Chakradance Kids was born from the serendipitous meeting of two passionate women – Natalie Southgate, founder of Chakradance, a global modality for adults, and Anna Kelly, a children’s wellbeing practitioner with a background in holistic therapies and yoga. Both had independently envisioned bringing the healing power of movement to children, and when their paths crossed, the synergy was undeniable. Within days of connecting, they registered their business and began developing a unique program that would go on to support children’s emotional and energetic wellbeing across the world. Today, Chakradance Kids is an accredited, internationally taught modality, helping children thrive through joyful, embodied self-expression. Here, Anna talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind their business, their biggest breakthrough, and their hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
It was really a case of two passionate souls colliding. Natalie had already established Chakradance, a global modality for adults, and felt a deep calling to support children’s wellbeing too. She had started exploring how to adapt the adult modality for children.
I was working in children’s wellbeing through my holistic therapies clinic and teaching yoga in kindergartens and schools when our paths crossed. I had started the Chakradance Facilitator training and kept seeing this as a great way to work with children. I reached out to Natalie via email with a vision I had. I’m also a writer so I wrote her a fairytale basically, of my vision. Meanwhile, Natalie had been asking the Universe for a person to come forward and help bring this to children when the ‘you’ve got mail’ notification arrived in her inbox.
One email, a phone call and a plane flight later, we met! Within three days, we had registered a company, engaged a business accountant and Chakradance Kids was born.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
We hit the ground running. I approached the Principal at a school where I was already running yoga classes and introduced them to our nine-week program (that we were creating at the time). It was immediately accepted, so our very first classes were established in the primary education setting.
At the same time, we created our online Facilitator Training, which was later accredited with the IICT – and here we are today!
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
We believe we achieved a significant breakthrough with our program’s early acceptance into the education system. Our Facilitators are actively teaching classes in both early years and primary sectors, positively impacting children in 17 countries to date. This year, we are excited to celebrate some remarkable advancements.
Chakradance Kids has been recognised by the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) as an approved wellbeing modality, and we’ve also received global accreditation for our courses, acknowledged for CPD approval. After all the years of dedication, I truly feel we are starting to make a meaningful and lasting impact
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
That is the question! Natalie and I have learned (the hard way) over the years that downtime and self-care are essential, not just for sustaining the work but for enjoying the journey, too.
We both try to take regular time out to spend quality time with our families (it’s quality not quantity right), and our own health and fitness is a daily priority. It can be more challenging when you have young children, but it does get easier.
