I danced with a group of 200 people in the 2026 San Francisco Pride Parade!  It came at a particularly difficult moment for me.  I turned 70, and solidified my presence in the here and now, assiduously attending my modern dance classes as well as developing a personal choreography for the East Bay Queer Open Mic.  I became more comfortable learning and assimilating new choreographies (which change every month).  When Pride month came, I had been going through a roller coaster of emotions and had been forced to stop all news sources, especially those telling me about the repression by the U.S. government and making us the target of hostile and uninformed opinions.  I was questioning whether I would even show up at all.  I was beaten. When I learned about Rhythm and Motion’s Dance with Pride program, I hesitated.  Was it a fitness program like Zumba classes, in which case it might be hard on my joints?  Was it going to be posing new difficulties that I have when I’m trying a new class …