Freestyle
Eight-Episode Half-Hour Comedy in Development
Written by Linda Nieves-Powell
Synopsis
Freestyle is an eight-episode, half-hour single-camera comedy adapted from my novel of the same name.
It’s 2006. Idalis Rivera is 38, separated, broke, and raising her seven-year-old son in a cramped Staten Island apartment. By day she’s a secretary who dresses for the career she wishes she had. By night, she’s obsessed with the past. Like Fleabag, she’s the only character who knows we’re watching, confiding in us as she justifies why the 90s always feels safer than today.
After a mysterious botánica owner tells her, “You’re dancing, and you’re happy,” an old freestyle record transports Idalis back to 1991, the year she’s spent fifteen years romanticizing as the happiest time of her life. But every return to the past reveals memories she got wrong, forcing her to confront the truths she’s spent years avoiding.
Set against the soundtrack of 90s dance music, Freestyle is a funny, heartfelt coming-of-age story for the mature crowd. It’s about nostalgia, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Alongside her lifelong best friend, Selenis, whose own heartbreaking journey forces them both to confront love, loss, and the lives they imagined for themselves, Idalis slowly discovers that healing isn’t about reliving the past. It’s about letting it go.
The Novel
Status
The pilot is currently being submitted to festivals and writing programs for further development.
More Information
News about Freestyle will be posted here as the project develops. For inquiries, get in touch at idalisisntdead@gmail.com.