About a year ago, I went back to dance class. As a girl, I had studied ballet and jazz, and danced in high school and college and even as a young journalist working abroad.
I hadn’t danced since my 20s. I went back despite feeling scared of looking really stupid on the floor. But I wanted to reconnect. I wanted to try. It took a little while but I found my way back. And what I found was joy.
When I dance, I don’t think about the world. I can just be in the moment, in the music, in the movement and in the presence of others doing the exact same steps. As soon as the music starts, all other thoughts flee from my mind. The world goes away and joy lives in its place.
I tell you this because joy is so necessary at this challenging time. We need it. We’ve lost so much, as women, as citizens and as members of a free society. We have a president who, when challenged on a point of policy, calls women journalists “Piggy.” “Stupid.” “A terrible person.”
Sometimes it seems like it never ends, blow after blow to our rights and our dignity. From the end of Roe v. Wade to ICE snatching people off the streets to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
And while we are tired of it, we don’t have a ready response. I wrote earlier this year about the silence among women leaders during Trump 2.0. I tried to get to the bottom of why we are not hearing much from the top women’s voices, either in Washington or here in Hollywood.
Women told me that they are overwhelmed by the barrage of injustice. One day it’s health care being threatened, the next day it’s a defenseless woman wrestled to the ground by agents outside a school. One day it’s a Great Gatsby-style party at Mar-a-Lago while SNAP benefits are withheld from needy families. The next day it’s the East Wing suddenly demolished. It’s distraction and disarray and meanwhile — what’s in those mysterious Epstein files?
At the same time, the economics of our business in Hollywood get more difficult. You need your full focus just to get through.
You may feel overwhelmed. You may feel – what’s the point? You may feel no one is listening.
So let’s get a couple of things straight – distraction and disarray is a strategy. But we need to pay attention, because we must. Do not doubt that your voice and your actions matter.
Today at our annual Power Women Summit we gather to remind one another of our value, and our values. We have heroic voices, like Amanda Zurawski bravely challenging a Texas law that endangers pregnant women; or Laurene Powell Jobs, the owner of The Atlantic magazine, and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins who are on our Changemakers list for standing up to Trump’s intimidation of the press.
We will hear from the inspirational writer Jenny Han, from powerhouse producers like Mimi Leder of “The Morning Show” and Lynette Howell-Taylor who now leads the Motion Picture Academy; from actresses who create role models on our screens like Uzo Aduba, Judith Light and Chase Infiniti. Academic leaders like Dr. Stacy Smith, who tirelessly researches equality and inclusion.
One other thing was pointed out to me. Silence is not complicity – it’s a pause. So many of us are waiting, watching and keeping our powder dry. Things do not stay the same. Beneath the surface, there is movement. As Georgia politician Stacey Abrams told us at this event last year, a page will be turned. We need to be ready. To marshal our inner forces. And tend to our joy. So to all of you: find your joy. And jazz class is next Tuesday.
