Our Story

This enthusiastic dancer, musician, puppeteer, storyteller and theater artist is long associated with Ethnic Dance Theater and Heart of the Beast Theater in Minneapolis. He was an environmental educator on Pete Seeger’s Hudson River Sloop Clearwater in Beacon, NY; was music director at St. Elizabeth Seton School, Minneapolis; taught dance at the Twin Cities Waldorf School, and grade 5-12 social studies in Minneapolis Public Schools. He taught creative arts to children on the Red Lake Nation, and conversational English through music and improvisation as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in Graz, Switzerland. He is a participant in the Creative Community Leadership Institute at Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis.

MEd, Teaching Artist

Parker Genné is a singer-actor-teacher, who serves as a lead Teaching Artist for Kairos Alive! She has been teaching and performing with Kairos Alive! since 2011 and is the dance mentor for ArtSage MN Artists Training. As a performer, Parker has been bringing her hit cabaret comedy show Ms. Luisa Eats to stages in Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York and Scotland since 2008. With co-collaborator Emilia Allen, Parker launched a new theater company, Impossible Salt, at the 2014 Minnesota Fringe Festival. Star Tribune said of their premier production, Tatterhood, “Genné is feral in the title role…in this wildly imaginative production.” Impossible Salt’s production Heartless ran in the 2015 MN Fringe Festival. The company is collaborating with the American Swedish Institute for a new show, The Stranger, in November 2015. Parker received a Bachelor of Music in voice performance from Lawrence University and has been teaching music, theater and dance to all ages since 2002.

BA, Teaching Artist

Maria Genné is a dancer, choreographer and educator, recognized as a pioneering leader in the intergenerational interactive participatory performing arts, and arts and health fields. Her national award winning work to create interactive dance, music and story programs for intergenerational participants is designed to tap into the artistry and creativity of older adults and invite them to be central collaborators in the artistic process of dance, music and storytelling. It models a new and vital role in society for the community based professional performing artist, and new possibilities of intergenerational community enjoyment and understanding. Her 65+ choreography works are recognized for their ability to highlight the beauty of human experience through movement and story.

In 2001, Maria developed The Dancing Heart™, a nationally recognized, evidence-based program which engages older adults of all abilities in weekly, interactive arts participation and health education. It was featured in the 2012 PBS documentary, Arts & the Mind, and is recognized as a model arts involvement program by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), and winner of awards for program innovation by the American Public Health Association, American Society on Aging, and others.

Romeo is recognized for his affability, and capacity to receive pats, scratches and rubs.

MEd, Founder/Director and Romeo, Certified Therapy Dog

Kevin’s talents as a drummer and composer have made him a favorite among musicians in New York and Minneapolis. He currently leads his own group called The Kevin Washington Quintet, performs in a band with bassist Anthony Cox called Happy Spirits, as well as Mississippi Quartet, and the Nachito Herrera Trio for the last 12 years, Viva Brazil and Hip-Hop group called Toki Wright and This Debris. Kevin has performed with Reggie Workman, Roscoe Mitchell, Rodney Whitaker, Bob Hurst, Antonio Hart, Chico Freeman, James Carter, Fred Wesly, Roy Brooks, Marcus Belgrave, David Murray Big Band, Fred Hopkins, Craig Taborn, James Newton to name a few.

He was born in 1975 in Detroit, Michigan to musicians and music scholars Donald and Faye Washington.  His musical career began at the age of five with his first performances at the Detroit jazz festival.  As a young performer he also played at jazz festivals in Chicago, Alabama, and Connecticut.

After first moving to Minneapolis at the age of thirteen, Kevin went on to New York City in 1996 to study jazz at the New School for Social Research. During his stay in New York he taught rhythm section fundamentals at the Harlem School of the Arts.

Associate Teaching Artist

Cris is a welcome folk fiddler, poet and theater artist. He plays at local Scandinavian dances (appears on American Swedish Institute Spelmanslag CD, Love is Hard to Hide), his poems and essays have been published regionally, and he founded and is a 20-year director of an interactive participatory folk theater, Big Woods Theater of Involvement. He is a professional writer and video producer (national award-winning PBS documentary Visible Target) who often writes and produces videos for us. In his other life, he is a relationship coach and wedding celebrant.

Associate Teaching Artist