Katya Stepanov

Today is my Babushka Rimma’s 83rd birthday!

She is an absolute legend, my favorite actress, the greatest of all time, the silliest, most joyful, most vibrant and beloved.

Scroll through to see where I get my playful spirit.

My Babushka was born in Siberia in 1943. She grew up running around in grasses taller than her and foraging mushrooms from the Taiga. I am slowly writing my memoir, and was recently asking her questions about her childhood.

I’ll share this excerpt from that conversation today:

She closes her eyes and remembers another house.

Not her grandmother’s, but another old couple they lived with while her father was serving in the army. She was barely a year old. They called her “Rymka”. They clapped their hands and told her to dance, and she did.

“Because dancing lives inside us,” she says.
From a thousand years ago.

She remembers the rivers.

Three of them near her grandfather’s village. One for drinking water. One for washing. One that simply flowed. A great river nearby, so wide it felt like an ocean. They traveled it by boat.

She was six. Lyova, her brother was four. A young man ferried them across. To her mother, he was just a boy. To her, he seemed old. Time is funny like that.

She remembers the grass again.

So tall it could be cut with a scythe taller than the child holding it. Haymaking. Rivers. Nets cast by her grandparents together, pulling fish from the water as if reenacting something ancient. Like a spell. Like a story older than language.

Fish were always close.
Life was close.

And when she speaks of cliffs rising along the riverbanks, her voice softens.

Some things remain untouched, even now.

May my babushka continue to shine a light upon my whole family. May she continue in good health, bearing the wisdom of our lineage so that my children may get to receive it from her heart.

С днем рождения, Бабушка!!! Я тебя люблю 💓

#бабушка #сднёмрождения

JOURNEY TO DANCE BEYOND ✨💓

I am overjoyed to join the AMAZING lineup and return to .beyond for my fourth year. I love nothing more than gathering at the beautiful with friends turned family to celebrate, dance, sing, swim and play.

This is the community that raised me from the dance floor to the DJ booth, and has supported my artistic journey from day 1.

Dance Beyond was my first-ever festival slot — and now, four years later I have performed at 10+ festivals and hundreds of stages, headlined and supported some of my favorite artists and still feel like it’s just the beginning…

To get to grow IN COMMUNITY is the greatest gift. I am so excited to be back on this sacred land, embodying the kind of world that is possible when we come together in reverence to sound, earth, movement and ceremony.

DM me for a discount code ✨ see you on the forest floor 🌲

💋 SPASIBA

It is the greatest gift to be able to celebrate Mother’s Day with my Мама, Бабушка and our whole family. To have the opportunity to walk through the garden together, to witness all that is blooming in our lives and reflect on the immeasurable sacrifice, love and strength carried across three generations to this moment is a blessing.

My Бабушка was born during WWII in Siberia, and crossed the entire world to live with us in the US when I was 3 years old. My mother made the choice to leave her entire life behind and bring me across the ocean to America, to pursue a better life in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union.

To be raised by these women is an absolute honor.

Today, I celebrate them and their impact on my life — one of sweetness, joy, beauty and willpower unlike any other.

Happy Mother’s Day to us and to all mothers past, present and future, as well as our great Mother, Mother Earth, for all her infinite blessings.

💓🌸💐🌷🌺🌼🪷🪻💓

Once upon a February portal, two hungry girls decided they were hungry for MORE — more creativity, more life, more chocolate, more freedom to create. And so they spent several days in a cabin, living their best lives, speaking poetry to one another and fanning each other’s creative flames 🔥

Since I was young, this right here has been my favorite thing to do. Extended playdates. No agenda, just flow. Just a new place with someone who brings out the dormant sides of you.

As adults we forget to have extended playdates and I think it is plaguing our society. It’s time for the return of the extended play date. It’s time to rent a cabin with your best friends and here is your agenda:

✨ dance, a lot
✨ sing at the top of your lungs
✨ read your poems out loud
✨ go out in nature
✨ prioritize play and presence over plans
✨ share your art with each other
✨ make silly videos
✨ eat nourishing food, a lot
✨ laugh, then laugh some more

A year ago, I launched my Patreon portal — a small group container where I am the mentor/muse/guide/creative doula for artists and creators who are ready to cross a threshold into a new version of themselves.

Today, my Chrysalis program is 99% full. Dreams come true when we choose them. You achieve more by being true to yourself than you ever will listening to someone else’s advice.

There is 1 seat left for someone who wants more of this. If that’s you, DM me. 🪑

If you’re watching this and it makes you think of a friend who brought the silly out of you, CALL THEM. These friends are gold. Spend more time with them. You won’t regret it.

I love you like Bowie loves rock & roll.
Thank you for this magic portal. It healed something in me!

All poetry and dance moves here are original.
The music we’re dancing to is my Ecstatic Dance set on SoundCloud (link in my bio — Beacon Ecstatic Dance set) ✨

💋💋💋
Katya

Have I spent every day possible in the garden since returning from Japan? Why yes, yes I have.

Frolicking in nature with friends is my definition of peak joy.

If we’re going to create a new consensus reality, which we so clearly and desperately need to do, it better be one centered around: children, flowers, dancing, joy, delight and sensuality. Spring embodies all of these qualities, she is our teacher if we are willing students! She shows us how to play again!

Has the trash fire of the world got you down? Go outside! Go smell a lilac! Go dance under a cherry tree! We need you resourced and inspired to take down the system 🌸🌸🌸

I’ve had the privilege (although it really only costs like $60/year!!!) to be a member of the BK botanic garden for over 7 years. It is essentially my backyard, and it is how I stay sane living in NYC.

This year, everything has bloomed at once. Typically the magnolias go first, then the lilacs, then the cherries. But right now, just like 7 planets in Aries, she bloomed all at once.

May this show us all how to be a show-stopper and burst open with our own soul’s beauty and bounty. The world needs our sweetness!!!

Love you all so much,
Katya aka Cherry Blossom Stan for Life 🌸

There is a natural size at which integrity can be maintained.

Beyond 150-200 people, scale requires standardization. Standardization requires simplification. Simplification requires flattening nuance, and culture without nuance becomes brand.

Brand can travel.
Brand can franchise.
Brand can be licensed.

But culture? Living, breathing, relational culture is place-based. It is embodied. It requires friction and accountability. It does not scale cleanly because it depends on depth, not reach.

A community cannot authentically sustain its culture or values past 150-200 people. This has been studied extensively, and the result is always the same.

Once it grows past that point, it loses the very essence of what made it so special in the first place.

The communities I trust the most are the ones that refuse to grow past what they can responsibly hold.

They do not chase exponential growth.
They do not promise universal belonging.
They know that intimacy has a ceiling, and they respect it.

Grateful to be building a real community at .experience — follow to see how we make something rooted and real.

Full article is on my Substack.

Welcome to my truth telling era. I’ve found my voice again.
If you resonate, share. If you’ve experienced this, tell me your story and observations. If you disagree, please, challenge me. I am here for dialogue, for having the conversations that need to be had.

To a better future,
Katya

HAPPIEST BIRTHDAY to my brother ! 🎂✨

Nick, this year you’ve stepped deeper into leadership and adulthood in every way imaginable. I think back at the last 5 years and couldn’t be more proud of all that you’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time on this planet.

Thank you for being a rock for me and Adam during our wedding year — and for always knowing how to put a smile on my face in a stressful situation (family portraits are no joke y’all)!

I cherish every memory together since the day you came home 27 years ago and my life changed forever, and am eager to see the many more memories that are around the corner, awaiting us. I’m sure they’re full of the best meals and mischief, and a side of ranch. 😉

I wish you joy, laughter, and all the riches in life — good friends, good food, love and family, and ofc adventure.

Never lose the true you (as depicted on the last photo) 🤪

Love you, broski. Happy Birthday! 🎈

❤️