Volunteer Report

The Future Is Now

By Mary Beth Beckman

After five years of volunteering in the Minnesota partner-dancing community, the time has come for me to pack my things and set off on new adventures. The December 2015 issue of Sheer Dance will be my last.

My resignation from Sheer Dance, Ballroom Blast, and Dance Fest was the hardest and most necessary decision I can remember making. I face this change with grief and elation, and overall, I feel a great sense of peace, because I know that I have made a difference in this community, and that my contributions over the past years will inform the future of partner dancing.

As a founding volunteer of all three initiatives, I feel a great sense of ownership in what they have become. Letting go of that is very difficult, but it's also necessary for me to continue growing as a person and improving the world in ways only I can.

Partner dancing was never my world. I never caught the ballroom bug. I peered in the window and saw that things were broken—things I was capable of fixing. Editing, organizing, communicating—these are areas I have a high level of aptitude in, desperately important skills that are overlooked because they're not sexy. And I have loved channeling my abilities into improving the systems of competitions, the quality of written content, the character of a community. But it's not my community, and it's time for me to find where I really belong.

I'll always look back on partner dancing fondly. I met my best friends through ballroom, and no matter what happens, I will always be able to point at Sheer Dance and say, "I made that."

Sheer Dance will always be my baby. Please take care of it for me.