PIETER INCUBATOR SERIES
The Pieter Incubator Series shares stories from people who have been rooted in and nourished by Pieter’s community over the years.
July 2026: Joy Alegria
How did you become a part of the Pieter community?
“I first came to Pieter part of a dance company led by taisha paggett, WXPT [We are the Paper, We are the Trees]. I was teaching yoga at the time, hosting sound baths, working with plant medicine, and doing independent curation. Even then, there were so many overlaps in my practice. Everything I did, and still do, has to do with connecting to the earth and practicing wellness – wellness that's not just outside of us, but that also happens in our relationships. I'm curious about what we can learn from the earth and from each other.”
“In 2021 we started doing Move into Stillness as a monthly offering at the El Sereno Community Garden. Because of the work I'd done at Pieter, the class had become what I'd imagined all along. It was beautiful to bring the class out of the studio, to practice stillness without our bodies, and to connect with the land in a more direct way.”
Why do you think it's important to support Pieter, especially during the Emergency Fundraiser?
“No matter where you are in your life, Pieter is a welcoming space to explore embodiment. Like the mission says, Pieter is a place for all bodies. As someone who often feels awkward in my body, Pieter feels really welcoming and supportive compared to most dance spaces I've visited in LA. At Pieter, there's an awareness that a movement practice is not separate from a healing or wellness practice. It has an expansive understanding of what dance can be. It feels really unique in that way.”
Do you have any long-term dreams for Pieter? How do you imagine it existing in the future?
“I often think about Pieter's original home. I love that it had a kitchen – it was a space that really brought people together, not just to dance, but also to eat and to hang out. I've always imagined Pieter having an outdoor space too, maybe a garden.
I really resonate with the idea that Pieter is an incubator; it gave me space to experiment and explore, to try something new. I would love for the folks in Pieter's community, and in Lincoln Heights and beyond, to feel supported by the work Pieter does. I would love to see Pieter receive all the money that it needs to support artists, and people who are curious about the arts, for years to come.”
If you could come up with three words to describe Pieter, what would they be?
“Pieter is liberation. Pieter is experimental, Pieter is nurturing.”
Since joining the community, what kind of work have you done at Pieter?
“When Pieter was at its original space in Lincoln Heights, I started leading a class series called Move into Stillness. It started as a more traditional meditation class, but it eventually became a kind of incubator – a space to explore different contemplative practices. I was combining skills I was learning through my yoga practice, and from my dance and performance practice. Eventually I started to integrate aspects of my work with plant medicine. I would bring in an herbal tea, or a native plant I had a relationship with, and share them in class. Over time, Move into Stillness became a container for exploring all these different things that I do that are related in some way.
After a couple years, I started to invite healers and practitioners from my larger communities in LA: people I know in East LA, Filipinx folks, and the areas that I grew up in. They would offer their own version of a meditation class, which I appreciated because they brought more Indigenous consciousness and wellness practices into the space. I still think about one class a friend of mine led that framed twerking as a movement meditation.”
👉🏽 Watch the interview on Instagram!