About Me

Each of us has a unique voice and a distinctive way of moving through the world. I feel most alive in the land of compound meter. I’ll talk about what that means, but first I want to travel back to an early memory: galloping, skipping, and moving to music across a large empty room. The rhythm of my feet was exhilarating. I connected to the energy of the music. I felt the power of myself: my body, my brain, my heart.

Compound meter in music is a brisk march with two even macro-beats. Within each macro-beat are three micro-beats, giving the meter a bouncy, light quality. Music in compound meter has structure and freedom, a clear place to land with opportunities for improvisation. This meter resonates to my very bones. I live it in my work, personal life, and community. My skills are as varied as the music composed in this meter.

As an educator, I had an oddball beginning. My parents and relatives were public school and college educators. I observed their hard work, long hours, and absolute devotion to their students. As a teen, I decided I wanted less heartache and more spotlight. I declared I would never be a teacher. I earned degrees in flute performance and headed out into the world of performing arts with a group called Tales & Scales.

A small non-profit, Tales & Scales commissioned new works based on mythology, legend and poetry. We collaborated with artists to bring old stories into schools and onto main stages with symphony orchestras. I developed public speaking skills, non-verbal communication skills, improvisation skills, and classroom management skills. Did I mention our intended audience? Students. I loved it. I embraced my educator roots and never looked back.

From there, my work experience is varied. The skills I developed weave through every job title. I’m creative, energetic, detail oriented, and kind. I love planning and research. I read, reflect, write, discuss, and repeat. I taught in the Katherine Thomas School (Rockville, MD), started a Suzuki Flute studio, and trained to become an early childhood music educator. In 2001, I began offering Music Together classes in rented spaces. Out of necessity, I developed business and long-term planning skills and honed my executive functioning skills. 

At the macro-beat level, my skills include hiring and training new teachers, scheduling and planning semesters, managing contracts and budgets, website maintenance, email list management, and content creation. I developed music curriculums to meet the needs of teachers and neurodivergent students at the Katherine Thomas School. We worked together to create interactive programs to embody learning. In flute lessons, I honed communication skills to interact with parents, children, individuals and large groups. As a yoga teacher, I learned to support learning through breath, mindfulness, and other central nervous system calming techniques.

On a micro-beat level, things seldom go exactly to plan. I never dreamed of being a homeschooler, but it quickly became evident that for my twice exceptional older son to thrive, we needed something different. I homeschooled my two boys until middle school, when they both transitioned happily back into our local public schools. As a homeschooling mom, I learned to embrace the fluidity of day-to-day learning. My creativity bubbled up; I developed learning spaces that would ignite imaginations and maintain engagement. We spent hours outdoors studying the natural world. We joined other families for adventures to museums, libraries, parks and classes. I developed leadership skills in subjects I never thought I’d study again: language arts, history, math, science, culture, geography, current events, and more.

Ever in motion, I continue to grow and learn: as a yoga teacher, I support learning through infinite variations on core principles. As a dance teacher, I lead with non-verbal communication, visual storytelling, and clear sequencing. As a Spirit Play teacher I develop appropriate pacing and lesson delivery skills, and as a Pat Miller Fear-free Dog Trainer I clearly articulate learning goals and outline incremental steps toward achieving those goals. As a Music Together teacher I motivate exhausted parents to get down on the floor to interact with their young children. In all of these, I improvise as needed to meet a wide range of needs.

I love structure. I love freedom within structure. To this day, I feel energized by the juxtaposition of launching and landing. My early childhood memory of dynamic movement is more than a fuzzy feel-good anecdote: supporting other humans in finding their compound meter moment is my work, my life, my meaning, and my joy.

- Cheryl Anderson Sabo