Originally founded in 2005, in Boulder, Shannon felt the need to bring people together to dance and began by inviting people to dance in her living room. She created regular post-dance ritual practice and soon adopted ‘the wave’ format from the emerging ecstatic dance movement, becoming the first ecstatic dance in Colorado. RHYTHM SANCTUARY-Ecstatic Dance Church” was born. She and her team soon took on the 5000 square foot AVALON dance hall every week. Word began to spread and those coming in from Denver wanted to have closer dance, so in 2007 the DENVER RYTHYM SANCTUARY was formed, which is still going on 250+ strong every Sunday. 

Since relinquishing the reigns in 2014, and moving back to Austin, Texas (one of the founding cities of the early national Ecstatic Dance movement), Shannon re-created an ornate temple space for sacred dance in 2017 and spawned the Rhythm Sanctuary Illumination Dances for workshops and conferences.