As a pre-professional, devoted ballet student, Kathleen McGuire Gaines left home at 14 years old to train in classical ballet. She moved further away from home at 17 to continue her training, only to undergo some of the hardest years of her life. A few years after that, she quit dancing.

For years after Kathleen stopped, she believed she just wasn't strong enough to have continued in the field. However, now she sees that the real reason why she had stopped dancing was because she had been dealing with a major depression that could've been treated, if only she had the tools to acknowledge it.

So, in 2018, Kathleen quit her job to focus solely on growing, Minding the Gap, a social good organization dedicated to seeing mental health treated with the same seriousness as physical health in dance culture. Her organization intends to give the support, tools, and awareness all dancers, dance teachers, and directors need to continue growing this art form positively. 

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