JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on or have recently completed. Why exactly do they matter to you and why should they matter to others?
BAKARI IFASEGUN LINDSAY: You might not be expecting this answer, but the most recent project I have been working on has been my health. I was diagnosed with a life altering illness which had both an emotional and physical impact on my life. I guess my creative mind is what saved me. It certainly put a reflective perspective on my life as an artist because for three and half months I was incapable of moving beyond going from my back to my side which took a great deal of effort and caused tremendous pain. For a moment I thought I would not be able to dance again.
JS: How did doing these projects change you as a person and as a creator?
BIL: Well, I guess I can say it has opened my heart to appreciating the smaller things in life. I look at a lot of sunrises and sunsets. I even notice the fact that I am walking because there was a time just to walk was a challenge.
JS: What might others not understand or appreciate about the work you produce or do?
BIL: I work from an Africanist movement aesthetic that has reached a level of development and sophistication that it sometimes seems inherent because of my ethnicity (African Descent). So, the years of research and development get overlooked as natural talent.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work?
BIL: The most important parts of myself that is in all my work are my spirituality, style and identity. Sometimes the use of spiritual elements is deliberate, while other times they are understated and support the performance. Design and beauty are key elements in my creative process, while my experiences often influence the work.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
BIL: Time, there never seems to be enough time to thoroughly investigate work through the creative process. Which I guess is tied to resources, both physical and intellectual.
JS: Imagine that you are meeting two or three people, living or dead, whom you admire because of their work in your form of artistic expression. What would you say to them and what would they say to you?
BIL: I would love to meet the late Martha Graham, and Alvin Ailey.
‘If you were not able to dance or create dance, what would you have done?’ It’s difficult to know what they would probably say, but they have left phenomenal words of wisdom.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that helped to make you who you are as a creative artist.
BIL: Working with Vincent Mantsoe, the physical and spiritual power he was able to evoke in my dancing influenced my notion of physical limits for movement.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
BIL: I feel it’s the insanity to practice an art form that offers so little financial rewards, but yet we continue to practice.
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts? Why the delay so far?
BIL: I think I have attempted all that has interested me artistically; however, there are opportunities that I would like to have, such as creating work for bodies that exist outside of my physical aesthetic.
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
BIL: No regrets, no changes. I have a full, notice I said have and not had, because I plan to have lots more of an artistic life.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
BIL: It’s depressing, but very little gives me hope in the ARTS. There seems to be less and less resources and respect for the form. The advent of technology has made the arts and artist dispensable.
JS: What exactly do you like about the work you create and/or do?
BIL: My work often transforms an audience and that excites me. I love that I tell physical stories that offers transcendence to the audience participant.
JS: In your creative life thus far, what have been the most helpful comments you have heard about your work?
BIL: That the work was developing a new Canadiana in dance.
JS: What exactly has the impact of the COVID pandemic been on your creative work and your life in the arts?
BIL: Hmmmm, because I was ill for most of the pandemic it has not really impacted me yet. I guess I am slowly getting back to it. I would say ask me in a year from now.
JS: How has the pandemic changed you as a person?
BIL: Yea, my illness coincided with the pandemic, so my focus has been on me and not so much of the pandemic. I guess as I begin to reintegrate into regular life, whatever that is, I will have to reflect. Ask me in a year or so.
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising things about you?
BIL: I am a very spontaneous person; however, I am a very methodical and analytical person which is kind of an oxymoron.