We were lucky to catch up with Vanessa Neva Verdoodt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Vanessa Neva, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

When I opened my business in the fall of 2021, I didn’t have a full fleshed plan. I had a vision, tons of experiences, was surrounded by a great network of artists and educators, and wanted to make a difference in the neighborhood I had lived in the past 10 years, West Adams. The vision was to create a space for dance, culture, community and wellness. The first 8 months were about building the foundation of our programming, the physical space, its people (teachers, choreographers and students) , its website, its mission statement (version 1.0), and engaging the neighborhood. Freshening up and building the space took almost two months. I hired a friend and my husband helped quite a lot setting the physical space. All furniture came from the non profit Habitat for Humanity, all of which helped a lot with cost. Building the website and gathering my first team took another month. Figuring out the paperwork with the city was a bit tricky until we got help from pacela.org, a non profit that helps women opening their own business. Then I had to learn various softwares: accounting and excel for #; IG, canva and inshot for promotion; wix invoicing, marketing, automations…= their website endless possibilities. My Wix mentor helped me understand the skeleton, muscles and ligaments of a website and all of its requirements.Once that was ready, I visited all the small businesses in my neighborhood to introduce myself, and be patient with all. 3 months into it, we started working with various platforms for event rentals and that has helped a lot. We have sustained thanks to rentals. Since the pandemic, classes are harder to fill and yet, even more important to sustain for everyone’s mental and physical health! Today we offer fifteen weekly classes and multiple monthly events. We have grown our community to celebrate its diversity while sustaining culture and wellness.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Originally from Belgium I have lived in Los Angeles as a full time dance artist for over twenty years, in the historic district of West-Adams, where PiYoda Flow (my current business project) resides. West-Adams’ diversity and rich history reminds me of my childhood neighborhood of Ixelles, Brussels. To me, dance is an art, a social practice, a political statement, healing from the inside out. Since October 2021, I have been the Artistic Director and Founder of Piyoda Flow, a multi-lingual space in South Los Angeles focusing on Afro Diasporic, LatinX, Street Dance Exploration and Wellness. After 20 years of teaching dance full-time in various public as well as private schools and institutions, I decided to share my passionate knowledge of global citizen education through Dance and Wellness in my community. My career highlights started at Cirque du Soleil in 12th grade, then 7 years in the Hollywood entertainment industry, five years touring worldwide with Illstyle & Peace Productions as a dance theater performer, becoming the founding dance educator at Geffen Academy at UCLA, always an ongoing community organizer, now building my own arts organization.

Today, I teach Yoga/Pilates/Dance classes weekly onsite at PiYoda Flow, and offsite at various schools. I co-direct a dance theater residency program for street and social dance artists, and coach/mentor youth in my community under non-profit organization Culture Flow Projects.

I am the first individual graduating from college in my family. I hold a B.A. from UCLA in Cultural Studies and an M.A. from NYU in Performance studies. All of my experiences rehearsing, performing, teaching, traveling around the world researching, meeting new people, collaborating… have led me to a creative process in which I am of service to the community. Connectedness and belonging are important aspects of my work and I am proud to have mentored/helped numerous high profile artists on their path to success. Yet, being a single mother and full-time artist has been my greatest challenge.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I became a founding dance educator at Geffen Academy at UCLA, I thought that it was the end point of my career. I would be in that job until I retire. When Covid-19 hit, I found myself teaching 20-25 classes/week on Zoom for 18 months, then with masks for three months. It was one of the greatest challenges as a teaching artist being also home alone with my son with ASD. When Geffen Academy at UCLA cut the dance program due to space and budgeting, I found myself perplexed. I didn’t see myself start yet another school. By then, I had taught 12 years Dance/Yoga full-time in three K-12 institutions and had 20 years of experience part-time. There was a studio for lease two blocks from my home and I only had to think about it for 2 weeks before signing the lease with no plan in hand, only experience, faith, commitment and dedication to dance, culture, wellness and community. PiYoDa Flow opened its doors two months later. The owner of the building would ask me daily why I was in the space and not yet opening. I had to plan, create a team, build a website, a brand and a vision. This vision grows daily at the pace the universe has chosen.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When I signed the lease, I decided to invest 15k from my savings and not take any loan. Since then, every single month with income earned, I invest in equipment, upgrades in tech support, admin needs….The type of work we provide requires funding from foundations and government. Yet, most want five years of active programming before funding your organization. We have been fiscally sponsored since last summer by Fractured Atlas so we may act as a non-profit but realized most funders want organizations like ourselves to be a non profit registered in CA. We are in the process of getting this status. Learning about the nonprofit world in the past year has been quite eye opening. Additionally, the consistency in diversifying the products we offer such as classes, workshops, renting the space out for events…has helped us keep afloat for all of our financial needs. We have had three interns since last summer who have helped tons. So far, I am really happy with the team who surrounds the space. Exactly like my vision with no plan. Plans can be created organically!

Contact Info:

• Website: piyodaflow.com
• Instagram: @piyodaflow
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/piyodaflowstudio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaverdoodt/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@piyodaflow
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/piyoda-flow-los-angeles

Image Credits
1. Rehearsal /workshop lead by Jules Tom Samie for Culture Flow Projects first residency program. 2. Recital of our first Youth Program ‘Dance and Global Consciousness’ culmination event.