We were lucky to catch up with Vanessa Neva Verdoodt recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Vanessa with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I started working in 1st grade helping my dad sell snacks at his Go Kart business, then throughout elementary school grades, created painted sculptures out of shells and sold them for extra money while selling snacks. In 8th grade, I started my dance training in train stations as a Bgirl, aka, a female breakdancer. The floor was marble or concrete. The weather was what Brussels offers: rainy, humid and cold on most days. The school health counselor was worried about the bruising all over my body because she did not understand what breakdance was, or what windmills, coin drops and headspins required for mastery. As a mandated reporter, she called services several times worried over physical abuse. All the while, I was the one abusing my body on these floors. It hurt for years but in 10th grade, the dedication led to touring as a professional dancer. I had to handle school, training and touring until graduation- including my 12th grade year consumed with Cirque du Soleil. By college, I had 3-4 jobs to stay out of student debt. My cultural mindset did not allow for any debt as a young adult. I delivered the college newspaper at 5am, went to classes, taught after school dance in the afternoon to youth wherever I lived, trained/rehearsed at night. For a decade, I performed every single weekend. These 10 committed years gifted me with an AA in Business, BA in Cultural Studies, Teaching credential for Dance, MA in Performance Studies, and several Yoga and Pilates certifications. My life was non-stop until motherhood. Then a new non-stop life emerged as a single mom, less performing, more teaching, and the usual staying up at night for your child. There is more to the story but today, I feel like my work ethic has been molded from these years from a kid trying to make change to a Bgirl dedicated to her craft and eventually a student/teacher for life. Today, with this work ethic, I am able to be the director of Piyoda Flow space, the founder of non profit 501c3 Culture Flow Projects, the accountant, the cleaner, the social media strategist, the scheduler, the teacher, the grant writer, the mom of an autistic son and friend to many while handling a 13 yr AirBnB business on the side that helps sustain many of our arts projects in the community.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
At this time, I am focused on growing the community offerings through our new non profit Culture Flow Projects. We are applying for grants, making community partnerships, generating projects throughout Los Angeles and expanding our physical space offerings of diaspora dances classes and wellness activities at PiYoDa Flow. My current mission is creating employment in the arts. Our latest partnership; sharing the gift of Dance and Yoga in Drug Rehabilitation centers and Juvenile Hall centers has been both empowering and challenging at the same time. Although I am originally from Belgium, I have lived in Los Angeles as a full time dance artist for over twenty years. I am proud as a resident of the Historic West Adams district to have established my current business project, PiYoda Flow, close to home. 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, Street Dance Exploration and Wellness. After 15 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. Prior to being an educator, I worked in the entertainment industry in my early years from ’96 to 2012 as a performer (Cirque du Soleil, Black Eyed Peas, Nike..), after which, I moved to New York for five years to tour worldwide with two dance theater companies (Illstyle & Peace Productions and Bellyqueen). My Dance/Yoga/Pilates practice reflects 30+ years of moving in communities around the globe. I have been fortunate to share my artistry in Europe, West Africa and the US since the 90’s. When my son turned two in 2012, I took a break from performing to focus full time on developing and teaching my program Dance and Global Consciousness, which I had begun during my time at UCLA in 2004.
My life mission is to bring people together while enjoying activities that benefit the body, mind and spirit. Our global community needs more cultural understanding from each other; being inclusive is one thing, teaching one another to be open to the world and its various communities is imperative for all to live in a peaceful world. When not in the studio, you can find me gardening, making all kinds of DIY projects and enjoying the beach or mountains with my family.
At this point in my career, I can say I have been blessed to share space with all the spectrum of participants and audiences you can imagine. From teaching my neighborhood, multi-generational folks of West Adams, to 10 years with inner city school youth, 8 years with the private school youth, 2 years with officials of the European Parliament, and most recently sharing the gift of Dance and Yoga with incarcerated youth and adults recovering from drug addiction.
The fact that I have taught the wealthiest in the most prestigious private schools and institutions for 10 years and I am returning to community work, which was part of the first 10 years of my career as an educator is quite powerful. I hope at this time we can expand the program at our schools for local youth, and also the partnerships teaching incarcerated youth and adults recovering from drug addiction. The arts do transform lives. I also envision our SEED experimental dance theater residency program at PiYoDa Flow to be a bridge for performers and teaching artists to continue to work and make an impact in the community.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I am versatile, dedicated, and open minded. I will teach one person and 300 people at once. I am blessed with many skills and able to juggle many tasks or different types of classes in the same day. Being open minded, I can navigate through challenges and also be open to all kinds of opportunities and yet, deliver and thrive.
My advice would be: ‘Be open, go with the Flow, connect with anyone who can make you grow, be dedicated, connected and disciplined in your craft while being guided by our ancestors and the cosmos’.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
Germaine Acogny, the mother of African Contemporary Dance, has been my mentor for over twenty years. Through her teachings, seeing how she and her husband celebrate success and handle challenges at their contemporary dance school in Senegal has been an inspiration to many of my endeavors. To see how they have evolved, grown as artists, as organizers, and as producers is spectacular. Additionally, Germaine Acogny and Helmut Vogt are humble, their hearts are always open wide. They are parents/mentors to many. They share their energy fed by the morning sun, guided from our ancestors, to everyone who comes across them with discipline, commitment and dedication to their craft. I saw the tenacity and patience they had during the pandemic. I had moved to Senegal and would often cross paths at their 6am walk on the beach. A daily ritual she has with the cosmos at age 80. Staying connected to nature, the cosmos, our ancestors and the universe before any material/human project is the biggest gift she has shared with me. I have been lucky to visit their school over a dozen times for weeks or months at a time. During the pandemic, when everything came to a halt and their biggest project, Pina Bausch’ Rites of Spring’ tour had to be canceled, they reorganized and found better ways to grow the project. Today it is touring with Germaine duets in the most prestigious theaters of the world. Lastly, the Acogny technique and the many artists I have trained with through the years share a connection to nature, the cosmos, and the balance between your craft and what we are made of as human, before material things. Germaine Acogny definitely has the strongest connection with the cosmos and the ancestors guiding her path. A highly successful career. Dedicated, versatile and with an open heart!
Contact Info:
- Website: piyodaflow.com
- Instagram: @piyodaflow @cultureflowprojects @piyodaneva
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nevaone/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaverdoodt/
Image Credits
Pic 1 self: Photography by Rawd Emortal Pic 2: Ejoe Wilson Workshop Pic 3: PiYoDa Flow’s Youth Program Pic 4: PiYoDa Flow’s community Pic 5: Vanessa Neva, Helmut Vogt and Germaine Acogny Pic 6: Vanessa Neva Pic: 7: Tsiambwom Akuchu, Vanessa Neva, Amrahu Ibraheem, Magnolia Yang Sao Yia, Celia Duran and Rafael Austria Pic 8: SEED full cast
