Soul Kitchen Dance Site Content
Feel and move for the health of it. Movement and music to nourish your soul, with no steps to follow. Soul Kitchen Dance is a fun and liberating place for YOU to dance for JOY!
More mind body practice than traditional dance class, Soul Kitchen is an uplifting place to bring your whole self: happy, sad, tender, fierce, sassy, sensual, vulnerable – real. Soul Kitchen Dance provides a cathartic opportunity for tension release, heart expansion, and direct access to JOY!
Mission & Vision
Soul Kitchen Dance is a nonprofit, free-form, conscious dance organization promoting health and creating community through the shared love of movement and music.
Belongingness and strong community connection are vital human needs oftentimes lacking in our lives. Soul Kitchen Dance brings people together through a shared interest in music, movement and health ~ fostering strong and lasting community bonds. Soul Kitchen Dance accomplishes this by hosting regular weekly dances, an annual Spring retreat, quarterly community parties, and providing educational trainings for current and future facilitators.
What Is ‘Conscious’ Dance?
A Movement Practice Offering a Frolicking Good Time!
Ready to try something completely out of the box?
Something that’ll get you seriously sweaty, empty out your aggro, pump your productivity, boost your joy, and leave you peacefully still?
Soul Kitchen Dance – a free form, conscious dance – is an invigorating mind body practice of uncensored spontaneous movement for normal people just like you who love to dance when no one’s watching. Just think of it as rockin’ out to your favorite tunes at home, only So. Much. More. Imagine recess – grownup style – as a group of friends drop inhibitions and let loose; animating the room into a dynamic and interactive playground engendering total freedom of expression.
Fun with Benefits
Called “the happiness trick you haven’t tried” by Prevention Magazine, Swedish researchers have shown dance to improve mood and increase mental health. So fun it’s considered the exercise that “just doesn’t feel like exercise;” dancing does more than build cardiovascular, bone and muscle strength: it can also decrease onset of dementia, and boost immunity, memory and cognition according to the New England Journal of Medicine. And a Stanford study says “Dancing makes you smarter … improving mental acuity byrequiring split-second rapid-fire decision making … Trying unfamiliar, different kinds of movement creates new neural pathways by integrating several brain functions at once – kinesthetic, rational, musical, and emotional- further increasing your neural connectivity.”
So what Is a Conscious Dance?
There are some important distinctions about Conscious Dance that set it apart from most other dance experiences you’ve had. A Conscious Dance is not a “class” with a teacher instructing, but rather a facilitated space with a leader who sets the theme, tone and intention of the room. There is no following-the-leader and no structured steps. The focal point of the room is the center of the floor rather than the front mirrors, where a vortex of positive dancing energy lifts the group. It is not at all about what it looks like, but rather how it feels. Conscious Dance is spiritual in nature in that participants use this practice to bypass the thinking mind entirely – directly accessing the body’s wisdom for the sake of health, healing and spiritual growth.
What Happens?
Entering a conscious dance is like entering sanctuary: One’s outside life is left at the door. This is a ritual of community gathering. Gentle music and ambiance greet participants and the floor is open for warming and stretching. The facilitator then assembles an opening circle for a brief welcome and intention setting. The intention being that this is safe, sacred, fun, liberating space for all to drop their inhibitions and be free to express what is within them. Subsequently words fall away as the music becomes the invitation: starting in a smooth and flowing manner, climbing into more percussive and rhythmic beats, raising up into hard-driving tribal, club, electronic and house tracks, then bursting into celebratory, lyrically light tunes, and finally drifting into embodied stillness for integration and completion. The leader utilizes a vast array of musical styles to evoke many different moods and modes of movement, allowing for a full spectrum of cathartic self-expression and emotional release.
When the music ends, participants are guided back into a closing circle, allowing for a collective moment of silent meditation to integrate, hold and embody the accumulated joyful release inevitably offered by the dance. All participants are given an opportunity to share themselves with the group, which has now evolved into a deeply heartfelt and openly bonded community.
Movement as Meditation and Medicine
Because freeform dance requires 100% presence of the participant, it is an engaging form of meditation, coaxing the dancer to listen deeply and follow oneself faithfully. Unstructured freestyle movement generates a meditative, trancelike state out of which great joy, freedom and peace arise. The Conscious Dance floor becomes a majestic field of freedom inducing complete immersion into the present moment.
At its apex, the room heats and whirls into a tended crucible allowing for loud, stomping, primal sound and movement, catalyzing a frenzied floor of bodies romping mindlessly to the beat. This is where the medicine comes in. We all know that at times a much needed walk outdoors into nature and away from the chaos of our lives can be just what the doctor ordered. In opposition, ecstatic dance employs intentionally induced chaos – much like a vaccine’s injection of a small amount of the poison or disease – in order to move directly into and thereby through our very own internal fires; emerging cleansed, purified, transformed. Participants oftentimes report feelings of exaltation and release beyond verbal articulation. Many communicate a completely euphoric sense of emptiness upon completion.
Embodied Tribe
The community that gathers, though different each time, enters into complicit agreement that each individual is necessary and vital to the co-creation of this liberating environment. Going through the wave of movement and feelings of catharsis and release together generates a unifying experience for participants akin to tribe. People bond easily and effortlessly. Many newcomers find this to be their first authentic place of belonging in town.
FAQ
Do I need dance experience?
No. The less you “know” what you’re doing, the better. You’ll experience the magic of being danced – or becoming the dance – easier without any prior ideas of how it’s supposed to be done. In fact, it’s so not about what it looks like that we cover the mirrors to decrease self-consciousness. This is movement for all people, all bodies.
What kind of music is played?
Depending on the day, a range of various styles of music are woven together into an hour-plus long playlist including anything from world, reggae, jazz, blues, rock, folk, Latin, tribal, club, house, electronica, dance & DJ, R&B, soul, funk, gospel, classical and new age.
Do I need to be “spiritual” or know how to “meditate” to come?
Nope, not at all. The only necessary requirement for your attendance is a desire to dance for the joy of it.
What should I wear?
Wear comfortable clothes you’d do yoga and stretch in. Clothing that allows you full range of movement.
Come experience it for yourself!
It Feels So Good to Just Dance
“Soul Kitchen Dance offers me the opportunity to feel emotions more deeply than words. I find relief and intense beauty in the absence of language where I can express my emotions through universal movement. My heart center and body express itself more wisely than my voice – it is instinctive and primal. When I escape my mind, my feet know exactly where I need to go. They welcome me home and I transport into another realm. Buried thoughts and emotions from years past often surface and I am able to dance through them rather than stewing. Movement is my processing then letting go, leaving me light and oh so high- Medicine and Spiritual Healing.” ~ Kiva S.
A dancing tribe of your very own. Soul Kitchen is your rhythmic oasis, groove garden & sweat sanctuary. A place to feel & move freely from the depths of your soul.
“Thank you greatly for the incredible gift you share with this community in allowing us Freedom of Expression through movement. One of the most powerful forms of medicine I’ve experienced.” ~ Chelsea G.
Get juiced in a succulent & spacious movement playground offering you a powerful and potent container for authentic self expression, cathartic release and joyous liberation within conscious community.
Moving to music is medicinal and SKD’s got your prescription filled: an open floor with inviting music, an inclusive tribe, and unlimited opportunity and freedom for your soul to unfurl and your heart to shine!
Soul Kitchen Dance is:
A safe, sacred, fun and liberating space to find your own authentic movement
A fiercely freeing playground ~ everyone needs to play!
A spacious prayerground ~ dance your prayers in a reverent and respectful space
A soulful sanctuary that grooves ~ whatever you got, bring it to the floor and work it out!
A moving meditation ~ movement as method and medicine
A purifying sweat ritual of expression, surrender and release
A powerful and potent container for self-healing
Why ‘Soul Kitchen’ Dance?
This is music and movement to nourish the soul – spiritual food. Inside of safe space we foster authentic movement and shared vulnerability to sate the soul’s hungers for freedom, expression, release and connectivity. This spontaneous, unstructured, free form movement within the safety of our conscious container ‘feeds’ us more profoundly and in more ways than any substance can. It is fun, liberating movement that nurtures the soul’s cravings for health, wholeness and JOY!
What kind of dance is it?
This is a free form Conscious Dance with no steps to follow, akin to dancing freely alone at home, only we are in community feeding off the energy of others. The music inspires, your body guides you.
What kind of music is played?
Depending on the day, a range of various styles of music are woven together into an hour long playlist including anything from world, international, electronic, tech house, dub, glitch, hip hop, pop, reggae, jazz, blues, latin, percussion, tribal, r&b, soul, funk, gospel, DJ and new age.
Why is it called Conscious (or ecstatic) dance?
We are using our own spontaneous movement as a way to pay attention to our deeper selves, accessing the body’s wisdom beyond the mind’s thinking, and opening more direct avenues to authentic self-expression and joy.
Do I need to be “spiritual” or know how to “meditate” to come?
Nope, not at all. The only necessary requirement for your attendance is a desire to dance for the joy of it.
What should I wear?
Wear comfortable clothes you’d do yoga and stretch in. Clothing that allows you full range of movement.
What can I expect when I come for the first time?
We begin by circling up briefly for introductions, welcome and intention setting. The music then begins and runs for just over an hour starting in a gentle warm up mode and gradually lifting up into a rhythmic arc of highly danceable beats allowing all to shed inhibitions and dance freely. The music slowly decelerates through a cool down mode into silence and finally at the end we all gather for a closing circle
What do I need to bring?
Bring water, an open mind and a playful body.
Children Policy
We encourage you to come by yourself first to assess whether it’s a good fit for your children. The space is designed for adults and we encourage no talking, which may be difficult for children. However there are parents in our community who’ve felt comfortable enough to bring their children, and it works for them. Please make sure to watch over your child. It can also be loud, but we do have clean earplugs available. Children 18 and under are free with a paid adult.
BENEVOLENCE
Benevolence Sanctuary is a 100% substance-free, member-supported 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Fort Collins, Colorado as a home for Soul Kitchen Dance, a freeform movement community, thats intention is to assist our healing, growth and awakening. Benevolence is a dedicated place to gather, belong, and thrive through music, movement, art, nature, community, service & study.
We believe:
Embodiment is an important aspect of spirituality
‘Benevolence’ means for our highest good; even if that means allowing discomfort to transform us
Creating a 100% substance-free environment is necessary for optimal growth
Honoring the wisdom of diverse religious traditions benefits us all
Member-supported community engenders belongingness
Shared leadership creates a more powerful community
Diversity and equity galvanize more fruitful togetherness.
Something greater than us – the collective wisdom that we call The Divine – guides us. The divine is within each of us, between all of us, and always conspiring towards our highest good.
Holding these beliefs is not required to participate, and unnecessary to reap the benefits of our community
Mission Statement and Vision for Benevolence Sanctuary
Mission: Benevolence seeks to create an inclusive, welcoming sanctuary that empowers individual healing, celebrates collective wisdom, and galvanizes conscious community to assist our healing, growth and awakening, through group study, dance, movement, and other body-centered practices.
Vision We believe in the power of “Ubuntu”–a strong community and creative collaboration–to improve lives, foster meaningful relationships, and bring about both individual and collective healing. Benevolence aims to unite a flourishing community of people, healers, creatives, and contributors all connected by their love of music, movement, art, nature, spirituality and healing.
Alongside offering embodiment, personal growth and belongingness, Benevolence will become a service-powered and community-driven oasis in Fort Collins. We will develop unique projects in which the music, movement, art, books, wisdom, and culture that inspire us can come together in service of our individual and collective healing.
Our Story:
Rachel Philippe founded Soul Kitchen Dance (SKD) in 2013 as a “safe, sacred, fun, and liberating environment for people to drop their inhibitions and move freely for the health of it.”
It began as one dance per week with the conviction that the joy of freeform movement is for everyone, and that moving to music improves health of body, mind, and spirit. Very soon the practice spawned so much more–most importantly, the strong bonds of community belongingness which drove her to build SKD into a nonprofit organization in 2016.
As the community grew, so too did the offerings; more weekly dances were added, then the creation of Ladies Lab for women to heal, a book study, antiracism work, meditation and Qigong. This growth necessitated the need for a permanent home, so Benevolence was formed as a nonprofit organization in 2019 to house the expanding SKD community and as a sanctuary to extend its non-profit work into the greater Fort Collins community.
Values/Philosophy:
Benevolence Sanctuary is a substance-free oasis of healing in Fort Collins, Colorado, providing community activities in a welcoming, inclusive, non-judgmental environment for people moving through life’s mental, emotional, and financial challenges together. Benevolence offers people a therapeutic refuge to find safety and interconnectedness through embodiment and spirituality practices that bolster mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. This multigenerational community benefits a diverse population through connection to body, mind, spirit, environment, music, art, education, and each other. Benevolence serves as a positive alternative to the bar scene for people in need of meaning and movement in their lives, creating fertile and life-supporting opportunities for people to form quality relationships.
Teens, adults, and elders can all connect through dancing, singing, art, gardening, cooking and learning together, creating a legacy for many generations to come.
The problems Benevolence solves:
Especially after a year of pandemic lockdown and zoom sessions, we are all aware of the increase in loneliness, isolation, depression, addiction, mental health, suicidal ideation, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, lack of engagement and withdrawal of retired, semi-retired, single & widowed elders, at risk youth, single parents, and strained families. Benevolence provides fellowship, camaraderie, recovery, and engagement in an uplifting and edifying atmosphere of love.
Belongingness and strong community connection are vital human needs oftentimes lacking in our lives. Benevolence brings people together through a shared interest in music, movement, spirituality, healing, art and nature; fostering strong and lasting community bonds. Benevolence accomplishes this by offering regular weekly embodiment practices, community groups, book study, antiracism work, addiction recovery programs, gardening, cooking, music and art making, indigenous wisdom and land stewardship.