Heal Your Relationship with Food & Body Through Dance & Wholesome Cooking
Dance Your Way Back to Your Body. Cook Your Way Back to Health.
Hi, I'm MC (Maria-Carin) Gala—chef, movement facilitator, and guide for people ready to heal through nourishment and embodiment.
I know what it's like to struggle with food, anxiety, and feeling disconnected from yourself. For over 20 years, wholesome cooking and dance have been my way through—and now I'm here to share these tools with you.
This unique combination might seem niche, but here's what I know: when you move your body with intention and feed yourself with love, everything shifts.
Start with Dance - Monthly classes in Stroud & online
Start with Cooking — Get my plant-based, gluten-free cookbook or join online cooking classes
See all events - Workshops, classes, retreats & free monthly sessions
Let’s ignite your creativity and zest for life!
Do you want to learn to Nourish yourself through movement and plant-based and gluten-free cooking?
COOKBOOK
Buy LICK YOUR PLATE for £40 + postage.
Local to Stroud? Get it signed & delivered in person for free!
COOKING CLASSES
Group Cooking Classes (Online)
£35 per class | Monthly sessions (occasionally on sale for £25)
Learn to create delicious plant-based, gluten-free meals in a supportive community.
Private 1:1 Cooking Sessions
From £45/hour | In-person or online
Personalized instruction tailored to your dietary needs, skill level, and goals.
Wholesome cooking and dancing help me
live healthier and happier!
I know what it’s like to live with unhealthy relationships with nourishment and food. I use dance and healthy cooking to fuel my life force and creativity, so i can make art out of it all.
I know what it's like to struggle
Hi, I'm Maria-Carin Gala. I know what it's like to live with unhealthy relationships with food and struggle with anxiety and self-worth.
Dance and healthy cooking have been my way through—helping me break free from sugar and nicotine addictions, move through depression, and find creative ways to thrive despite life's challenges.
I use the powerful tools of dance (ZeroOne movement practice) together with plant-based, gluten-free, refined sugar-free wholefood cooking (Gala's Organic Kitchen).
With over 20 years as a personal chef and cookery teacher, I'm now combining cooking and dancing. This is what I use in my personal life to be well, and I'm passionate about sharing these practices with you.
I've been using dance practices for over 17 years, and without it, I would not be here. It has helped me dance through the trials and tribulations of being human. I'm training to become a facilitator of ZeroOne Movement, founded by Adam Barley.
Learning to cook plant-based, gluten-free and sugar-free wholefoods was my way out of addictions and depression, and continues to support my wellbeing every day.
My journey
My entire family is Slovakian, but I was born in Germany. At eight, I went to an alternative boarding school in England (Ko-Hsuan School) until I was sixteen, which gave me a deep sense of freedom and responsibility.
I searched for a place to call home, which I found in Australia for fourteen years. My father died suddenly when I was twenty-six, which catapulted me into fully taking on my life's work with Gala's Organic Kitchen, showing people how to use food as medicine.
When my mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2016, I returned to England to be with her. She died some months later. I fell in love with an extraordinary Englishman and have been living in the UK for the last eight years.
What has helped me through life's difficulties is my nutritious, healthy, delicious cooking and dance as a movement practice.
HOW IT WORKS
The combination of dancing freely and cooking delicious whole foods can empower you, heal you, and nourish you to the core.
Dance is an incredibly potent tool, teaching me to connect with my body, feel my feelings, and develop a strong sense of presence. It helps me align with my purpose and move through stuck patterns—not to escape, but to discover the answers I already have inside.
Wholefood cooking is my foundation and passion. I love learning about nutrition and finding new recipes that use food as medicine. It's endlessly fascinating to discover what's both nutritious and delicious.
It's a continuous practice that never ends, but it's so very worth it.
READY TO BEGIN?
COOKBOOK
Buy LICK YOUR PLATE for £40 + postage.
Local to Stroud? Get it signed & delivered in person for free!
COOKING CLASSES
Group Cooking Classes (Online)
£35 per class | Monthly sessions (occasionally on sale for £25)
Learn to create delicious plant-based, gluten-free meals in a supportive community.
Private 1:1 Cooking Sessions
From £45/hour | In-person or online
Personalized instruction tailored to your dietary needs, skill level, and goals.
Are you depleted or sTRUGGLING AND want to learn to nourish yourself, so that you have the energy to make a positive difference in the world, find your life path, live your dreams and be the human you yearn to be?
The combination of dancing freely and Cooking delicious whole foods can empower you, heal you and nourish you to the core.
It’s a continuous practice that never ends but it’s so very worth it.
Maria-Carin
Photo by Luna www.lunabuerger.com and Coco from releaseembodiedarts.org in the most gorgeous kitchen at Terra Alta in Portugal ❤️
My Philosophy
It is crucial for me to connect with nature—the trees, plants, earth, rain, and sun—to notice the seasons and nurture community.
To be truly well, I believe we need proper whole food, an awakened sensuality, a connection to life source, and a movement practice where we breathe deeply and express ourselves fully.
Cooking and dance are ongoing practices that require inner surrender to learning and growing. The journey IS the destination, and from experience, this is the most delicious, wholesome, and effective way to go.
How I Work
When you're stuck in repetitive patterns, moving, breathing, and sounding can help. It enables us to move through—not to escape, but to discover the answers you already have inside you.
When you have dietary restrictions (for health or personal preference), I create menus so you can still eat healthily and deliciously. Restrictions open up doorways to places you wouldn't usually go, and I love working within those boundaries.
I believe we must tend to both the inner and outer environment—so I keep practicing movement and wholesome cooking to be truly, deeply well.
Join me?