“Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa blasts in The Studio of Dance in Gaithersburg as Eurae Muhn teaches a hip-hop routine to seven other moms on a rainy Saturday morning in early March. Two women brought their 5-year-old children, who happily play together—occasionally darting onto the floor to have their snacks opened. The women chat and laugh throughout the hourlong class, chiming in with tweaks to the choreography.
“Whatever your soul tells you to do!” Muhn says in response to a suggestion for a new move by one of the women, all of whom are dressed in pink and blue MOM-entum dance troupe T-shirts. “Bring it, if you want to!”
The group started after Muhn, who lives in Rockville, posted an invitation in May 2023 on Facebook in search of moms who like to dance. A 2000 graduate of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Muhn did some dancing and acting while attending Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and says she missed it as a busy mom of two.
“I just had this dream for nonprofessional dancing moms to have a chance to get together and be in a safe space, create community and be able to perform,” says Muhn, who was shocked when hundreds of people responded to her social media pitch. “I didn’t realize there was such a need.”
Unlike an ordinary fitness class, the MOM-entum women, most of whom are in their 30s and 40s and are moms of young children, are learning dance routines over several months to perform in public—and making friends along the way.
Karen Conner, owner of The Studio of Dance, was eager to offer space to help the group launch. “Dance is a place where truly you can be yourself. …If you can leave everything else at the door, it gives you that hour away from the rest of your life to stay grounded,” she says. “Moms need that. As women, we are the last people to take care of ourselves.”
As of early April, 475 had joined the private MOM-entum Facebook group. Muhn recruited a few other volunteer teachers to lead the weekly classes, which members can attend unlimited for $35 a month. About 30 to 40 regulars participate in one of several classes that MOM-entum offers in hip-hop/K-pop, Bollywood, Latin/ballroom, jazz and other genres in Gaithersburg and at another location in North Bethesda.
“I wanted to show my kids that sometimes you take a risk and do something because you’re hoping that it can bring you joy. And it has,” says Dawn Mein, a mom of three in Rockville who joined the group after she says she struggled with anxiety during the pandemic. “It’s a very welcoming environment. Nobody’s judging. We make mistakes and laugh about it.”
Since her full-time government job went remote, Roxanna Tran says she missed her office friendships and sense of community. The Clarksburg mother of two says the diverse group of MOM-entum women has been accepting and kind. “I don’t think it really matters your background, whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or working mom,” says Tran, whose previous experience was limited to dance parties in college. “Whenever you find the time, you come in and enjoy yourself.”
Being able to bring their kids along has removed the barrier of child care that many of the moms say kept them from being active in fitness classes. The connections have spilled into group playdates with the kids and created an organic support system for the women. When one mom was going through a separation from her partner, another who had gone through a divorce offered to help her move and put together furniture.
Last November, about a dozen MOM-entum members were in the Silver Spring Thanksgiving parade, performing snippets of their dance routines. Some of their kids rode on the float, throwing out candy and yelling, “Go, mommies!”
In January, the group hosted a showcase before an audience of 150 at Montgomery College, where Muhn is an English professor. There were 25 dancers appearing in 10 different numbers—with a few performing in more than one. While not without its glitches (the stage manager couldn’t make it at the last minute), the experience was empowering for many.
“It was my first time onstage since high school. It was thrilling and scary all at once,” says Mein, whose family and friends were in the audience with signs cheering her on. “Our hearts were full because our kids were proud of us.”
A video was shown in which the women expressed their gratitude for MOM-entum. “I dance because it’s fun, it’s entertaining and it gets my body moving,”
Elsabeth Mekonnen said in her video testimonial. Mekonnen, originally from Ethiopia, now lives in Montgomery Village and has a 2-year-old daughter. “In a way, dancing lets me be me. When I dance, I feel confident. I feel strong and I feel happy.”
MOM-entum plans to celebrate its one-year anniversary in May with an evening of dance and refreshments, along with a massage therapist to provide pampering. A second dance performance is being planned for the fall.
“I don’t know where we’ll go in the future,” Muhn says of the grassroots dance network. “But for now I’m just happy that moms have a space to be together and rediscover who they are outside of being moms.”
This story appears in the May/June edition of Bethesda Magazine.
