Celebrating Empowerment: Highlights from Our Perimenopause Workshop
- Adelita Hinojosa-Martin
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Our recent workshop on perimenopause at The Brooklyn Artery in Ditmas Park brought together a vibrant community of women eager to learn, share, and connect around this important stage of life. The event combined art, education, and open conversation to create a supportive space for women navigating perimenopause. I’m excited to share the highlights and invite you to join us for future workshops that focus on evidence-based healthcare education for women.
A Night of Movement and Expression
The evening began with a captivating dance duet performed by Larga Vista Dance, featuring our artistic director and nurse, Adelita Hinojosa-Martin, alongside guest artist Roxanne Young. Their performance was a powerful expression of the emotional and physical journey through perimenopause. The choreography blended fluidity, unravelings, and strength, reflecting the complex changes women experience during this time.
Prior to the dance, a poem was read aloud that originated from Brooklyn women in perimenopause who shared their personal stories, and was revised for this particular performance. The poem gave voice to the diverse experiences and emotions surrounding perimenopause, creating a sense of solidarity and understanding within the community. Read the poem below.
Learning Through Film and Conversation
We then enjoyed a free screening of The M Factor 2, Before the Pause, Perimenopause. This PBS documentary offers an insightful look into the challenges and realities women face during perimenopause—"showing how silence and stigma derail lives, and why early awareness is essential to protect women’s health, work, and identity. A film by Women in the Room Productions and Take Flight Productions."
After the film, Grace Veras Sealy, Menopause Coach at Elektra Health, led a Q&A session. Grace answered questions from attendees about symptoms, treatments, and lifestyle adjustments. Elektra Health, as an official sponsor of Larga Vista Dance, supports our mission to combine art and education to empower women through all stages of life.
Supporting Our Community Through Art and Education
The workshop ended with a raffle, where all proceeds will help fund Larga Vista Dance’s upcoming performance season and community workshops. Our next shows are scheduled for October 23rd and 25th, 2026, at Arts On Site in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. These performances will continue to explore themes relevant to women’s lives, including perimenopause/menopause, musculoskeletal health, pelvic floor health and mental wellbeing.
Your support makes these workshops and performances possible. Donations help cover workshops, rehearsal space, choreographers, professional dancers, costumes, and theater costs. You can contribute through Venmo, Zelle, or via our fiscal sponsor, New York Live Arts, which offers tax-deductible options (click the donation button below and then click 'donations' again on the main page).
What’s Next for Our Community Workshops
We are committed to providing ongoing workshops focused on evidence-based women’s healthcare education. These sessions will cover a range of topics designed to inform and empower women in our community. Go to our EVENTS page for announcements about upcoming events where you can learn, connect, through real conversation, expert insight and art.
Poem from the Perimenopause Workshop
The Unbecoming Touches Everything
Like water it touches everything.
This tide that pulls at the anchors I once knew.
Even with the books open and the facts in hand,
It kicks at the door of my daily life, uninvited.
It is not one single thing,
But a thousand quiet unravelings.
A mind that once felt like a sharp blade
Now moves through the soft wool of fog.
A body that used to answer every command
Now speaks in the language of stiff joints and sudden aches and breaks.
The monthly chaos arrives like an unannounced guests,
Or vanishes, leaving a hollow silence behind.
The weight shifts, the skin changes,
The rhythm I spent forty years learning
Has suddenly changed its tune.
I try to "will" my way through,
To push the roller coaster back onto its track,
But the tracks have dissolved.
And in that loss of control, a mystery remains—
An ancient pulse beneath the skin
That I am only now beginning to hear.
It has taught me the geometry of grace.
The way a "No" can be a sanctuary.
I am shedding the skin of the people-pleaser,
Dropping the heavy bags of others' expectations
That I used to carry until I was breathless.
There is a switch, deep inside,
Flipping toward a fierce, quiet freedom.
The "unbecoming" is not a breaking;
It is the act of coming home to myself,
Boundaries steady, guards up,
And finally, finally, walking free.
The initial writing is collected from a small group of Brooklyn Perimenopausal Women. This formal poem is google AI generated and edited/adjusted by Adelita, a woman in the “We Do Not Care Club,” because “we do not care if we had to use google AI to help us with this workshop presentation. I’m one woman juggling my perimenopausal life along with being a full-time mother, wife, nurse, returning from 2 severe injuries, professional dancer/dance company owner/director…I’ve already judged myself for using AI with artistry…so…thank you for understanding and enjoying it! AND if you are a writer who’d like to collaborate, please reach out to me so I don’t have to use AI!”
photos from the Larga Vista Dance Perimenopause Workshop
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