Nearly every Sunday, I leave my home and family, sometimes rushing and sometimes ambling, sometimes fleeing and sometimes questioning my decision, and travel four-and-a-half blocks to the dance studio for class. My family calls it Dance Church, with a tonal eye-roll. They plan their Sundays knowing that I will go to Dance Church first, and be with them later. Without the Church, I am less available to them. I am less available to myself. I have taken this class for more than 22 years. I took this class as I rediscovered my dancing self, five years after leaving my performing career in NY and stopping dancing altogether; I took it through both pregnancies; I took It as I began teaching dance in the public elementary schools; I took it through the realization that I had stopped performing before I was done; I took it as I began to perform again.

We show up in the Dance Church, 10am. Advanced class. Multiracial. Gender spectrum. Age twenty-something to sixty-something. Professional dancers and longtime dancers-for-pleasure. Newcomers and folks like me who have been coming for decades. In the 10 minutes before class, we hug, meet, stretch, groan, breathe, complain, ponder, make room. Today many say, briefly, how glad we are to be here this particular morning, together.

One of the privileges of attending Dance Church is seeing breathtaking dancing up close in a group and yet somehow not for public consumption. We are here gearing up, practicing inhabiting the dance fully, going in and out of areas of need and focus. We are entering the realm of embodied expression, where the tools disappear inside the form. In any one class, at every moment, people are working on technique, injury/rehab, performance, pleasure, steps-learning, therapy, socializing, community support.

~Valerie Gutwirth

I so appreciate taking your class, now more than ever. While I’ve had class with you so many times at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, taking the same class at St. Mary’s College is like seeing you through a new lens. I’m continually surprised, amazed at how you are able to approach profound concepts without excess. I think it might be the simplicity, the purity that gives your teaching such depth. You find the essence of the matter, the clarity of the moment. I believe this is quite rare. And I feel so grateful to witness it, and participate in it.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

~Lisa Tenorio

Randee I don't think you realize how much you inspired students here at Sac State.  You have completely made a difference in my life and words can't describe how much I appreciate you for that. You not only have an amazing teaching style but you helped me to see this dream of mine in a complete different perspective. Before I never realized the many opportunities this field has. Nor did I realize the potential I had because of the few years of "technical" experience I have. Now I see potential in myself, and let me tell you Randee that is a first.  I've never felt I could get far with this dream because of the discouragement I've felt throughout the years from people and experiences… you've truly changed my life.

~Maria Monge