About the author

Pearl Howie

<p>Since 2010, I've been the Explorer-in-Chief of Pearl Escapes, the organisation I set up to share all the most wonderful things (escapes) I could find around the world. I've shared Zumba, traditional healing, spiritual practices, my own deeply personal story of being a kidney donor and my adventures around the world.</p><p>After studying in person with don Miguel Ruiz and his sons in 2016, I was fortunate enough to be able to complete an online apprenticeship with them during the pandemic.</p><p>I've studied with Beto Perez, the founder of Zumba® Fitness and the top Zumba Instructors in the world. My biggest achievement was rolling out Zumba Gold. When I began, there were no classes in my area of London, let alone chair classes – by the time I left there were 22 taught by other instructors.</p><p>I studied Maths at university because I loved the black and white of it, but then it started to become more complicated, less absolute and I couldn't handle those shades of grey, the spaces in the knowing. I got my degree but then walked away, falling in love with film, eventually getting a Masters degree and making a dance movie. Through Buddhism I learned to love the spaces in between, the mystery of life and this last practical experiment, this recent journey has shown me, magically that so many things come back around to the beginning, whether it's Maths (which is also problem solving) or the title of my feature film, because I've learned so powerfully, from the last few years, that we have "Everything To Dance For".</p>