During a period of isolation, Chantal Montaldo tells how she transformed her passion into a new language.
Human contact was missing, but the intention remained.
Today, he leads projects that combine souls and creativity, drawing the dots of happiness.
By Chantal Montaldo
Year 2020
These days, I think we’ve all thought the same thing:
“It’s impossible for that to happen.”
And yet here we are.
Lost, disoriented, the world suspended in a bubble of uncertainty and fear. Each with its own story. Each with his or her loneliness.
Now, more than ever, we miss what moves humanity: socialization and the need for a hug. In my case, like that of many others, the biggest problem was to stop working, because my work does not exist without people.
Couple dancing is one of the quickest and most powerful means of connecting with others.
My vocation is to teach that body language that allows us to understand each other, communicate, feel each other. And now, I’m completely at a standstill.
I can’t touch anyone. I cannot meet with others.
It saddens me deeply, because what I love most about my job is feeling that I am helping other human beings to relate and feel better through my great passion. Economic pay has always been in the background.
What really made up for it was the human contact, the communication, the exchange of emotions.
And even if many have told me: “Shoot videos, it’s full of online lessons”, for me it’s not so easy. I love talking in my dance classes. And yes, public speaking is easy when I have in front of me the warmth of the people who listen to me, ask me questions and together we find solutions. But a cold and silent camera… He doesn’t give me that. I spent the first 15 days not knowing how to go on. I needed to find a way to keep that umbilical cord with the people who love my classes, to keep adding souls to my vision of dancing. I felt helpless.
There were days when I didn’t get out of bed, pretending it was Sunday three times in a row. But this is not me. Then I started thinking: behind that camera there is also the world. And many times, what I teach does not depend on physical contact, but on the attitude towards dancing, towards oneself. Dancing was my refuge. Alone or in company.
And I will continue to offer emotional help as I have always done: talking about my passion, with the same passion as always. I will do it for all those who listen to me, who follow me, who feel that dancing is something their own, personal, transforming. It won’t be easy, but I need to feel useful.
And if I have the opportunity to continue to convey emotions, to help others express theirs, who cares if it’s through a video or in person?
In the meantime, you can practice, learn, have fun.
Until we can go back to hugging each other, to feeling the contact… and to really enhance it. I will arrive.
Because even if the medium changes, the intention does not change: Love for what I do.
Year 2025
Five years later, my perspective has changed. I have transformed my language, my means over and over again… But the intention remains intact. Today I am an Ego Expert, I trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and I practice as president of two associations and a federation of associations.
The words “work” and “passion”, according to their etymologies, are linked to suffering and punishment. That’s why I left them behind. I replaced them with projects and creativity, and in this change I transformed myself into the human being I came to be. I act as a Project Manager, that person who connects the dots and draws unicorns, making the most diverse and enriching projects possible.
I accompany incredible people on their paths to the only success that really matters: being happy doing what they love.
If you feel you want to be part of this network of awake, creative and committed beings who live in Fuerteventura and around the world,
make a donation to the My Fuerte Prod association and send a message via WhatsApp or Telegram.
I invite you to add your light. The hugs return. The connection never went away .
Read also:
Is there such a thing as the perfect gift?
Life is Like Dance, You Live Improvising
