerk while also mouthing the same raunchy lyrics.

We’re a motley crew at this dance studio I’ve come to love in just a few short weeks. I’ve been disconnected from dance – one of my earliest, truest loves – for nearly two decades, and we’ve been in Missouri for almost a year and a half, with no real friends or community to show for it.