ESTIA’s Creative Team

Lydia Perakis (she/her) is a movement artist, choreographer, facilitator and educator originally from Crete, Greece and currently living in New York.

ESTIA started as her personal artistic practice initiated by the belief that our bodies can function as archives, storing memories, histories and traumas and through the unfolding of that deeply stored information, we are able to move efficiently individually and collectively. After taking different shapes and forms, this practice led to the founding of ESTIA Creative Home in the Spring of 2022, alongside LOLA.

As a dance maker, Lydia creates multi-disciplinary works that utilize movement, spoken text, visual art and multimedia. Some of her works have been presented in venues such as the Danspace Project, Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center (19th DUMBO Dance Festival), Green Space, Mignolo Arts Center, Jennifer Muller/The Works Studio, SMUSH gallery, pinkFROG, in the Current Showcase, Bridge for Dance, the Queens Outdoor Dance Festival and The Craft NY.  She has been an artist in residence at Danspace Project (MUSE Residency) and at LARUSSA theater.

Additionally, she has been an Artistic Associate with Dance Action/Carmen Caceres and has worked with choreographers such as Jeremy Nelson, Christina Robson, Luis Lara Malvacías, Elizabeth Dishman, Arnie Zane (re-staged), the Yonis. Kinetics with Karley, Sarah Mitchell and Susan Toni. 

She has over 8 years of experience in arts administration, event and stage management in venues such as New York Live Arts, the Center for Performance Research and the Soho Playhouse (where she got to work closely in production with artists such as Hannah Gadsby, Phoebe Waller Bridge and Daniel Sloss).

Her education includes a BFA in Dance from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts and a Minor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies (2019). She is also a certified Yoga teacher (200-hour YTT at Loom Yoga Center) and has completed extensive trainings in intuitive leadership, somatic work, trauma-informed teaching and de-escalation techniques.