Award-winning entertainer Debbie Allen knew there was no time to waste when she saw flames from the Palisades Fire approaching her neighborhood.
The fire that began on the morning of Jan. 7 was whipped by a Santa Ana windstorm unlike anything residents had seen before.
“This was a blowtorch,” Allen said. “I could see it out my balcony window. My mom is 101 years old, and I knew I couldn’t mess with that.”
Like thousands of residents in the Pacific Palisades area, the award-winning and multi-talented actor, dancer, choreographer, director, producer, singer and author, was forced to evacuate.
Later that same day, the Eaton Fire ignited in the hills above Altadena. Eshele Williams and her family were forced to evacuate as flames burned homes and businesses to the ground in the community northeast of Los Angeles.
Williams’ home and those of her mother and sisters were among the more than 6,000 homes destroyed in the deadly Eaton Fire.
As the fires continued to burn for days then weeks, becoming two of the deadliest and most destructive on record in California, Allen thought about what she could do to bring some hope and light in a desperate time.
“I felt like we have to do something,” Allen said. “We feel the pain of what has been lost, but we also know that we have something we can give that can pull people up.”
Allen launched “Dancing in the Light: Healing Through the Arts,” a free community dance series for people affected by the wildfires. Williams and her family are among the participants.
“Even if dance is, quote unquote, not your thing,” Williams said. “Even if you stand on the sidelines or sit in the bleachers, and you’re just swaying with the movement, there’s something about finding that community and being in the presence of music that is uplifting and a place just to really kind of find your spirit and regain some of that in what you think is lost.”
Fire victims and their families are invited to the Debbie Allen Dance Academy Sunday for free dance classes and to watch the Super Bowl.
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