LAPP’s BRIDGE THE GAPS_NEST initiative, in partnership with the city of Santa Monica, provided wildfire-impacted artists with residencies of approximately one week at the Miles Memorial Playhouse. Each BtG_NEST residency was tailored to the needs of artists rebuilding their practice after wildfire impact, offering a space that prioritized recovery over outcomes and allowed each participant to define the scope of their own residency.
Lindsey Red-tail (they/them) was drawn to the BtG_NEST residency, “as an opportunity to create amidst personal and collective re-rooting, and healing breast cancer. I wanted to bring a new creative practice of movement for grief and recovery with Land, and test my idea of what it means to root. Can we re-root anywhere? Is it possible if we have access to some part of Nature or a structure with living energy? I wanted to see what was possible and if I could bring folks to the space to lean on the Trees, share their grief, play music, dance and move through this time together.”
The project that Lindsey brought to the Miles Memorial Playhouse was one whose seeds sprouted in Altadena in the weeks before they relocated. “New movements began to emerge in my body at night, the only time quiet enough for a new idea to come through me. So I brought an idea from the Land called ‘Emergence, Infinite Spirals of Light.’ I also brought the voices of the Trees and created space for them to speak through me. I shouted and stomped my feet and shared the message, that ‘these Trees have something to say, stop cutting down my family!’ It was the least I could do for my Tree family after all the knowledge and wisdom they have shared with me over the years. The Trees are under attack. They have a right to live just like you and me.”
Lindsey felt free to experiment in this low-stakes residency, and create from the heart. – “The experience was liberating and a process in letting go.” – They found it challenging to let go of the Trees they used to dance with and embrace the new ones before them. “I felt a lot of grief and loss… But I would take out my poems and read them so I could remember where I came from and that I get to share now… This is a larger co-creation with myself and the Land and community, it’s just happening in unexpected ways.”
Lindsey feels strongly that fire-impacted artists need more funded spaces “to just be.” Elaborating, “To be valued and be able to create without an agenda, having that sacred time to play, grieve and process in the re-location and loss. To have supported spaces for longer periods of time where they don’t feel so isolated and can still be connected to the community and their practices.” Los Angeles Performance Practice is honored to create spaces for fire-impacted artists “to just be.”
Lindsey envisions their new projects as healing portals for artists, community, and Land all emerging together. “Something of a rebirth after death. Going somewhere new with creativity and art that encompasses multi-mediums, cultures, languages and dimensions.”
In sum, “The BtG_NEST residency was very healing for me. I am so grateful to be caught in this web of Los Angeles artists. The relationships and connections forged are so important for the resilience of our communities.”
Lindsey Red-tail, born and raised in Altadena, Tongva Lands is an acclaimed non-binary dance artist, poet and messenger of the Trees, whose work weaves together the intersection of movement, nature and Ancestral practices. Following pathways in the body of remembrance, they are guided by an Ancestor of Wind, a seer and spiritual companion returning to their Nahuatl Mexican, Cherokee and African American roots. Red-tail’s offerings are informed by their time in the mountains dancing and singing with the Land. They co-create with community and with the elements, bringing playful and experimental ways of being to the forefront of their work and a deeper connection with the Natural seen and unseen world. Red-tail has led Tree rituals, rainbow activations and ceremonies in their beloved home Altadena and beyond, bringing the community together through art, music and dance with the support of elders and inspiring the new generation of artists/healers. A 2012 graduate of the prestigious California Institute of the Arts, Red-tail has established themselves as a transformative choreographic voice across Los Angeles with commissions from California State University, Scripps College, and LA Contemporary Dance Company.
BRIDGE THE GAPS: Wildfire Relief for L.A. Artists is an initiative of Los Angeles Performance Practice. BTG_FUND provides micro-grants to fire-impacted artists and is made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor with additional support from individual contributors. Donate here. BtG_NEST is a residency program made possible in part with support from Art of Recovery, an initiative of the city of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs. This residency offers subsidized creative space, mentorship, and technical support at the Miles Memorial Playhouse.
