About a week after the Monterey Park mass shooting at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in January 2023, owner Maria Liang was too distraught to step back inside her dance studio. Four months later, she still hadn’t returned to dancing – and wasn’t sure she ever would.
Then something happened in late December. After spending some time traveling, Liang returned to this tight-knit community in the San Gabriel Valley and, for the first time since the tragedy that left the community in mourning nearly a year ago, stepped back out onto the dance floor.
An organization called the Chinatown Service Center was having an end-of-year celebration at Monterey Park’s Langley Senior Center, where the Chinatown Service Center has been offering ballroom dance classes. About 300 people attended the Dec. 28 event, two-thirds of whom used to dance at her studio, Liang estimated.
“It was my first time to go over there. They wanted me to go because it was the year-end party. It just happened that I had returned home. So I went. I was happy to see a lot of my former clients and students,” Liang said during an interview on Friday, Jan. 19.
Before the event was over, Liang found herself on the dance floor.
“Dancing is good for the body and for the mind,” she said when asked how that moment felt.
While Liang said she’s feeling “much better” these days, the journey toward healing has been a process.
In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 21, 2023, shooting, the owner of Star Ballroom Dance Studio described the ordeal as a nightmare. Her longtime dance and business partner, Ming Wei Ma, and many close friends were among the 11 people shot and killed by the gunman.
“I think it will (weigh) on me for my lifetime. … I still can’t go back to work,” Liang said at the time.
On Friday, Liang said she spoke with a therapist shortly after the shooting. About two or three months after the shooting, she terminated her lease with the landlord of the building where the…
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