"A little sweat ain't never hurt nobody": Meet Kafi Payne of Dogpatch Dance & Yoga

Kafi Payne of Dogpatch Dance and Yoga in her studio in Dogpatch. Kafi's studio has classes in many diverse programs like roller dance, twerk and Bollywood. 

When prominent San Francisco industrialist Claus Spreckles built his California Sugar Refinery along what is now 23rd Street along the waterfront in 1881 -- we are certain he never dreamed that one day one of the last two remaining sugar warehouses would be home to a dance studio.

Especially a studio that offers unusual ways to get you moving including such classes as After Work Twerk, Dance Hall, Roller Dancing, Heels (dance in your high heels!), Burlesque, Bollywood dancing and so much more.  Yet that is what you will find at Dogpatch Dance & Yoga now opened for business on the second floor of the building now known as Storage San Francisco at 435 23rd Street.

And what a gem of a space it is.  The 3,500 square foot space now outfitted with full-length mirrors is full of light and has an amazing view of the bay.  Owner Kafi Payne opened the studio in August 2016 and her goal is for the studio to be busy morning to night.  Sounds like a sweet plan to us.

Why do you do what you do?

I find joy in movement and that is what I want for everyone.  I think dance is healing.

We have busy lives. We grow up, we go to school and we work. And work! We may love the work but not the working.  And then we come home and we have family responsibilities.

When I was a kid there wasn't much money for dance classes so I took dance classes whenever I could.  I never really thought of myself as a dancer.  It was just something I loved to do. After college I took all kinds of dance classes as a way to relax after a long day at work.  I also took yoga classes -- I think yoga helps dancers be able to dance longer!  I eventually trained with Annie Carpenter to become a Yoga instructor.

I'm from the Caribbean but grew up in New York and Atlanta.  I met my husband who is from the Bay Area at college -- Emory University.  We moved to this area after college.  We both became educators.  I worked for the Oakland School District training teachers and also as a Spanish teacher. And I still work in the education field.  I also received my Masters in Education from SFSU and I'm working on my Doctor of Education from Berkeley.  I know what learning looks like!

I have two young boys and one day one of my sons asked me if I could do anything I wanted to do what would that be.  I told him I wanted to open a dance studio!  He was surprised.  My kids thought of me as serious -- they even said that I never laughed. That is NOT how I wanted to be remembered by them!

My kids are so proud that I'm realizing my dream.  I love showing them that you can work towards a goal and make it happen.

The studio is still a work in progress of course.  When I decided to open the studio I asked several of the dance instructors that I knew if they would join me.  They agreed but then dropped out when the studio became a reality.  That forced me to step out of my comfort zone and approach instructors I admired but didn't know. That experience also reminded me that is ok to ask for help.  We should all remember that!

I love being able to work with these amazing instructors and help them realize their artistic vision as well.  Instructors such as Richard Humphrey who is known as the father of Rollerdance and who taught Dr. Oz to roller dance is teaching at my studio!  A good teacher is everything and we have the best.

Why Dogpatch?

After I decided to open a studio I did my research about the best location for it.  I live and work in Oakland but it seemed to me that Oakland was saturated with dance and performance spaces.

Not San Francisco -- I was amazed how few dance studios there are in SF.  There are places where you can rent space for dance groups but not that many places where you can book a class.

I saw a listing for this space on Craigslist and it was the first spot I looked at and I knew it would be perfect.  I just knew that dancing needed to happen here.  I knew that Beyonce would be ok rehearsing here!

I met and spoke with many community leaders in Dogpatch.  Everyone was so welcoming and I felt like they wanted me to be successful and would help me in any way that they could to make that happen.

What would you be doing if you weren't doing this?

I will always be dancing and teaching!

*thanks to Beyonce for the lyric: "A little sweat ain't never hurt nobody"

The Thrill of the Hunt: Meet Carlos and Christine Villalta of MidCentury Modern Finds

Carlos and Christine Villalta of Dogpatch's Midcentury Modern Finds with some of their products at their headquarters in Dogpatch, San Francisco. 

As long time fans of all things midcentury modern, we enjoy wasting time surfing the internet for furniture we no longer have room for and accessories that we just might find a spot for.

We were pleasantly surprised to happen upon the website Midcentury Modern Finds (MCM Finds) -- not just because they have a great selection of midcentury furniture and accessories, but also because they are located in Dogpatch.

MCM Finds is located in the San Francisco Storage building -- the same large storage facility at 23rd and Illinois where one-time Dogpatch business, Seven Stills, started and customers of Dogpatch Dance  still boogie, dance and twerk.

Married couple Carlos and Christine Villalta run MCM Finds together. For Christine, it is her full time endeavor and for Carlos, a part time labor of love on weekends and in the evenings after he finishes work at the SFMTA where he has worked for many years.

MCM Finds looks for designs from such American designers as George Nelson, Harry Bertoia, and Florence Knoll;  Brazilian Modern Designers such as Joaquim Tenreiro, Sergio Rodrigues and Jorge Zalzupin as well as French designers such as Raymond Loewy, Pierre Paulin and Charlotte Perriand.

MCM Finds primarily sells to interior designers who know they will find a highly curated line of furniture and accessories to chose from for their clients. They also sell direct to the public.

Why do you do what you do?

Christine
I enjoy the different forms and materials of the items we find.  We often have to research our finds to discover the designer and the background of the piece.  I love the research.  You never know what you will find.  We both really love the unique pieces -- we would rather have a great piece by a lesser known designer than a well known piece by a brand name designer.

Brazilian midcentury modern is one of our favorite styles and Sergio Rodrigues and others made some amazing pieces.  Brazilian modern uses a lot of jacaranda wood in its pieces which is similar to rosewood.

As a kid I was always painting and making things for my room.  I grew up in Sausalito and went to school in Santa Cruz where I focused on fine art with an emphasis on ceramics and photography.  I also studied in Mexico City and eventually moved there in 1996 -- to me as a young student it was much more exciting and culturally rich than Santa Cruz! In Mexico I modeled to pay the bills but a friend let me use part of her shop space as a gallery and I curated the art and put together shows there.

In 2001 I was ready for a change so I moved to Barcelona where I taught English, among other jobs. I then moved to Paris for a few months but headed back to the U.S. later that year.  Now that I have two young children I marvel that my parents let me do all that traveling on my own!

I met Carlos in 2001 at a Salsa concert at the Great American Music Hall and we were married in 2005.

We started going to flea markets together and bought furnishings for our home. We loved changing the items we had so when we were done with one item we would sell it on Craigslist.  We didn't realize at the time that what we were buying was called midcentury modern -- we were just buying what we liked and looking for high quality products.  We had success selling on Craigslist and we soon realized we had an actual business so in 2009 we officially started Midcentury Modern Finds.

A  Jens Risom Chair and Arthur Umanoff Magazine Rack from Midcentury Modern Finds 

Carlos
I love the thrill of the hunt and the feeling that I have found something special.  We work with a network of pickers who are always looking for items for us but I also go to flea markets and auctions to find inventory.

I also really enjoy knowing where our pieces end up. Customers will often send us photos of the pieces in their home.

I grew up in El Salvador but came to California when I was 17.  I took lots of art classes at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. I particularly liked the silkscreening classes and took classes from Michael Roman as well as other classes from Rene Castro.  They really inspired me.  I actually got a job working for the city of SF in their silkscreening department back when they used to silkscreen all the street signs.  Technology has taken over that process so I made the move to the department of parking and traffic. I've been with the city for 26 years.

My grandmother in El Salvador had Danish style furniture from the 1960s and I loved the clean lines of that furniture. Because the furniture is so well known now people often forget that when the furniture came out in the late 50s and 60s just how unusual the designs were from what came before. These designs are so knocked off now that some people don't realize the great craftsmanship of this furniture.

Why Dogpatch?
We have lived in SF for a long time so we knew about the Dogpatch neighborhood.

We originally stored all the extra furniture in our garage but we quickly ran out of room.  We found a storage unit at Cesar Chavez and Indiana.  We stored the furniture there and met clients there but we still had to bring it to our house to photograph each piece so we were going back and forth a lot.

We actually found our current space when we brought over a piece to photograph in front of the brick wall at the Potrero Power Plant.  We are in our second space at this location.  We are in about 1000 square feet. It is so great to have enough space to store the furniture and also take photographs of them in this space. And there is a loading dock so trucks can pull right up to our space

We also love that this facility is family owned.  We feel good about meeting clients here in this space. We like the feel of the neighborhood as well -- it's still a working class neighborhood.

What would you be doing if you weren't doing this?
Christine
Probably something in interior or furniture design.  When I was in school I wasn't aware of industrial design so I would love to explore that area of design.  We would like to add to our business perhaps with designs of our own.  And I might get back into ceramics -- Carlos just found me a kiln so who knows!

Carlos
Since I have a full time job I love the creative outlet that this gives me.


Editor's note:  Items in first photo from left to right

Fritz Hansen chair by Frederik Sieck (Danish)

‘Globe 2000’ Floor lamp by Frank Ligtelijn for Raak (Dutch)

Angelo Lelli for Arredoluce floor lamp (Italian)

C. Jeré lamp on top of vintage walnut side table (American)

Norman Cherner for Plycraft chair (American)

Right Here, Right Now: Meet Mimi Moncier of Giggling Lotus Yoga

Mimi Moncier of Giggling Lotus Yoga in front of the full-length curtains.

We thought the tagline of Right Here, Right Now on the sandwich sign announcing that Giggling Lotus Yoga studio was open was not only catchy, but also brilliant.  Brilliant because some long ago memory of the song by the 90's band Jesus Jones supplied the next line:  "right here, right now, there is no other place I wanna be..."

Well, that might just only be in our memories but once you meet Mimi Moncier, owner and teacher of Giggling Lotus, you will also feel there is no other place you wanna be.

Although a ground floor location is typical of most exercise studios, the studio's third floor location in the American Industrial Building gives the studio the benefit of the foot traffic of busy Third Street without the noise.

Colorful signs point the way like a trail of breadcrumbs to the orange painted doorway of the studio. A wall of windows flood the studio with light but multi-hued Indian sarees are at the ready when the light becomes too intense or a more intimate environment is desired.
The resulting effect is one of calmness yet energizing at the same time.

Sort of like Moncier herself who is not only a certified yoga instructor, but also an accomplished commercial architect, painter, and teacher.  She was trained at Laughing Lotus Yoga Center, a local studio located in the Mission District.  In March 2012 she focused her considerable energy and talent into opening Giggling Lotus.

Why do you do what you do?

I love connecting with people to help them become embodied -- to help them become present and more aware in all of their human experience whether good or bad.  I feel that most people tend to live outside of themselves.  We practice Vinyasa yoga, at this studio.  Vinyasa yoga is breath-synchronized movement to a series of poses -- it's very dance-like in its movement.  We feel it helps to unite both mind and body and we want you to sustain that connection on and off the mat.

So it is a physical workout because you are working hard but it is a mental workout because the breathing relaxes your mind and helps to release the chakras system, or energy flow, throughout your body.  We practice a form of Vinyasa Yoga that is called Lotus Flow -- a type of yoga created at Laughing Lotus Yoga Center where I was trained.

I grew up in the South and lived in New Orleans for many years.  I started my career as a commercial architect and have worked on many many projects including the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.  I also lived in Boston where I left architecture to go back to school to study painting.  When my husband and I moved to San Francisco in 2007 I enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute and received a masters in painting.  I later taught students at the Academy of Art.  Opening this studio brought all those interests together -- movement, color and space.

Eventually I plan for the studio to be a type of hybrid space where we offer not only yoga, but also other artists can stage performances whether it is dance, video or some other type of art installation.

Light streams into the studio at Giggling Lotus Yoga.

Why Dogpatch?

When we first moved to this area we kept hearing that Dogpatch/Potrero Hill neighborhoods were the sunniest in the city.  Since we are from the South we need our sunshine!  So we live just a few blocks away from the studio.

We fell in love with the eclectic nature of the neighborhood and the mix of residential and light industrial buildings appealed to us as architects. 

When I started looking for studio space I didn't look anywhere else but Dogpatch.  Although this studio had a former life as a pilates studio, it didn't quite fit our needs.  The owner of the  American Industrial Center, Greg Markoulis, really worked with us to make it fit our needs and the type of yoga we want to teach. 

Who is another fascinating person you have met in Dogpatch?

There is a couple that we first were introduced to when we lived in New Orleans.  Unknown to us, they also live in Dogpatch as well as New Orleans!  When we moved here we didn't think we knew anyone, then we find out that they are here as well.  The reason this is interesting to me is that San Francisco lets you honor your roots -- you can live here and still be from the South or wherever you are from -- you don't have to give up that part of your identity to fit in.  I have lived other places where that wasn't always the case. 

What is an interesting story that has happened to you since you moved to Dogpatch?

This happened on one of our very first walks around Dogpatch.  It was a very quiet Saturday morning and the neighborhood seemed really empty.  Then, strangely, we saw this really gorgeous fashion model cross the street.  She seemed really out of place in this quasi-industrial part of town.  Then we saw another model and then it seemed like everywhere we looked there was another.  We couldn't figure out what was going on.

Then we turned the corner and saw the Dogpatch Studios sign with lots of sleek, hip folks going in and out of their building.  We realized it must be a photo shoot or some sort of event.  Later at the original location of Piccino Cafe we had a good laugh about how confused we were!

What would you be doing if you weren't doing this?

I've never been happier than I am right now.  But if I hadn't opened this studio I would be in my other studio, my art studio making art everyday. 

Ok, so what is with the unusual name of your studio?

The name is a bow to our teachers at Laughing Lotus Yoga Center.  But it is also a fun name and we wanted people to relax and laugh.

After all, yoga is an act of kindness toward oneself!

Hey is that a piano on a bike? -- Gary St. Frankenstein and his Pianobike

Gary St. Frankenstein on his Piano Bike in Dogpatch. 

It's hard not to smile when Gary St. Frankenstein, wearing his trademark ten gallon hat and Ray ban sunglasses, pedals his pianobike around our Dogpatch neighborhood playing music -- the kind of music that makes you want to start clapping and bobbing your head. And maybe even dance a little.

Gary and his bike have become a well known sight around the Bay Bridge, Ferry Building and sometimes outside the Giants ballpark.

He has appeared in TV commercials and an independent documentary as well as recorded music for an ad agency's music catalog.

Gary would rather his music and the spectacle of a piano mounted on a bike get all the attention than him. But we managed to get him to slow down and answer a few questions about himself and his piano.

Why do you do what you do?

Well the short answer is I love to hear how the piano music sounds when it is played outside by the Bay Bridge and the Ferry Building. I love how the piano music blends with the wind, the fog and the boat horns.

The longer answer is that I'm a self-taught musician and a veteran of several rock bands. The bands had record contracts with MCA and with Columbia Records and I spent more than seven years on the road touring with them as the piano or organ player.

Although I loved it I eventually wanted to stop touring so I became a screen printer at a sign shop. I worked with metal and wood to fabricate signs.

I loved my job but still wanted to make music but didn't want to go back to playing inside bars so I came up with the idea of a mobile piano. It took me two years to restore the piano and to figure out how to mount it on a bike. The bike is from a hot dog vendor.

I worked on this project part time but lost my sign job several years ago. I decided to try to make my living again by playing music but this time I'm touring on a bike.

Even though I played in bands and toured, I was always the guy in the back playing the piano. So I'm not real comfortable being the one in the spotlight. The novelty of a piano on a bike takes the emphasis off of me.

I play what I call saloon music or some call Ragtime because I hit a lot of pot holes when I'm riding around. That kind of music can take that kind of hit because it originated on old pianos that were hard to keep tuned. It was an acceptable sound for that old west era.

Contemplating the next tune.

Why Dogpatch?

My girlfriend and I really lucked out. We are from small towns in Northern California and we always wanted to live in San Francisco. When we started looking seven years ago we found this little neighborhood. It was affordable but more than that it had lots of sunshine and felt like a friendly place. We feel like it is our own little corner of San Francisco.

Who is another interesting person in Dogpatch?

A person I still think about even though he has passed away is a homeless person that I had a lot of contact with over the years. I had never met someone who had such a genuine inability to be insincere. He really cared for people. I learned a lot from him.

What is an interesting story that has happened to you in Dogpatch?

Well it may not be an interesting story but a memorable time for us in Dogpatch was to watch the activities that took place through the years at the buildings near our apartment. Dogpatch is getting cleaned up but it wasn't that long ago that hookers, drug addicts and other illegal activities took place pretty much around the clock there. We don't miss them!

What would you be doing if you weren't a street musician?

Once when I was touring with the band someone stole the organ I played. This was in Memphis. The police later found it in a bean field. I restored it and donated it to a local SF church where I play it for Sunday services.

So, I guess I will always be playing music in some form. But I must admit that I loved my sign job. It used many of my talents and I wouldn't mind having that job back.

And lastly, tell us about your name -- is it really St. Frankenstein?

Actually, the name of my piano is St. Frankenstein -- so named because I took an old player piano that had been left for dead in a field and brought it back to life with pieces that I either made or found. It has only 64 keys instead of the usual 88 but it is the perfect size for the bike.

My name is Gary Frank Skaggs.

Article Written by Patricia Kline, Photos by Scott R. Kline

Let's Make a Deal! Meet Craig Sakuma of Deal Décor!

Craig Sakuma and Gregory Lok at the headquarters of Deal Décor in Dogpatch, San Francisco, CA.

One of the many things we love about Dogpatch is the discoveries we find lurking behind the numerous nondescript warehouse doors that still dot the neighborhood.

One stifling hot October day we found ourselves dodging the Veritable Vegetable trucks at Tennessee and Cesar Chavez to locate a newcomer to Dogpatch -- Deal Décor.  We slipped in the door behind a young kid wearing both a San Francisco Giants hat and an Oakland Athletic jersey -- both teams had just won their divisions. 

The building directory was evidence that this particular warehouse was home to dozens of small businesses, including LightSource, Rebel8 and Acme Novelty Company but we were pretty confident that this diplomatic kid must be heading to the San Francisco Baseball Academy. 

Once inside we made our way to the offices of Deal Décor.  We were greeted by founders Craig Sakuma and Gregory Lok as well as by Billy, the resident office dog owned by a neighboring business.

The founders may have recently received $1.2 million in funding but their investors don't need to worry that it is being spent on posh office space -- their offices looked like someone had been bowling using furniture as the bowling pins -- sofas, chairs and other assorted furniture pieces were scattered throughout their office space.

Deal Décor is all about using group-buying power to offer consumers a 30-70% savings on furniture and other home goods.  The leverage of the group purchasing power allows them to cut out the expense of a middleman and ship directly to the buyer.  We wondered if perhaps the founders were fans of journalist, Thomas Friedman and his book, The World is Flat, because that is essentially at the heart of how they look at the world.  Deal Decor is using the Internet to flatten the traditional supply chain in buying furniture.  And a supply chain doesn't come much more old-school than a furniture one.

We took a few of those chairs to the less crowded and much cooler hallway to talk to Craig Sakuma about his new company.

Why do you do what you do?

Both Greg and I worked for many years in the traditional home furnishings industry.  As such we know the inner workings of the industry.  We both worked a lot in Asia and have a lot of connections there.  We saw the inefficiencies and we also knew that even though the consumer thought they were getting a unique piece of furniture, one factory in China actually makes the furniture for lots of brands.  There was really no reason to be paying such a huge mark up for the furniture.  I guess we saw an opportunity to create a whole new category in the furniture industry -- similar to how Frank & Oak is shaking up the menswear industry and how Warby Parker is offering an alternative way to buy prescription eyewear.  We are all using the power of the Internet to flatten the supply chains for traditional consumer products, which in turn creates amazing deals for consumers.

Once we have enough orders of our featured product to fill an ocean container, we have our factory build the product then we ship it direct to the consumer.  We typically have three new pieces each week and each deal last ten days.  We tested out our idea in California first.  The enthusiastic consumer response convinced us we were ready to launch nation-wide, which we just did in September.  Before we launched we actually had one consumer who lived out of state who so wanted to buy our featured product that they figured out a way to circumvent our ordering system!  Of course we had to let them know we couldn't yet sell to them but we did let them know that we are now nation-wide!

Why Dogpatch?

Until we found this space we had been working out of my apartment.  But we now have five local employees as well as three based in China.  We also needed a large space so we could photograph our samples.  So it was time to start looking for a real office.

We actually found this place on Craigslist!  It has the industrial elevators and the high ceilings we need and the location is so convenient.

Who is another fascinating person you have met in Dogpatch?

One of our neighbors here is Sam Hoffman.  He owns LightSource.  It is a large-scale digital printing studio. They do such beautiful work.  I'm so impressed with him and the work they do. 

What is an interesting story that has happened to you in Dogpatch?

I was working here late one Sunday night and all of a sudden I hear music.  I go out in the hallway and there are party streamers everywhere and kids dancing.  It looked like a middle school dance!  Turns out the SF Baseball Academy were hosting a teenager's birthday party.  Not something you see everyday in an office building!

What would you be doing if you weren't doing this?

I would be looking for another start-up to run!  I grew up on the East Coast and have lived and worked all over the U.S. and internationally.  But San Francisco is unique in how friendly and supportive they are to entrepreneurs.  I love the collaborative culture here.