Austin, TX

They said dancing wasn't 'professional,' now she runs her own business

Published

1 year ago

October 14, 2024

They said dancing wasn't 'professional,' now she runs her own business

AUSTIN, Texas — Tucked away at the Casa de Luz Village in South Austin are standalone rooms separated from nature’s ambiance. One of them is dark, filled with people chatting while they wait for Monica Landois to start the music.

Landois rents the space to provide the fitness dance class to her students, though it might be more accurate to call them followers or friends.

“I love bringing joy to people and I love bringing joy through movement,” Landois said.

After class, Landois sits down next to a bouquet of sunflowers just outside the dance space reflecting on life. She’s a first-generation Austinite and graduate of Texas State University in San Marcos. There she received her bachelor’s in geography natural resources and environmental studies. She minored in business Spanish.

“I thought I would do something with environmental investigations and maybe I could help the Latin community and bridge gaps with language,” she said.

Out of college, Landois accepted a job with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. She remembers her parents were thrilled when she shared the news.

Landois had a short gap between graduation and starting her new job. That’s when she discovered Zumba classes. Zumba is described as a group exercise class that blends rhythmic Latin music with high-intensity cardio dance moves according to its website.

Instructors noticed her ability to keep up with the class and suggested she audition to be an instructor.

“It’s one of those things that was so random that kind of just fell in my lap,” Landois said.

Her first class had more than 50 people.

“There was so much community. I would meet so many people from different walks of life,” she said.

As her community grew, she would discover even more opportunities, including a contract position with the City of Austin, to teach Zumba classes. Landois says she got paid significantly more for 45 minutes of her time than she did at the TCEQ for the same amount of time. There were several of what Landois calls “aha” moments along the way.

“That’s where the wheels started turning,” Landois recalls.

Eventually Landois got married and welcomed her first child, a baby boy. At this point, she was trying to gather how she could be a present mother, work her government job with an added commute and teach fitness classes. By the time her son was around 4 months old, she decided to quit the TCEQ and focus on her dance classes.

“Even though I like this job, I can’t sustain being a mom and working those hours,” she recalled thinking.

Unfortunately, her then-husband doesn’t understand what she’s trying to do.

“Sometimes your partner or your parents or people closest to you don’t really see your vision because they’re not in your shoes,” Landois said. “They don’t have the knowledge you have within the spaces that you’re in.”

Landois separated from her partner. Culturally, her parents didn’t approve of the divorce. But Landois pressed on, determined to provide for both of her kids. She had since brought a second boy into the world.

“At any point you can say, ‘I’m not going to listen to the noise. Even though I’m in this space, I can still walk my path’,” Landois said.

Landois admits the path wasn’t always easy to travel. Two weeks after going all in on herself, the pandemic swept across the state, closing businesses deemed nonessential. Landois had already shot dance videos for Amazon’s Prime Video service, so she was at least a step ahead, ready to provide virtual classes to anyone who needed movement.

“I learned about resilience, having grit and how it’s so worth it,” Landois said. “As soon as you feel like giving up and decide not to, those are the moments.”

The number of hours she works week to week can change, but recently she’s been able to manage on fewer than 20 hours a week while raising her two boys. She’s proud to share she didn’t miss their first steps or their first words.

Landois just recently trained two more instructors to provide more classes for her community. She’s a motivational speaker, sharing her mom-preneur story with other women. She also gives dance lessons to couples interested in learning new styles of dance. But most importantly, she’s happy.

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Austin, TX

Austin activists hold anti-ICE protests following the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis

Published

10 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Austin activists hold anti-ICE protests following the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis

Chants of “shame” and “ICE out of Texas” rang through the street as Austin-area activists joined thousands across the nation in protesting the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.

The protest was held in front of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security building in Pflugerville.

Good, 37, was shot in her SUV while attempting to drive away from several ICE officers who ordered her to exit her vehicle.

Scarleth Lopez with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the organization that led the protest, said the videos of the shooting in Minneapolis were “sickening.”

“Trump has lied and and said that Renee was a terrorist. She was a mother. She was an innocent bystander,” Lopez said. “We must organize to stop these people from kidnapping and murdering.”

Lorianne Willett

KUT News

Spray painted messages appeared outside of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security building in Pflugerville

Elizabeth Bope, a retired Pflugerville ISD teacher, said the claims from federal and state lawmakers that Good was attempting to strike the ICE agent with her vehicle inspired her to attend the protest.

Such claims were posted online by Vice President J.D. Vance and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Attorney General Ken Paxton reposted a statement from DHS on X, formerly known as Twitter, that said the ICE agent “relied on his training and saved his own life.”

“It’s beyond really any words that they killed this woman for no reason, but also that they’re lying about it,” Bope said. “I’m not even a radical left person, I’m just a regular old Democrat.”

Other key Texas leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have not commented on the shooting.

A group of protesters holding yellow signs reading "ICE Out of our Communities" gather during a night time protest. — Protesters gathered and held signs during a protest against ICE.

Doug Tickner, who said he works for a home building company in Austin, said he felt it was important to show up in person for Good.

“I don’t really think of Minneapolis as being that far from here, and it’s not like what happened in Minneapolis was some sort of one off unique event,” Tickner said. “This is part of a pattern, and I feel folks better wake up and realize that this is becoming more and more serious.”

The news that federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon, broke hours before the protest.

The gathering in Pflugerville is among the first of four anti-ICE demonstrations planned across the Austin area over the next few days.

Earlier on Thursday, protesters gathered at the intersection of 45th Street and Lamar Boulevard during rush hour. A protest on Friday will be held at the Capitol and another will be held Saturday at City Hall.

Protesters bang on the outside of a building built of metal. — Protesters bang on the outside of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security building in Pflugerville.

State and federal leaders are now sparring over who should conduct an investigation into the Minneapolis shooting, according to NPR.

Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which was originally asked to conduct a joint investigation with the FBI, said in a statement it was later told the investigation would be led solely by federal authorities.

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Austin, TX

Flesh-eating screwworm may be moving closer to Texas on its own, ag commissioner says

Published

22 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Flesh-eating screwworm may be moving closer to Texas on its own, ag commissioner says

article

AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas agency is concerned that the flesh-eating New World screwworm could be getting closer to Texas without commercial livestock movement.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is sounding the alarm again for livestock owners to remain vigilant in watching for signs of the parasite in their animals.

Screwworm sighting near Texas

The latest:

Miller said in a Thursday release that a screwworm had been detected in a cow in González, Tamaulipas, a little more than 200 miles from the southern Texas border.

According to the commissioner, the cow had no reported history of movement outside Tamaulipas, and is the third active case reported there.

Officials in Mexico have not reported a known population of the worm in Tamaulipas. They’re working with U.S. authorities to investigate further into the new case.

What they’re saying:

“The screwworm now may be moving closer on its own, with no apparent link to commercial animal movement,” Commissioner Miller said. “Texas producers must act now—stay informed, stay vigilant, and prepare immediately. We cannot drop our guard for even a moment.”

Inspect livestock for screwworm

What you can do:

Miller urged immediate action from ranchers along the Texas border.

“Inspect your animals daily,” Miller said. “Check every open wound. If anything looks suspicious, report it right away. Better a false alarm than a delayed response—early detection and rapid reporting are our strongest defenses against this devastating pest.”

U.S. plan to fight screwworm in Texas

Big picture view:

The threat to cattle has been deemed so potentially devastating to the U.S. food supply that the federal government is committing $850 million to fight it.

Most of that money will be spent on building a sterile male fly production facility near the border.

The facility will produce 300 million sterile male flies a week to be dropped into target areas where the screwworm is now. Those male flies help to reduce the population size through mating without reproducing.

A much smaller portion of the funding will be used for screwworm detection technology.

In addition, the federal government has already spent $21 million on a sterile fly production facility in Mexico.

What are New World screwworms?

Dig deeper:

The insect gets its name because it’s only found in the Americas.

It lays its eggs in the open wounds of animals, and its larvae become parasites, threatening livestock, domestic animals, and even people.

The screwworm was mostly eradicated in Texas and the rest of the United States in the 60s. But now, it’s moving north up from Panama and has a known presence a little over 300 miles south of the Texas-Mexico border.

The Source: Information in this article comes from Sid Miller.

Texas

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Austin, TX

LD Systems expands Texas Footprint with Austin Location and welcomes ILIOS Productions — TPi

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

LD Systems expands Texas Footprint with Austin Location and welcomes ILIOS Productions — TPi

For over two decades, ILIOS Productions has been a key part of the live events community in Austin, TX, transforming spaces and audience experiences with a vast range of lighting and video design, as well as event production services across a diverse client portfolio. Now, with the backing of parent company Clair Global, LD Systems, a Houston-based premier provider of audio, video, and lighting for event production and installed technology solutions, is welcoming ILIOS Productions to the team, marking the group’s fourth location in Texas. ILIOS Productions will now operate under the LD Systems brand.

LD Systems will further resource ILIOS’ existing Austin operation to include additional services such as audio and rigging for live events, as well as integration solutions and services. This addition helps round out LD Systems’ ability to locally serve major metropolitan areas across Texas, including Houston, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin and reflects Clair Global’s continued focus on offering global resources while maintaining strong local-market expertise and responsiveness.

ILIOS Productions’ experience spans the concert and festival sector, corporate and activations, and high-end private, philanthropic and charitable events. The company’s commitment to critical event delivery has established trust with major brands including Lollapalooza, SXSW, Austin City Limits, Google, YouTube, the University of Texas System and many more.

Founder, President & Sr Ops Manager of ILIOS Productions, Bryan Azar, said: “After many years of working alongside LD Systems in Austin and beyond, we are delighted to be joining their world-class organisation. This is an exciting new chapter for a bolder future together.”

Zach Boswell, General Manager, ILIOS Productions, added: “We are passionate about the work we do, and the community and business culture found at LD Systems is the ideal next step for our dedicated employees to progress as a united workforce.“

LD Systems co-founder and President, Rob McKinley commented: “We are delighted to amplify our service offerings in Austin with the addition of Bryan and his exceptional team of technology professionals. They have made a significant difference to many Texans with the work they undertake, and LD Systems is proud to welcome both their talent and ethos to the company.”

Building on this momentum, LD Systems also announced plans to expand its San Antonio facility into a new location in January 2026. Together with the addition of ILIOS Productions in Austin, this investment reinforces the organisation’s long-term investment in Texas and its dedication to meeting growing client demand with enhanced capacity and infrastructure.

www.ldsystems.com

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