Our Mission
Critical Mass Dance Company (CMDC) awakens and activates the creative, intuitive power of the heart through dance & movement for healing, transformation and wellness in mind, body and spirit
What is Dance from the Heart?
CMDC teaches a trauma-informed, community-based embodiment practice called Dance from the Heart:
Check out this short Dance from the Heart demonstration from WeRise Walk for Wellness May, 2021!
- Dance From The Heart helps us to envision and embody our greatest visions for our lives and world
- As we embody and express these heart-felt intentions with movement, we help create the change we wish to see
Check out this short Dance from the Heart demonstration from WeRise Walk for Wellness May, 2021!
Our Vision
We envision a world where:
- Humanity is rooted in living & leading from the heart, creating change from the inside out
- All people have access to dance & other holistic embodiment practices that help them connect to their heart
- We embody an intersectional approach to unity and collaboration that celebrates the diverse human experience
- Heart-centered movement contributes to the well-being of humanity and our stewardship of the planet earth
Our Values
Dance is healing: Supporting holistic health and wellness on the physical, emotional, spiritual and mental levels with dance
Full creative expression of all people: Providing an environment that encourages all bodies to move and express freely
Respecting the inherent value in all: Appreciating that everyone has something important to contribute.
Creating community: Building strong, lasting relationships that lifts up the well-being of all
Transformation from within: Shifting our inner world (thoughts, feelings, etc) to make change in the external world
Heart-centered organizing: Embodying an organizing principle of heart-led leadership for inclusion, equity and collective action
Catalyzing social change: Raising consciousness to inspire peace and justice through healing movement
Full creative expression of all people: Providing an environment that encourages all bodies to move and express freely
Respecting the inherent value in all: Appreciating that everyone has something important to contribute.
Creating community: Building strong, lasting relationships that lifts up the well-being of all
Transformation from within: Shifting our inner world (thoughts, feelings, etc) to make change in the external world
Heart-centered organizing: Embodying an organizing principle of heart-led leadership for inclusion, equity and collective action
Catalyzing social change: Raising consciousness to inspire peace and justice through healing movement
Who We Are
Elena Sophia Kozak
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Elena Sophia Kozak (She/her/ella) founded Critical Mass Dance Company (CMDC) in 2010 with a dynamic group of activists envisioning a collective space for self/community care using heart-centered movement. As a Cuban-Czech American artivist, Sophia seeks to bridge worlds of social justice, healing arts and dance through her work experience as a community organizer, counselor/coach, director, and performing artist. To support community wellness through dance using a healing justice lens, she developed an embodiment practice called Dance from the Heart and wrote a book in 2017 called Dance from the Heart: Manifesting through Movement. Sophia holds a B.A. from UCLA and M.A. degrees in Spiritual Psychology (Counseling) and Nonprofit Management, and also works as a career counselor at Career Transition For Dancers, a program of The Actors Fund. |
Patille Violeta, Teaching Artist
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Patille Violeta discovered the healing power of dance when she joined Critical Mass Dance Company in 2016. She is one of CMDC's Teaching Artists and the Teen Empowerment Program Facilitator. Patille has been teaching Dance from the Heart classes to youth and women since 2017. She is passionate about creating brave and safe spaces for youth to ground, explore their identity, and discover their passions. Patille brings ten years of Youth Wellness Advocacy to her work. She is a trauma-informed Yoga teacher, Reiki Master Practitioner, Meditation Teacher, and Painter. Patille's mission is to support the community with tools that promote wellbeing, emotional resilience, inner peace, and positive self-esteem. |
Azucena Ortiz, Teaching Artist
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Azucena Ortiz (Ella/she/her/they) brings 17 years of experience in personal growth/healing, supporting diverse communities of families and individuals; facilitating non-violent parenting classes, retreats, trauma-informed workshops interweaving connecting communication, embodied listening, healing-centered modalities, trauma-informed care, and embodiment practices. Her desire for her children to grow in a better world ignited her passion for healing and social justice which then became her work and life journey. Her journey has led her to discover the complexity of relationships, intersectionality, and the impact of bigger systems. For the last 4 years, she’s worked as an independent consultant and co-founded Cambio Colectivo::Collective Change and The People’s Resource Center. Azucena joined CMDC as a dance student in 2016, developing a passion for healing through movement. In 2017 she became a board member and facilitator of the Women’s Empowerment program. She is currently in the process of completing her B.A. in Organizational Studies. |
Janet Lo, Teaching Artist
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Janet Lo (she/her/they) leads CMDC's virtual Dance from the Heart classes, workshops, and teacher training with the heartfelt intention of creating safe and brave spaces for healing and transformation. She is a second-generation Chinese Canadian embodiment facilitator with a background in Theater, Dance, TV + Production. After over a decade of work and burnout in the industry, she now focuses on guiding heart-centered healing of safety and relationship to the body through movement and embodiment practices. Janet is passionate about building a community of self-healers, movers, and shakers through ritualizing and prioritizing ease, rest, and play. At the core, she just loves to dance and believes dance has the most transformative powers to connect, explore, and celebrate our bodies. Instead of perpetuating body objectification, her aim is to empower, reclaim, and dismantle body-shaming culture by celebrating the invitation of “come as you are”. Virgo Sun, Libra Rising. 4/6 Reflector. Instagram: @Jglowgirl |
Misha Agunos, Teaching Artist
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Misha Agunos (she/her) is CMDC's resident logistics sprite and ritual witch. She helps build and maintain processes and structures that optimize for support, ease, and flow in her fellow teaching artists' class coordination. She helps crystallize inspiration and wisdoms into concrete workshops and courses within the Dance from the Heart framework--using trauma-informed principles to create communal spaces for grounding, nourishing, and return to self. After extensive experience developing training and curricula for start-ups, she tired of writing the same resignation letter every 12-18 months to organizations committed to exploiting their BIPOC employees and patrons. She is now focused on creating trauma-informed learning spaces and embodied movement practices. As a long-time social dancer, performer, and pole dancer, she is fascinated with how spaces of connection and leisure/pleasure can create community cultures that 1. instill their members with liberatory values and 2. move them to meaningful action. Misha also spends her time as a writer, painter, astrology enthusiast, budding tarot practitioner, video game aficionado, reiki student, and avid home cook. |
CMDC Wisdom Circle - Board of Directors
Wisdom Circle Members support the growth of CMDC with their love, time, energy and expertise.
We thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their service!
We thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their service!
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♥️
Betina Steiger, Board Chair Aracely Lozano, Board Treasurer Johanna Iraheta, Board Secretary Vashti Blacker, Board Secretary Maria Franco-Rahman, Board Member Misha Agunos, Board Member Tara Contreras-Peters, Board Member Thelma Orellana, Board Member ♥️ |
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Inclusion Statement
CMDC’s mission aims to foster healing, empowerment and the liberation of Black, Indigenous, and Immigrant communities of color through the transformative act of dance and movement. We aspire to break free from our system’s inequities by uplifting all bodies expressions, abilities, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. We welcome the full participation of gender beyond the binary, sexuality as a galaxy and a collaborative creation of a healthy, diverse and inclusive community through dance.
Policy:
At CMDC we value equity, inclusion, diversity and stand for nondiscrimination. We operate from a critical understanding and analysis of the intersectional complexities that impact the most vulnerable communities in Los Angeles and beyond. Our dance and movement practice is a tool for healing justice that supports self-care, community wellness and the dismantling of systems of oppression that promote dis-ease and mental illness. Our programs are delivered with compassion and empathy as we strive to create a safe and brave environment that supports our participants to heal from trauma and to envision and embody liberatory dreams for their lives and the world.
Action Plan:
CMDC is committed to providing accessible classes to historically marginalized communities throughout Los Angeles. We center the wellness of immigrants (documented and undocumented), girls & women, LGBTQIA+, Black and Indigenous communities. We provide free and low-cost classes in multiple languages, across L.A’s city landscape and throughout the country. We work and collaborate with other nonprofit organizations and community agencies who uphold our values of equity and liberation and who provide invaluable support to underserved communities. Through our partnerships, CMDC offers various programs at no/low cost to our participants to ensure accessibility.
Policy:
At CMDC we value equity, inclusion, diversity and stand for nondiscrimination. We operate from a critical understanding and analysis of the intersectional complexities that impact the most vulnerable communities in Los Angeles and beyond. Our dance and movement practice is a tool for healing justice that supports self-care, community wellness and the dismantling of systems of oppression that promote dis-ease and mental illness. Our programs are delivered with compassion and empathy as we strive to create a safe and brave environment that supports our participants to heal from trauma and to envision and embody liberatory dreams for their lives and the world.
Action Plan:
CMDC is committed to providing accessible classes to historically marginalized communities throughout Los Angeles. We center the wellness of immigrants (documented and undocumented), girls & women, LGBTQIA+, Black and Indigenous communities. We provide free and low-cost classes in multiple languages, across L.A’s city landscape and throughout the country. We work and collaborate with other nonprofit organizations and community agencies who uphold our values of equity and liberation and who provide invaluable support to underserved communities. Through our partnerships, CMDC offers various programs at no/low cost to our participants to ensure accessibility.