501(c)3 Non-Profit Founded by Maria Genné
Transforming Lives with Dance, Music, Story and Research.
501(c)3 Non-Profit Founded by Maria Genné
Transforming Lives with Dance, Music, Story and Research.
Kairos Alive! connects people of all ages and abilities through performing arts, and arts and health research engagement to connect senior centers and organizations serving people with disabilities and caregivers locally, nationally and internationally.
Innovative programs include Intergenerational Dance Hall™ events with with 100-2000 participants, Dancing Heart™ weekly sessions, and Moving Well™ training.
For the past seven years, we’ve expanded our reach with interactive webcasts that connect senior centers and organizations serving people with disabilities across the state. Our work has been recognized nationally, from PBS’s Arts and the Mind documentary to an upcoming film on caregiving. We’ve earned distinctions from the National Endowment for the Arts and major health organizations for our pioneering work in creative aging, and arts and health.
Inspiring connection, mental and physical well-being, and belonging, to recover community and health.
Our impactful programs help people:
- Embrace their creativity in diverse intergenerational communities.
- Improve mental, social, cognitive, and physical health.
- Be valued as creative leaders, especially older adults and people with disabilities.
- Celebrate their identities, and appreciate the diverse backgrounds of others.
- Find comfort and belonging in a supportive, empathetic community.
- Share personal stories, creating a space of mutual support and healing.
- Feel empowered to enhance their lives with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and well-being.
Our Programs
The Saint Paul Foundation recognized our work as “a place and practice for community healing.”
Per the work of Albert Memmi (The Colonizer and the Colonized), we seek to ameliorate and heal from the effects of colonialism of mind and body through the recovery of self.
By the creation of a container of creative safety where we can take artistic risks, and the encouragement of even the smallest beginnings of this risk-taking, healthful individual and group change can happen as we recover parts of our original self believing, enthusiastic and valued selves within community.
Intergenerational Dance Hall™
A revival of the dance hall as the community intersection of artistic, physical and social involvement – designed for all ages and abilities (ages 5-101), with elders at the center. These intergenerational, intercultural events feature live music, and participatory dance, story and theatre – intended to promote arts participation, health education and personal and community well-being. These are often paired with other health promotion programs of collaborating organizations. Mounted as street dances, and in diverse settings of collaborating organizations. Serving 100 to 2000 participants.
Dancing Heart™
A nationally recognized program which vitally engages older adults of every ability, – including those who are physically frail, with Parkinson’s, early-mid-late stage Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia – in weekly arts participation and health education through interactive dance and storytelling. These 90-minute sessions put elders at the center of community activities, and have shown to positively improve the health of participants.
Moving Well™
Useful for people serving those with neurocognitive impairment, including early and mid to late stage memory loss, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, and for people of all ages with developmental disabilities. Tools and techniques are introduced that can be immediately applied to work and life.
Beneficial for medical and nursing professionals, social service and arts professionals, administrators, activities specialists, program managers, students, family and professional caregivers, volunteers, citizen activists.
Kairos Clubhouse™
Weekly interactive Zoom webcast that connects participants across generations. This virtual gathering creates a vibrant caregiving community, combining creative activities like dance, storytelling, and music in an inclusive, participatory format.
Anti-Racism & Accessibility Training
Build an inclusive, equitable environment rooted in embodied healing practices, these workshops help staff and volunteers of all backgrounds develop tools for fostering equity and accessibility. Available in both in-person and live virtual formats, with options for introductory sessions or CEU-credited courses.
Testimonials
Words from Participants
Diana Hawkins
Executive Director, Hawthorne Neighborhood Council, Minneapolis
We’d never seen this before where [Kairos] would come and dance, tell stories, and get you engaged. It’s great! It’s a joy to be on the Kairos Clubhouse [webcast]. A person I know was very isolated for a while; they didn’t interact with people as well as they should. But once they joined the clubhouse, you can see a total difference in this person. They’re more outgoing, more energetic. It’s exercise not only for the body, but for the brain as well. I highly recommend Kairos to anyone who is looking to have fun, learn, experience different cultures, and feel what it’s like to be a part of something and be considered family.
Alethea Koehler
Executive Director, Stevens County DAC, Morris, MN and Swift County DAC, Benson, MN
It’s fabulous! It’s unique. Our clients really get into the interaction and activities with the Kairos Clubhouse. You can hear them from down the hallway. We have lunch right afterwards and you can hear the clients chattering about the show during lunch. I think the intercultural celebration in the show is especially important out here in rural Minnesota. It’s good to meet virtually like this and experience some of the intercultural enjoyment that people in the Cities probably have more access to. Before the pandemic I don’t know if we would have felt comfortable with this virtual program, but now we appreciate it. It certainly expands experiences for our clients.
Dawn Lamping
Activities Director, Floodwood Adult Day Services, Floodwood, MN
We love it! There are about 10-12 people who participate. We are watching the show on a large screen TV in one of our activity rooms. There is some shuffling around in our building as we try to accommodate all the programs, but we plan to continue [with the webcast] for the rest of the season.
Sally Peterson
Director of Programs and Kate Blessing, Director of Community Relations, Martin Luther Care Center.
We love how Kairos Alive! meets residents where they are and encourages creative engagement, individual expression, community, and recognition of legacy. Intergenerational programs show commonalities between age groups, break down stereotypes, and build empathy.
Donna Ronning
Participant, St. Louis Park, MN
“It’s a great hour of movement, singing, interacting and joyfulness. It’s an hour to enjoy life together [with my mother who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease] with the Kairos artists. Music and dance give me joy! It’s jam-packed and full of fun. My mother becomes more lively and engaged [in the sessions].”
Centro Tyrone Guzman
Participant, Minneapolis, MN
“I came a seventy-year-old and left a fifty-year-old!”
about
Who We Serve
Our programs primarily serve older adults (average age 73) and people of all ages with physical and cognitive disabilities. Many participants live with chronic health conditions, Alzheimer’s, or physical disabilities, and about two-thirds live near or below the poverty level. We also engage caregivers, families, and extended communities, creating a welcoming space for individuals of diverse backgrounds and life experiences.
We educate and contribute to research in the fields of arts and health, and creative aging, and encourage professionals, families, and citizen activists to participate in and advocate for this work.
Our Approach
We recover and re-weave community and health through creativity and research engagement. In our intergenerational, intercultural events, families and communities connect, with elders and neurodivergent individuals at the heart. Our activities—music, dance, storytelling—help participants discover cultural meaning and universal connections, building bonds across generations. This “community healing” approach is a practice recognized by the Saint Paul Foundation, aiming to heal the effects of social divides and foster a sense of personal and collective wholeness.
Help Us Make a Difference
When you donate to Kairos Alive!, you’re helping create a world where older adults, people with disabilities, and community members of all backgrounds can find joy, purpose, and connection through the arts. Your support fuels programs that improve mental, physical, and emotional well-being, bringing vibrant intergenerational experiences to those who may have limited access to creative engagement.
Meet Some of Kairos Alive! Sponsors
UPCOMING EVENTS
In addition to the events below, join the Kairos Clubhouse Thursdays, 10:30am CT
on our Zoom webcast.
Please email us at [email protected] for info and links.
