Love of dance helping South Lake Tahoe youth cope with coronavirus seclusion

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Students enrolled at Marcia Sarosik Dance Studio in South Lake Tahoe cannot attend classes in person due to coronavirus restrictions, but they are still enjoying their love of dance with online dance classes.

Marcia Sarosik, better known as Ms. Marcia, has been teaching dance in the community for 41 years and this is the first time she's had to close the studio for an extended period. One of her former students, Chelsea Wightman, created a program for dancers to log onto to stay connected to the studio on James Avenue.

Ms. Marcia, Wightman, and other former students and current teachers Heather Dominguez, Kylee Finnegan, Heather Coleman, Kelsi Landerkin, Nicole Mora, Robyn Rasmussen, Bri Alamilla and Marcia's daughter Lisa are all joining together in leading the young students in classes that can be viewed on television or computers.

"There has been a huge response," said Marcia. "If we can do something for this community now, we should. Everyone is nervous, in the same boat, and trying to figure out how to make it work."

Enrolled students from toddlers through high school have access to the classes with more being added weekly. Marcia is not charging her dance family for the online classes and just wants the kids to enjoy them.

"I feel lucky there are so many that love dance," she said.

One of those students participating from home is three-year-old Kalirae Brown who has been a student at the studio since she was 15-months-old.

"When I put the video on the television, Kalirae's eyes got so big and she was so excited," said her mom Brandianne Brown. "She said 'that's my dance teacher Miss Marcia' and couldn't believe she was watching her on TV. It warmed my heart. Her reaction after being cooped up was pretty neat. It meant more it was someone on television she knew."

"It is wonderful Ms. Marcia went to the effort," added Brown. "Nobody has known quite what to do. It shows the type of person she is."

Another parent, Jenny Hatch, shared videos on social media of her daughter Evelyn joining Ms. Marcia online.

Chelsea, who is a long-time member of the dance family, said she couldn't imagine doing anything else at this time.

"It's been really fun," she said.

Chelsea told Marcia she'd get the classes all online, and she did. Within two days they had 15 hours of classes available to students.

"All I wanted was kids to have fun," added Chelsea.

Also joining in with teaching is this year's Dancing With the Tahoe Stars' winning coach Heather Dominguez.

"It's been incredible to see the dance community come together through all of this," said Heather. "And not just our local community, but dancers and teachers from around the world participating in the creation of online content to get people moving! The distance is a good testament to how much these kids love what they do - they have been so engaged and looking for opportunities to keep dancing!"

Marcia's daughter Lisa is a teacher in Las Vegas and joined in and lead students in a tap warmup Wednesday.

It is unknown how long the quarantine of residents will last, so Marcia and her team will keep going until it is no longer necessary. The annual recitals have been postponed and when they'll be held is still an unknown. Her high school senior students always look forward to their final performance and Marcia is committed they will have that.

"I feel like this is a good thing for me to doing, it keeps our dance family going," added Ms. Marcia.