Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lydia Perakis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lydia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

During the Spring of 2022 an opportunity presented itself through an artist residency I got awarded in a dance space in Queens (LARUSSA Studio), to put together a little artist get together. Coming out of 2 years of an ongoing pandemic that had left everyone (and particularly artists) in a space of isolation and disconnect from community, I thought I’d carve out space for an informal showcase where all of my artist friends could get the chance to present new work and reconnect with each other. Little did I know that the small idea and informal get together would turn into a fully produced multidisciplinary arts festival (ESTIA Day Fest) presenting works from over 40 artists in a sold out audience of over 150 patrons and eventually would lead to the birth of my business “ESTIA Creative Home” co-founded with my long time collaborator and business partner, LOLA. The festival was fully self-produced by our own personal funds alongside grassroots donations and was pretty frankly the epitome of DIY and “figure as we go”. Jumping head first into a fully volunteer-run effort presenting so many artists of any art medium you could possibly imagine, turned out to be such a major undertaking. We presented anything from dance, music, visual art, film, comedy, poetry and everything in between. We had to figure out basic things like “how do we construct a stage that is safe to dance in with a $0 budget” to crowdsourcing technical equipment, putting together contracts, marketing materials, programs, documentation, event supplies and the list goes on and on. The real question was though: how do we do all of that while figuring out a way to pay all artists involved (something pretty unusual in a lot of presenting opportunities of that scale in NYC). That type of resourcefulness is something that as freelancing artists (and particularly New York-based artists) you have to adopt right away if you would like to survive in this city and is what I think makes freelancing artists really skilled business owners. Taking on that first risk has led to the production of over 40 events featuring 406 artists around the NY area during just our first 2 years of operation! Allowing ourselves to lead businesses intuitively, leading from a place of being in touch with our own bodies & minds and in tune with what our community craves versus a capitalistic standpoint of market demands and maximum profit can be a complete game changer in the creation of new artist-led and sustainable businesses. We consider ESTIA an anti-capitalist business that aspires to bring the arts in new and more accessible spaces while prioritizing the support of long-time sustainable careers of the artists it presents.

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.

Dance, creative direction and community building have always been essential and healing components of my life and upbringing. Growing up in Crete, a Greek island located in the southernmost part of Europe, I experienced a sense of non belonging and isolation from a very young age. Being raised in a heavily patriarchal society that rejects creative expression deemed as too “feminine” as well as experiencing various environments of abuse pretty early on, led me to discovering dance and movement as a (what I didn’t know at the time) was a self-soothing and nervous system regulating outlet. After a lot of efforts and research, I was able to leave those spaces and move to New York at the age of 17 to study dance at NYU-Tisch and eventually start working as an artist. My work as a dancer has included performing work of various choreographers, collaborating with artists in multimedia projects such as films, music videos and site specific installations, creating my own choreography, working in show productions and teaching dance to many communities. Living in New York for the past 8 years and trying to sustain myself as a working artist has brought on its whole set of challenges but if it has highlighted one thing is that of the power of community. Moving here by myself right as I was becoming an adult, brought on the expected culture shock and a whole different sense of non-belonging and isolation (commonly found in the immigrant experience). Guy Cool discusses in the book “In-Between Dance Cultures” the concept of “the creative confusion of the migrating body” which deeply resonated with me and encapsulated the polarity of my experience. It was the sense of non-belonging and the big need for community that eventually led to the founding of ESTIA Creative Home.
ESTIA is an ecosystem of the arts that fosters collaboration between artists from all disciplines and connects them to new audiences by producing performance and educational opportunities around the New York area. ESTIA being named after the Ancient Greek Goddess of the home and “ecos” translating to home, there’s a heavy emphasis in finding a sense of belonging in a literal and metaphorical aspect facilitated through our programming that also coincides with my own personal mission. Artists are called to investigate their own perception of home. We encourage them to explore how bodies of work function as archives storing information which guides them to reimagine their futures both individually and communally. ESTIA events are rooted in sustainability and community and include bi-annual festivals, monthly variety shows, classes and workshops. They are an ecosystem of reciprocity. The circular pattern includes the ESTIA team sourcing funding to support artists when they show and practice their art. Artists then employ collaborators and present a meaningful body of work that gives back to the community. ESTIA has no limitations in the art forms it presents and completely dismantles any hierarchy, systematically placed on what art forms carry more value than others.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Being in the freelancing scene is a stream of continuous changes and constant adapting around new norms. The one moment of pivot that really stands out though (which I am sure lots of people relate to) is when Covid hit. On March of 2020, I was just a few months out of college and still trying to establish myself as a working artist. I was working in event production and management in different theaters around the city and as you can imagine, was left immediately unemployed with no support or financial plan in sight. As I was trying to sort through the downpour of information and figure out my next move, I came across an ad for an online educational platform that allows you to create your own teaching business and design your own online classes. I thought I’d give it a try and see what I thought of the online dance teaching experience. The classes picked up very quickly and it ended up becoming my full time job during all of lockdown, teaching dance to over 1,100 students from all over the world. Like for most of us however, teaching dance all day, 6 days a week from a tiny Brooklyn apartment shared with a roommate, started taking a toll on me as the months and years progressed. I knew I had to figure out a solution if I wanted to maintain my business and only income at the time. I started searching around warehouse spaces in Brooklyn that I could convert into a temporary dance workspace and eventually found an affordable solution that allowed me to sustain my business and wellbeing until the dance scene in New York started to come back to life. That space became such a safe creative haven and I was so happy to offer it and share it with other artists experiencing the same feelings of isolation and disconnect from their art, by safely hosting small improv dance sessions and jams. Bringing community together in that studio space and problem solving in that way, planted the seed of ESTIA and eventually led us to today. I also still to this day, 4 years later, teach both online and in-person so many of my students I met through the virtual platform making that initial pivot such a vital part of my current life and a career. Which I guess ties back to the idea of running businesses and navigating your career and life from a place of intuition, trusting that every piece of the puzzle adds to the bigger picture even if at the time it is still unclear what the larger image is.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

LOLA and I met in 2018 working in Hannah Gadsby’s New York premiere of the show “Nanette”. LOLA was technically my boss (even though she hates when I say that) and the two of us together were running all of ticketing, front of house, press and house management duties tackling the crowds of Hannah’s sold out NY run. We quickly became inseparable, becoming so in tune in our movements and teamwork where with just one look from across hundreds of patrons we knew exactly what the other one needed. Working customer service in understaffed live entertainment is the ultimate test of a business partnership and I think we passed it with flying colors. We continued working together in the same Off Broadway theater for two years, with lots of wild stories and New York moments to tell, and also started collaborating in our own creative projects and shows since LOLA is also a dancer and performer. We started noticing how our strengths and weaknesses were equally complimenting each other and the idea of forming some type of collective or official partnership started forming. When I was awarded the artist residency in the Spring of 2022 and the first iteration of ESTIA Day Fest slowly started forming, I knew I couldn’t do it alone and LOLA was the first person that came to mind to make it all happen. I promised her it would be a low stakes one-time undertaking (plot twist it really wasn’t) and fast forward to today, two years later, we co-own and run together ESTIA Creative Home.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lydiaperakis.com & www.estiacreativehome.com
• Instagram: @lydiaperakis & @estiacreativehome
• Other: Email: [email protected] [email protected]

Image Credits
Ziru Wang, Michelle Malek, Brandon Calva & Brian Curry