Influential & Inspiring People
The IIP Series, also known as the Influential and Inspiring People Series, was created to showcase the many talented, hardworking, and innovative individuals I have had the privilege of knowing. I want to be able to share their stories while inspiring others to build their own paths along the way. My goal is to interview and photograph a list of (so-called “ordinary”) individuals who, in my eyes, are extraordinary. Many of them are making an impact in this world through their passions, and I want their stories to be heard. This first one is FOR THE NEVER ENDING CREATIVE.
Lilia Deering
Since I met Lilia during my first year of college in 2015, I’ve known her to be a classically trained dancer with a powerful urge to choreograph. I watched her gain so much knowledge in production tech and “behind the scenes” aspects of performances. She became incredibly skillful in lighting design, to the point where she was able to help me set up light cues for my dance film and fully manage shows. Lilia moved into her home on wheels this past summer and has been enjoying the van life all while saving rent money. Building and creating is no stranger to Lilia. She is best known for her immersive installations which allow people to experience a world that they can walk into and interact with. Infact, right after graduating CalArts with a B.F.A in Dance, Lilia worked on her largest immersive installation yet. She worked as the Site Supervisor for Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights. She is currently the Assistant Technical Director at California Institute of the Arts and has helped with countless projects and shows since the start of the school year.
1) How long have you been dancing?
I’ve been dancing my whole life because my parents actually met in a dance company. My dad founded a Balkan dance company in the 70s. My mom did Ballet growing up and through college and then auditioned for the dance company and so they met there... When I was born I basically started out right in rehearsal like a little baby on the side. We all did that growing up. My sister started doing Irish dancing and I started doing Ballet. In high school I stopped doing Balkan dancing because I was already dancing everyday with Ballet and it was a little bit much and it was nice having sundays free when my whole family was away doing that. I could have some time to myself. But I still do it when I go home. It’s a very social kind of dance so I would just go to dance parties. I actually started doing Salsa and I’ve done Rueda too. Fun is what’s most important which feels like it gets lost so often in technical dancing.
2) Did you think you were going to be a dancer all your life or have you always had other interests?
I’ve always had other interests. I played violin for a really long time pretty seriously. When I was younger I did soccer and I was in Choir. I always knew that I wanted to be in a creative profession, but I think in high school I kind of started to be unsure about whether I wanted to be a dancer professionally. I think it was never really a question if I would be a dancer all my life because of my family. Folk dancing you do until your… forever. That’s what kept my dad alive while he was battling cancer. It was just getting up and dancing even if he could only just barely step one foot to the other while listening to music. He would even dance lying in his bed. His motto was “dance everyday of your life.” So we actually had, in January, the one year memorial of his passing and it’s called the Dance Everyday of Your Life Party. So that spirit is definitely in me and everyone in my family. I don’t think I’ll ever stop dancing.
3) Since being a Seattle native and making the move to California, what is the biggest lesson that attending CalArts taught you?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I think the biggest thing that I learned is that you just have to do whatever you want and to stop letting people tell you what you should do or letting people tell you what’s best for you. When you feel drawn to something… just follow it and do whatever you want. Life is too short to not do whatever you want. Other than just having built a really beautiful network of peopleI down here, I really like the creative energy of LA. I think it’s a really innovative place and people are always coming and going… it’s fast paced while sort of being laid back as opposed to New York. It’s still fast paced and ever changing but there’s something laid back about the west coast that I really like. I really see myself more on the west coast than the east coast. LA seems like a good fit right now for what I’m interested in. I do feel grateful growing up in Seattle to have been in a really open minded and liberal place.
4) As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, do you feel like it is a priority of yours to showcase your identity in your work?
I would definitely say yes and no. I don’t think I need to showcase it in everything. I think it’s underlying in everything because it’s part of who I am. I think it’s a really unique thing that I get to pull from and connect with people on that level. The queer community is full of really amazing people... People who have chosen their own path, who are unique, and who are doing whatever they want. I think that’s a really amazing thing that I get to draw from but I don’t feel like I actively need to think about it every time that I don’t. It’s always underlying in some way or another.
5) What got you interested in art direction and environment design?
I came to CalArts to pursue choreography over dance because I knew that what I love about dance wasn’t actually doing it. I thought it was really interesting to design space and time in that way, but there got to be a point where it felt like that medium of dance wasn’t expansive enough for the ideas that I had. I felt like I needed to include more set design and include the audience, so I went from choreography to immersive theater and live performance to immersive projects that were off of the stage to thinking of myself as someone who designs space in a much more general sense.
6) Do you think dance helped you transition to art direction and environment design? If so, how did it help?
I think it’s the overarching thing that choreography is part of environment design. It’s just about designing space and experiences and choreography is that but it just felt so separate from the audience. It’s such a specific experience and I felt like my ideas were a little more expansive than that space provided. There was a lot more opportunity to feel included in the art making.
7) Could you tell me about your experience choosing to save rent money by living the van-life? Pros and cons?
I did it partially because I was going to graduate and I wasn’t really sure what my money situation was going to be like. I ended up getting the van two months before graduation and I also started watching a lot of videos about it. It seemed a lot more sustainable because I don’t think we actually need that much space to live… so space-saving solutions are very interesting. I wanted to build out my own van but it just wasn’t quite as practical at that time but I feel like that could still happen down the road. In terms of pros and cons, I discovered that in winter it could get really cold at night. I would be fine in my bed with all my bedding, but my face would get cold and it would make it impossible to get out of bed. It’s like getting out of bed and basically stepping outside. With winter it would get dark really early and my space is so affected by natural light because I didn’t have the best lighting system. The biggest downside of not having electricity is the fridge. That has been a challenge… finding good ways to cook. I have a fridge in my office, so I would just wake up and go to work and I’ll eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. It’s definitely a challenge feeling spread out between my studio, my van, and work. I feel like I have three homes. At Least one of them can travel.
8) Would you suggest GoFundMe pages to help fund passion projects?
Grants are great, but what's cool about GoFundMe is that you can get people interested in your work and patrons… and you can offer rewards and prizes for people who donate more which allows them to get even more involved in your work. I think artists have to do whatever they can, especially in the United States, where we don’t get government subsidies.
9) Are there any new installations or projects you are working on that we can keep an eye out in the future?
Yes. March 21st, I am working on an MFA project with Abriel for Madi Hicks. It’s sort of a spin off of LaLa’s Dream Machine with stuffed animals because Madi was already working on a teddy bear solo, so we are building an environment for that to exist in the Lund Theater. I also really want to do a big collaborative, immersive party that involves various amounts of spaces that clash into one space that is brought alive by monsters or crazy costumes and movers and “non people.” Some sort of immersive party that brings together a lot of artists who are also interested in the same work. I also applied to a residency in Italy this summer and I might be making a sculpture garden in the Alps. I’m planning on spending a lot of my summer in Europe.
10) For someone who has accumulated countless passions, what advice do you have for the never-ending-creative?
This is definitely advice that I need to give to myself, but to keep creating. Even if it’s not things that are serious or good… just keep creating. Collaborate with people. Allow yourself to be inspired by other people. If you’re not making work keep going to see other people’s work and bring a notebook with you to write down your ideas. You will have ideas… and don’t be afraid to let your different passions cross together. If you see something good… you can distill down what you liked about it, you can take those and mix it with your own creativity and come up with something different that’s really inspired by something else but it’s not copying. Or sometimes you see something that’s not good and you think about all the things that you would have done differently or better, and then you can start there. That really helps me.
website: http://liliadeering.com
main instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liliadeering/
art direction & environment design on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/welcomegnome/
van life on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/planetary_traveler/