About
Kairos Alive! connects people of all ages and abilities through performing arts, and arts and health research engagement to connect senior, disabled, LGBTQIA+ folx and caregivers locally, nationally and internationally. Innovative programs include Intergenerational Dance Hall™ events with 50-2,000 participants, Dancing Heart™weekly sessions, and our Moving Well™training.
For the past seven years, we’ve expanded our reach with interactive webcasts, the Kairos Clubhouse™ and training for staff and volunteers. Recognized as a pioneering leader in the fields of Creative Aging, Arts and Health, and Participatory Arts, whose work has contributed to research in the fields; programs recognized as models by the NEA and the American Public Health Association.
Meet the Kairos Team
Kairos Alive! is an artist and teacher-led research-based performing arts and learning non-profit founded in 1999.
Kairos Alive! is a pioneering artist- and teacher-led nonprofit, blending research-based performing arts with meaningful community engagement. Since our founding in 1999, we’ve brought the transformative power of dance, music, and storytelling to people of all ages and abilities.
Elinor Genné
Executive Director
She/Her/Hers
Elinor Genné is an accomplished leader with a dynamic career spanning the arts, education, and strategic production. She brings extensive experience in corporate, government, and non-profit sectors to her current role, where she drives innovation, collaboration, and operational excellence.
Elinor’s commitment to the arts began in her youth as a performer in Young Dance, her mother’s young people’s dance company. Her early passion for creative expression was complemented by her engagement with Shakespearean theater, where she took on lead roles such as Juliet and Titania/Hippolyta. Her academic journey further enriched her artistic and cultural perspectives, including a semester at the University of Ghana studying dance.
In college, Elinor demonstrated early leadership as Chair of the Art Students Committee, managing grants, curating exhibitions, and producing a visiting artist lecture series. Her professional curatorial roles at The Textile Center and The Tychman Shapiro Gallery deepened her expertise in gallery management and community engagement.
Elinor’s commitment to social impact is exemplified by her tenure with the NYC Mayor’s Office, where she played a pivotal role in the Pre-K for All initiative under Mayor Bill de Blasio. Collaborating with families, community leaders, and policymakers, she helped advance equitable access to early childhood education. This dedication to equity is deeply rooted in her family’s history of civil rights advocacy.
In the private sector, Elinor has excelled as an integrated producer, creating compelling video and photographic content for major clients such as Target Corporation and spearheading immersive pop-up events.
Since 2003, Elinor has been a vital member of Kairos Dance. She initially performed with the intergenerational dance company at esteemed venues such as the Walker Art Center and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Her leadership within the organization has grown significantly, culminating in her appointment to oversee operations in 2021, following her success in producing the Clubhouse show.
Elinor’s multifaceted background and strategic vision position her as a transformative leader, dedicated to fostering creativity, equity, and organizational growth.
Parker Genné
Artistic Director
She/Her/Hers
Parker is a Mom, disabled artist, inclusive teacher, care partner and naturalist, whose first language is music and dance. Parker creates original music-theater-dance folk operas. She is an inclusive arts educator and performing artist who has worked with and presented internationally with Kairos Alive (KA) for the last 13 years. Her cabaret comedy work, Ms. Luisa Eats, inspired by her Italian ancestors, the Gennarelli’s who immigrated from Casalciprano, Italy, and the famous Italian opera singer Luisa Tetrazzini, is based in the vaudeville tradition. It garnered praise for her “mix of character comedy, well-executed opera, and spaghetti” (Broadway Baby-Edinburgh Fringe).
Genné’s work is inspired by personal and historical narratives on disability, motherhood/parenthood, and folktales. For Genné, folktales are a framework for our lives. Through this work and as founder of Folktopia, an intergenerational and all ability multidisciplinary band, Genné brings programming to settings in health, education, arts, social services, organic and biodynamic farming, community centers, parks and recreation, museums that includes people with disabilities, older adults, and caregivers.
A graduate of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Vocal Performance, and a lifelong dancer, she believes in using the natural world, healing systems, and narratives as starting points for creation. She has developed 22+ works, and has been presented by MacPhail Spotlight Series, Struther’s Parkinson Ctr and Edinburgh Fringe and created works in collaboration with American Swedish Institute’s programming for many years. She has received multiple Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Individuals grants, and multiple grants from Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (Minnesota) in support of new folk operas Silver Hands and Pool Party with Folktopia band and Ms. Luisa Eats cabaret.
With KA she has engaged people at the VA Medical Center, including both people receiving care and professional caregivers and staff, Centro Tyrone Guzman, Minnesota Independence College and Community, Easterseals Florida, MN Orchestra, Winona Health, and 21 Roots Farm, Community Health workers, among others. Genné engages students of all ages and abilities in teaching and learning communities with KA and Folktopia, and lectures on her own research and pedagogy: Explorations in trauma-informed voice and movement learning for all ability classrooms. Her work is centered in service to community through art-making while engaging in radical welcome of all. Parker is grateful to her ancestors, especially her Mom, Maria Genné, Founder of Kairos Alive.
Vladimir Garrido-Biagetti
Music & Folk Dance Director
He/Him/His
Vladimir Garrido-Biagetti was born in South America in the city of Arica-Chile. He is a musician, folk dancer, community activist, director, producer, and sound engineer living in the Twin Cities since 2005. Folk music from the Andes Mountains and “La Nueva Canción Latino-Americana” influenced Vladimir’s first musical creations back in his homeland and still shapes the music he creates nowadays. Vladimir currently directs two latin senior choirs from Giving Voice in Minneapolis and St Paul, the local band Alma Andina, the mother and son duet Ina-Yukka, the Blue Condor Production Studio in St Paul, and the Music and Folk Dance Director at Kairos Alive!
Thomas Johnson
Music Director & Inclusive Music Education Specialist
He/Him/His
Thomas Johnson is an eclectic performer, composer/arranger/ and inclusive educator based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. His career as a recording artist includes co-founding the Johnson Family Band and D-Mills & the Thrills. Johnson has appeared as a guest musician on more than 25 albums.
As a composer/arranger, he has been commissioned by universities, secondary schools, and community bands/orchestras. As an inclusive educator he has taught at universities, all-ability community colleges, music schools, camps and music stores, as well as being a Teaching Artist and Co-Music Director for the non-profit organization Kairos Alive the last 11 years.
Tom has degrees in: Bachelor of Arts in Guitar Performance from Minnesota State University Moorhead, and Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy from the University of St. Thomas. For his thesis at St. Thomas he developed his own Classroom Guitar Method Book called, “Let’s Play.” Johnson teaches music to all ages and abilities, tailoring a new curriculum for every individual.
Cris Anderson
Teaching Artist/Communications
He/Him/His
Cris is a folk fiddler, poet and theater artist. He plays at local Scandinavian dances, and is
included on the American Swedish Institute Spelmanslag CD, Love is Hard to Hide. His poems and essays have been published regionally. He founded and directs the 30-year audience-as-artist participation theater for emotional and social healing, Minnesota Folktale Gardening Club. He has a background in television journalism and is a national award-winning documentary filmmaker: Visible Target, NYTimes: “Wondrously well done.” 2023 Dwight in Denmark now in festivals. He serves as a premarital counselor and wedding officiant.
The Kairos Company: Teaching & Performing Artists
WHAT WE DO
OUR ENGAGEMENT
We believe in the joy of intergenerational, all-abilities participatory arts to nurture, heal, and connect. Through innovative programs, we liberate the power of the performing arts to create communities rooted in belonging, inclusion, and celebration.
Kairos Alive! bridges the performing arts with over 60 community partners, including healthcare, social services, education, Tribal Nations, and local governments. Our art-based interventions engage individuals not traditionally seen as art makers, inviting them into inclusive, intercultural circles of creativity and shared celebration.
Our Teaching Artists reflect the communities we serve, co-creating programs that foster healing and belonging. Every activity is designed to empower participants to discover their artistic potential and build connections that improve well-being for all.