Hi … I’m Gaea … Gaea Lady … and … I’m excited to be here … I grew up in Ohio … in a little town called called Mentor … about twenty minutes east of Cleveland … five minutes from Lake Erie … A little suburb … really cute … a nice big back yard … Growing up … it was nice … big lawns … I had a lot of friends in the neighborhood … rode my bike all the time … the beach .. hanging out at my grandparents house … they lived pretty close by … so we could bike to their houses … it was really nice … quiet … When I was young … I loved to create … I was thinking about this the other day … Looking at all the costumes I create now … I love making … doll clothes … and making outfits out of my great aunts … and granny’s old clothes … My mom was a sewer … and a musician … She was very encouraging of … whatever we wanted to do … She taught at an art school … and I got to go to classes with her … and start to … assist as soon as I was out of the classes … with the art teacher … and the dance teacher … and the theater instructor … and I never wanted to help my mom with the music classes … because she was my mom (Laughter) … I really gravitated towards the art and dance … I loved … painting … and construction … and modeling things … I remember being really young and watching Grease … and constructing myself … high heels … out of spools of thread … and cardboard and yarn … in my bedroom … and dancing around to my tape-deck … stuff like that … That exemplifies how I create costumes now … It’s like … What do I have … how can I make this a thing … When I was young … I went to dance performances … and I was in them … The art school that my mom taught at had … they did this one program called Arts Collaboration … where we would take theater … art … music and dance … and within all of those classes you would create your performance … So … from the age of about … I don’t know … four … or five … I was performing on stage … making sticks together … and running around in a circle … and I loved to dance so much … my mom put me in dance classes … when I was five … ballet tap … and jazz … I started performing from that age … being on stage to itsy bitsy spider … in the front … when I was five years old … very vividly … and just looking out … as soon as the stage lights went on … and thinking … This is it … I love this … I was performing all through my childhood … And … I was in pre-professional companies when I was in high school … Being close to Cleveland … I went to dance performances all the time … My parents were wonderful in supporting the arts … and helping me to see … what I really wanted … for my birthday … they would take me to the ballet … my dad and I used to go on dates to the ballet … The Cleveland Ballet was a thing … at that point we would go see the things that came through … my dance teacher was in the touring production of Fosse … and we got to see that … and I was obsessed with jazz and Fosse for a very long time (laughter) … and choreographing pieces of my own … it was great (laughter) … I was very grateful … to have been in a city that had a lot of arts in it … I got to see all the shows that came to our little community theater … What brought me to Chicago? … University brought me here … I was looking at New Orleans … Philadelphia … Cincinnati … a couple of other schools in the area … New York … I drove here with my parents … and I remember walking around the streets of Chicago … and falling in love … more so then any other city that I’d been to … I went to Columbia … and I remember being … I’m just … I’m going to go here … this is where I’m going to be … I fell in love with the city and the streets and the feel of it … Thats how I got here … It’s kind of a hilarious decision … I wasn’t allowed to go to school for dance …because it wasn’t  a real career … So … I decided to go to an arts school … a creative school … Columbia college … to study illustration … or … advertising design … or something that was more marketable … And then I promptly transferred over to The Art Institute … and studied dance on my own … I would take the bus to Lou Conte … at Jackson and Racine … I tried pretty much every studio … but I mostly studied at Lou Conte … because it was the easiest for me to get to … My degree? … I have a Bachelors in Fine Art … with a focus in painting and drawing … and fiber material studies … making yarn and paper and books from plants (laughter) … and did a lot of watercolors … and journaling … which I still do … So I graduated from college about a year and a half earlier then most people … because I went to college in high school … in Ohio … So I was done … and most of my other friends were still in school for a while … I worked at a little art store for a while … downtown … I didn’t know what to do with my life … I felt … very lost … How can I make a difference with all these things that are happening in the world … How could I express myself … It was so hard to get into the gallery scene … It was a little rough for a while … like with any young … starving artist … just out of school (laughter) … Where was I living? … At that point … I was bouncing around between places … every couple of months … I was living at Bryn Mawr and Broadway … and then I moved down to Diversey and Clark … where my friend lived in this castle … I lived in a castle for a summer … the was really fun … During all that … I saved every single penny … that I had … and went … to Europe … on a shoe string budget … with a backpack … and a couple journals … I went and studied other peoples art all throughout Europe … and the Balkans for about four or five months … I went to London … Paris and Rome … From there I went north … Florence … Venice … Then I took a bus up and over to Croatia … I went to a little peninsula called Istria … … and saw crazy frescos there … I went down the coast of Croatia and into Bosnia … and into Sarajevo … was a huge one … that was very influential … super war torn … still years later … It was heart wrenching … and gorgeous at the same time … I remember walking through a natural history museum … where the glass cases were still blown up … and I could touch mummies … it was crazy … And … I went to Istanbul … I went to Albania … I went to Bulgaria … and then I flew over to Morocco … and hung out in Morocco for a while … Then I took a ferry to the south of Spain … Sevilla … up to Madrid … and over to Barcelona … and then flew to the Netherlands … and then went to Berlin … How did this trip influence me? … Seeing everything from graffiti … in other languages … street art … and art fairs … and incredible exhibits on Alphonse Mucha … The big Picasso’s … like Guernica … That just changes life … standing in front of some of these iconic pieces of artwork … or hiking in Albania and seeing frescos that were crumbling … with sheep passing by you … It’s incredible to see all this art history … everywhere … with art layered over the top of it … Coming back to the U.S. made me feel … very small … and insignificant … The lost feeling continued … however at that point my best friend popped me into the Burning Man Chicago world … there’s a really great network of underground lofts … of artists … and I popped into that … and that fueled me in totally new ways … My college friends had all left for the most part … So popping into this Burning man scene … allowed me to catapult my art making … in big ways … because you could … make art … and show it … very easily … So … Burning Man is this big thing that happens in the dessert in Nevada … It was created by humans in California … and then moved to the desserts in Nevada … It has ten principles with which they create an experimental community … revolving around art … and radical expression and acceptance … as well as taking accountability for yourself … leaving no trace … being responsible … and being engaged in your civic situation … So … humans from all over the country … and all over the world have gone to the “Big Burn” … as we call it … Taking those principles … and that way of life … and infuse them into the communities … So … therefor … the Burning Man Chicago community … the people here … in Chicago create smaller burns … Burning Man events … and then take those principles and create other underground ways of art … and living … and life … How did I get into the type of performances I do now? … It’s a long story (laughter) … Just like any art … it unfolds … as you change … I came to Chicago with the hopes and dreams of getting into a concert dance company … like a ballet company … a jazz company … a tap dance company … a contemporary thing … and through falling into Burning Man … I fell into more experimental ways of expressing myself … I started taking … I call myself a dance junkie … I like to learn any kind of dance I can get my toes on … So … infusing … belly dance … and flamenco … and modern … as well as hip hop … interesting shapes … I think I started doing yoga at the same time … As I dropped into the burning man community … my best friend … and then my soon to be husband … who’s now my ex-husband … basically told me I had to start spinning fire … I’m a very fiery human … and they took me to these dance drams … and basically convinced their friends to put flaming things in my hands … and it changed my life (laughter) … So … Started dancing and performing again … I hadn’t danced in Chicago … I think … for three or four years … Fire spinning brought me back to performance … through fire spinning … I got into object manipulation … and using fabric … and silk flags … Through that … I started doing more hula hoops … and connecting with different people … and eventually … my one friend convinced us to perform … for free … with our big silk veils … for a fundraiser … while she projected images on top of us … my friends friend found it online … and convinced us to audition for this new bar … called Untitled … that was opening … That was my in … into the cabaret and performance world … I started performing there … I went to India for six weeks … and when I came back I was on the roster … we started Unbridled … this new show she had an idea for … Performing arts with my friend Kelly … she convinced me that I was a viable solo artist … I though I could never be a solo artist … She got pregnant … and moved away … so … I was alone … at that point … seeing how my art career wasn’t as I envisioned it … was really my dance career … which never was as I envisioned it … all together wrapped up into this unique form of expressive … body positive … and sensual performance art … It made me feel … I think about this a lot … and I teach a lot … so I describe this to … those I share this with … I feel that … as humans … we each have a direct connection to the divine … The divine spark … it’s not … in my mind … some entity that we can not reach … it exists within us … and around us … kind of like the force … in Star Wars (laughter) … Performance allows me to drop into that … and to amplify it … As I meditate … and ground … and get into my character … my art piece I’ve created … I’m able to … pull all of those pieces … like from down … from in … light them up for myself … and become something bigger … and transmit to people in a much bigger way … then I can do in just a conversation … it’s like a radio antenna … perhaps … I feel in that moment … interconnected … to everything … time stops … uh … time changes … it doesn’t stop … it kind of goes in fast forward … but I can also just pick moments … out of the air … It’s meditative … it’s joyful … sublime … that’s a good word for it … Have I seen changes in cultural awareness? … That’s a good question … because it’s so big … Humans exist within groups … within collective consciousness’s … and as individuals … depending on who you interact with … your experiences are colored … differently … if that makes sense … I would say … in my world … I try to put out a lot of positive … bright … light … so that people can change … and see the positive things … in situations … and … respect each other … in so many ways … right? … I think … how people react … to the work that we do … burlesque … and performance … putting ourselves out there so rawly … how they react to that … and if it’s a line with the way which we want to be received … with respect … I don’t know … insert adjective of how an individual performer wants to be received … For me … I think … yes … things have changed for the better … I find people to be more … willing and able … to have hard conversations … I know I call a lot of people out when they say something inappropriate … or they reach out to touch me in a way … or do … things I don’t like … because they see me as an object … people are much more willing to have those conversations … it becomes harder when they become more inebriated … which is a problem working in bars … However … sometimes it also allows people to break down those walls … which they wouldn’t even be able to get to … if they are completely sober … So … it goes both ways … I think that we have to continue to educate each other … on how we want to be treated … how we need to be respected … especially as woman … and as sex workers … or people putting their bodies out there … in radical ways … and minds out there in radical ways … Humans need to be brought up with that … here in America … I travel a lot … especially in central America … and in small towns all throughout the U.S. … Here in Chicago we have an incredible … awareness … people are willing to have these conversations … people are willing to see crazy stuff on stage … and take it in … and then talk to you about it … where as many other places I go … they shut off … and they don’t even want to see it … or … I realize it’s not the place I can fully express myself … because people aren’t ready … there’s layers you have to get to … to open … to certain conversations … to certain ways of being … I think that here in Chicago … we have a great base … for a lot of social changes … it’s happening … even though it takes time … Using social media … I’ve been thinking about this a lot … I work with my friend in Costa Rica …  Sofhia Thom … on her Temple Body Arts project … and through that … sisterhood … I’ve realized how important it is … to put yourself out there … and internet social media is a huge tool … to put ourselves out there as performers … that’s the way people see things … we don’t really use tv ads … or radio ads … or magazines … anymore … It all happens through social media … and because it is inherently social … and not top down who can pay for an article … in different things … Granted … you still have to pay to play on these … platforms to be promoted … however … there is this way of finding like minded humans … who can support you … who jive with your message … and then connect directly to them … I found that … especially Instagram … and Facebook … have been my two hubs … because I can share my visual art … as well as have the social connectivity … I’m getting into Patreon … I just launched a Patreon … and I’m excited … to see how that can fold into the other ones in a way that supports me in creating … larger projects … over time … Patreon is a site where patrons help fund me … to create my projects … In the foreseeable future … I’m doing some interesting retreat work … I’ve started hosting more classes … I’ve been touring a lot the past few years … and I’ve been funneling that into fire dancing retreats … I want to do a burlesque retreat … where I take the aspect of creating community … learning … education … and enriching each others lives … and put that together in to  these retreat formats … That’s exciting … that’s coming up … I’m going to Burning Man next week fro five days … I’m not working for the first time in eight years … and that’s really cool … I get to go experience and play … I’m touring with some cool new art pieces I’m making … going to San Francisco … Dallas … and the Virgin Islands … and Theater Bizarre … and … Minneapolis … Lot of places … So … I’m excited to bring more depth … and connect … in bigger ways …