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.
August 2026: Vanessa
Hernandez Cruz
Vanessa Hernández Cruz (she/her/ella) is a multidisciplinary disabled dance artist based in Los Angeles, on Tongva land. Vanessa’s involvement with Pieter has spanned accessibility consulting, workshops, residencies, and fiscal sponsorship. Her story illustrates Pieter’s holistic commitment to supporting working artists.
Could you tell us a little bit about yourself, and your work?
“I’ve been dancing professionally for about eight years; it's been an exciting journey filled with lots of amazing things, but also challenges. A lot of my dance work deals with liminal space and horror aesthetics. I love integrating other mediums such as dance film, visual art, and poetry into my work, using the disability justice framework as a grounding point.”
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, “Pieter is an incubator”?
“When you’re in residence with Pieter, you're given so much liberty to do anything you want. When I was in residence at Pieter at the beginning of 2024, I used my three months there to develop a workshop called Cyber Realms with two other artists. We were thinking about accessibility as a framework for improvisation, and as a way to allow artists to be themselves in the container of the workshop, and in the space. It was a beautiful opportunity to explore and to question without feeling any kind of pressure to produce something.
I’ve appreciated the opportunities Pieter provides, particularly for artists in marginalized communities. Pieter supports a diverse range of artists – and not just dancers! They’re open to people coming in and creating ways to strengthen their communities. It’s really special, really necessary work.”
Do you have a favorite memory or moment in your Pieter experience?
“Oh, that’s a hard one... I have so many amazing Pieter stories! I’m going to dive into two.
The first time I came to Pieter, they didn’t have their [Broadway] space yet. It felt special to align with an organization that was renewing or reincarnating itself. I remember having conversations with folks involved with Pieter, and learning that the old space wasn't super accessible – it was on the second floor of an industrial building. There was an elevator, but it wasn’t really accessible for disabled artists. So I thought it was beautiful that they brought in Kai to lead the organization. Kai’s perspective was, What does it mean to really support disabled artists? That perspective helped lead Pieter to the space it occupies now. I feel like I played a big role in helping bring a disability justice framework to Pieter. It was wonderful to be in conversation with Kai, and to feel like Pieter was truly fostering community, even when a physical space wasn’t holding them.
My second memory is pretty close in time to where I am currently as an artist. For a while, I’ve been trying to find organizations to partner with as I develop my ongoing project, Echoes of the City. I was applying for funding from the New England Foundation of the Arts, and I needed a fiscal sponsor [to receive and administer the grant for me]. I remember a friend of mine telling me, “You should reach out to Pieter, they might be able to support you in that way.” When I heard that, it made total sense! I’d been in community with them over the years, and getting to know and work with Rosalie [Tucker, Pieter’s current Executive Director] has been such a dream. It feels rare to find a fiscal sponsor who works with integrity, and who acts in alignment with the values they say they have. But Pieter is doing it!”
How did you become a part of the Pieter community?
“I started my career right in the middle of the ongoing pandemic. I graduated from Cal State Long Beach 2021, at a point where a lot of events were still happening virtually. As our society was transitioning back into in-person gatherings, it was difficult for me to find places that practiced or even acknowledged disability justice in any way. Like, spaces where people wore masks, or practiced any other kind of community care.
But I remember applying to the parking lot residency that Pieter hosted in collaboration with The Box Gallery. There we had time to just explore our work and our practice. That’s how I met Kai Hazelwood, who was the executive director at the time. Kai also identifies as disabled and is very much rooted in disability justice. Pieter was also looking for an accessible space at that time, which was really exciting to hear. It was so nice to be in community with Kai and The Box, and I appreciated how accommodating the team was during my time there – I remember feeling so held and supported as an artist. It was technically my first in-person residency as a dance artist, and it’s a core part of the origin of my practice.”
What’s your biggest wish for Pieter’s future?
“My biggest wish for Pieter is an abundance of resources, so they can continue to elevate marginalized artists. The word expansion comes to mind. I imagine Pieter expanding... not necessarily the space itself, but its capacity to operate, its staff, its funding... I see, in Pieter’s future, an abundance of programming that brings even more people together. It’s already happening, but once Pieter has consistent funding, it’ll make an even bigger impact on the LA art scene.”
If you could come up with three words to describe Pieter, what would they be?
“Pieter is community care. Pieter is disability justice. Pieter is love.”
👉🏽 Watch the interview on Instagram!