celebrating 10 years!
📷 EVERYBODY DANCE Ground breaking party 2016 feat. Hi-Fashion
HOW IT STARTED…
EVERYBODY officially came to life after founder Sam Rypinski and co-founder Lake Sharp first met in a feminist business class at the Feminist Center for Creative Work in the Fall of 2015. Through their own struggles with mainstream gym culture and care for parents with mental illness, they realized they both had a desire to create a brave space for all bodies to strengthen and heal through every season of life.
📷: Blueprints for a groundbreaking space.
From rough and humble beginnings, navigating the rollercoaster of the Pandemic once we finally got our footing, to where we are today, these past ten years have been an extremely wild and gratifying ride! Thank you to everyone who has been by our side!
PLEASE SEE OUR PREVIOUS JOURNAL ENTRY FOR A PERSONAL NOTE FROM OUR FOUNDER, SAM.
📷 Our very first member, wall art designed by artist Parisa Parnian, ACLU Pancake Fundraiser, Mission & Merch
DANCE PARTY AND OPEN HOUSE
To introduce the community to our new, but still raw space, we hosted a Dance Party feat. Hi-Fashion, some of our soon to be instructors and trainers, local businesses, and special guest dj JD Samson. Singer Sia made a low-key appearance, Hyperbody showed us some moves, DTLA Cheese brought the snacks, and our step & repeat shared the spotlight with our community. Soon after, we hosted an Open House to welcome local residents, future members and their curiosity / feedback for the space.
Thank you to Emilia, Lisaida, and the whole Pony Sweat crew for both grounding and lifting us through our formative years! S/O to Megapony Isabel for making sure our social media messaging was on point through the Pandemic, not an easy task!
On a more reflective note, we’d like to share our immense gratitude for Jodi Eyraud, a beloved EVERYBODY collaborator and community member who was an integral part of our beginning years. Jodi passed in 2021, but her vibrant spirit remains ever-present in our space. We will never forget you Jodi and all the love you poured into EVERYBODY. We still celebrate you and deeply feel your absence. Rest in Peace, dear friend.
in the news
If you’ve driven around Cypress Park in 2017, you may have seen our billboards spreading the word about our new inclusive space, celebrating gender- neutral locker rooms, bathrooms, and a space for all bodies to move, build, rise and heal. The LA Times, CBS, KTLA, and other outlets have also visited us to help spread the word about a different kind of gym experience, especially in diet culture driven LA. Thank you to everyone has been both in front and behind the cameras to collectively share your stories. Click here to see all of our articles.
HOW IT’S GOING…
Over the past 10 years our space has evolved and our membership has grown. We’ve expanded our roster of instructors and trainers, our wide range of classes, taking a few larger classes to our sister location SIBLING, and even added an all-gender sauna! Our EVERYBODY SWIM and SURF events have become some of our our largest off-site events, offering an inclusive space for folks to feel a little more free in the water. We’ve organized fundraisers for the ACLU and Border Butterflies, hosted community call centers, Know Your Rights, Protest Safety Groups and more.
EXPANDING FROM IRL TO VOD IN 2023!
In 2023 we began production of our own Video On Demand programming! Taking notes from our members, our online zoom classes during the Pandemic, and what mainstream VOD programs were missing, we created a growing fitness video library accessible to all! HOMEBODY VOD is an extension to our regular programming for folks who require or prefer the ability to work out from home, whether for convenience, comfort, or safety. HOMEBODY is not just for folks in LA, but also for people in places who may not have safe access to inclusive spaces like ours. We are so proud of this programming, our all-star team of EVERYBODY instructors and on-point production by Anna and Craig at SlowBlink!
Watch select free vids on our YouTube and find out more here!
WRESTLING 101: FROM THE CLASS TO THE RING
We hope you were able to catch one of our Wrestling Match fundraisers featuring our Wrestling 101 instructors and students. Professional wrestlers Candy Pain and American Oni met through the EVERYBODY community and have been co-teaching bi-monthly wrestling classes at EVERYBODY, offering a more supportive space for folks who did not feel comfortable in traditional wrestling spaces. Thank you to everyone who participated and showed up! Proceeds from our wrestling events were donated to Border Butterflies Project and Campaign for Southern Equality.
TAKING UP SPACE
LB, here we come! We are proud to announce a future second home for EVERYBODY in our sister city of Long Beach! Despite some permitting delays, we’re making slow but steady progress and hoping for a Spring/ Summer opening date! To welcome our Long Beach community, we’re hosting Meet & Greet Saturday January 24th in our future location. More details announced here and on IG soon. We’d love to meet you and hear your thoughts, suggestions, and feedback. Come see the space, enjoy local food and drink, and meet a few EVERYBODY LB instructors! Save the date and thank you for your patience, LB!😌