In The News – Christin Hanna and the LTDC: Teaching Girls to Soar
October 12, 2023 | Member Submitted
Originally Published in Moonshine Ink 10/12/2023, Written by Leslie Hsu Oh
The summer of 2020, when my four kids were moping about the cancellation of school and snowboard competitions, I drove them to a beach on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe about 40 minutes from our house. By the time we got there, there were no parking spots, so I meandered into a quiet neighborhood of Tahoma, nestled beneath a sea of sugar and Jeffrey pines. I was about to pull over and take a nap when Riley, age 7, shouted from the backseat, “Ms. Christin!”
In a vacant lot between two homes, beneath the dappled shade of the forest, a lithe figure spun the finest piqué turns upon a 28-by-24-feet portable stage. Her movement was so effortless, as if she were in cinematic slow motion, that tears filled my eyes. I didn’t know if I was more moved by this act of defiance, dancing when the world seemed to be shutting down, or the courage of Christin Hanna, the founder and artistic director of the Lake Tahoe Dance Collective (LTDC), to establish ground zero for her students, protect a sense of normalcy for our kids, and maintain one thing that we didn’t have to give up.