Dance Church on hold due to landlord, tenant dispute

Oct. 25—Santa Fe devotees of Dance Church are losing their religion, at least temporarily.

For years the group has gathered at a south-side warehouse once or twice a week to engage in free-form movement in a safe space accompanied by music played by local DJs.

Dance Church is a welcoming place where dancers, particularly women, can be vulnerable and express themselves physically without fear or judgement, organizer Kurt "Siorge" Prassé said Monday.

"It facilitates a form of personal catharsis, but also spiritualism," he said. "It's a form of worship, a form of prayer, and [participants] feel connected to a high power, as New Age as that might sound."

But there was no Dance Church last week.

Prassé claimed that's because Scott Lewis — the new owner of About the Music, the venue where the event is is held — has locked the group out and is attempting to break their lease.

Prassé filed an emergency petition for injunctive relief Friday, asking the state District Court to order Lewis and his wife Anna Lewis to allow Dance Church to continue meeting at the Fox Road venue "until the court make a further determination."

"Doing so will allow these activities which have become so important to the Santa Fe Community to safely continue and perhaps in the future transition to a different venue gracefully," he wrote in the petition, which he filed without the aid of a lawyer.

Lewis declined to comment Monday. His attorney said she'll be filing a reply in the case later this week.

Prassé, 60, says he been involved in similar events — sometimes called ecstatic dance or 5 Rhythms — in San Francisco and Australia over the years and took over Santa Fe's group in 2021 after it had been meeting at About the Music since 2018.

Prassé's petition says he signed a new, two-year contract with the previous landlord in 2021, which allowed the group to use the space for the dance four hours per week — and for Prassé to maintain an office there — through December 2023.

As part of the deal, Prassé built an expensive dance floor inside the upgraded warehouse and was reimbursed for half the cost of the materials, the lawsuit said. The rent was set at $240 per month.

But things got complicated after the building's original owner died, according to Prassé. The previous owner's heirs pressured him to relinquish his lease, Prassé said in his petition, "in order to make the warehouse more sellable."

Because the events had become "very important to the local community" and he'd invested considerable time and money promoting the event and constructing the floor, Prassé said he initially refused but eventually "grudgingly agreed" to give up the lease for $50,000, thinking he could use the money to find Dance Church a new home.

Before the papers were signed, the heirs sold the property to the Lewises.

According to the petition, Scott Lewis began making demands and tried to pressure Prassé into retroactively changing the terms of the existing contract.

Prassé said when he refused, Lewis and two "bodyguards" physically blocked his entry to the space "as an act of revenge" and he's been locked out of his office ever since.

Prassé's petition says Dance Church regularly draws 20 to 50 participants, many bringing their children to be cared for on-site "allowing the parents moments of freedom for self-care introspection, emotional support and often also to quietly process grief about the current covid criss and the economic downturn."

"For me, it was like a sanctuary or a heaven," regular participant Bonny Moss said Friday. "It was one of the very few places in my life I felt completely safe. I didn't get hit on or asked out. As a woman, that's like gold. ... For me it was healing to get to move my body and not be sexualized. I think calling it Dance Church is really accurate. It's like therapy, pleasure, fun, exercise and community all in one place."

The success of the venture is dependent on consistency, Prassé argues in the petition. "Even a slight drop in attendance can have an exponential effect and further decimate attendance ultimately leading to failure of the years long effort without much hope of rebuilding."

State District Judge Kathleen Ellenwood McGarry as been assigned to hear the case, but no hearing had been scheduled as of Monday.