Cookiie Monster talks motherhood and pandemic progress

They say the instant a child is born, so is a mother. When Dancers' Paradise caught up with Sarah 'Cookiie Monster' Crosse, she was busy juggling dance discussions and caring for her son.

Since giving birth in 2018, the dancer and choreographer became a homebody, going out solely for work purposes. So when the pandemic hit last year, nothing changed.

"My lifestyle changed when I became a mom. I was already mentally prepared for a lockdown. I wanted to stay inside and shelter my son. So it wasn't a big deal. Learning to adapt, where wearing masks are concerned and re-educating myself about what was going on was the hard part," she said.

Members of the dance industry were already in the process of conducting private virtual classes to students globally, so she believed that the pandemic gave her a head start in making that transition official. Teaming up with the dancehall community in New York, she crossed over to YouTube live, where she taught virtual classes. But she prefers the physical space.

"I work off the vibes. The adrenaline of the class was more for the students than the teacher. And the online classes came with time limits, so as soon as you build the energy, it's over. So I'd rather be there in person, but we made it work. And I will incorporate the virtual skillset in the future," she said.

Her last face-to-face international performance took place in Russia in January 2020. But the creative has continued to keep busy. She shifted focus to her YouTube channel, creating more content on and off the dancefloor and collaborating with her husband, Koolaz of the popular dance crew BG Dancerz.

Cookiie Monster also keeps munching on several career opportunities. In March, she joined Team Spice as a dancer. She has even tapped into the recording world and was recently featured as an artiste on the New Money rhythm. The fashionista also created her own clothing brand called Monster Army.