Director Emeritus and Co-founder of the award-winning company, Moving
in the Spirit - a dance and urban outreach program in Atlanta; Co-founder
of Lelavision Physical Music with partner, Ela Lamblin - melding dance with
kinetic musical sculpture in Seattle, founder/adminstrator of Integrated
Music, a roster of 12 artists providing music at Harborview and UW Medical
Centers. A former competitive gymnast with a passion for aerial dance (bungee
cords and hanging inventions), Leah has been awarded numerous grants and
commissions from entities such as the NEA Alternate Visions Grant, the Criminal
Defense and Justice Project , Nexus Art Gallery (Atl), The Pacific School
of Religion, Seattle Arts Commission Artist’s Grant, Change Inc, Bossak
Heilbron Foundation, King Co Special Projects and The Puffin Foundation.
Performance Highlights include touring to the UK, Italy, Singapore and Bangkok.
Favorite performance sites include performing at a zoo in the bear grottos,
in the skydome at a planetarium, with patients at a cancer center, and in
a pool.
Artistic Statement: My work is the integration of my life’s experiences
manifested in movement. From competitive gymnast to urban missionary, from
brain hemorrhage survivor to improvisational player, my work reflects the
idea of “transformation”. It is a progression from standard
techniques and more rigid studies of form to a hybrid new genre of simultaneity
of movement, sound and play in all meanings of the word. It focuses on the
common denominators of the human experience, the formation of community
and the relationships therein - whether eurhythmically (uniting music and
dance) or in audience participation (blurring the line between viewer and
performer). The emphasis of my choreography and movement study relates to
the physics of energy, effort and sound as I explore its transference and
flow. Thus my work has developed from more traditonal forms of modern based
dance to include the use of kinetic musical sculptures, trapeze, bungee,
text, vocals, polyrhyrthms and sound, which have increased the scope of
movement potential and spacial exploration. My creative process is not only
a mind body spirit practice but it also allows me to embody the values of
respect, discipline, commitment and responsibility. As a teacher and performer
for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, these are the elements
I hope most to share - art as a tool for empowerment and healing....as it
has been in my life.
Leah Mann combines in one bodyspirit an electric and energetic performance, rich inner imagery and a tender consciousness about the world. Not only that, she's hilarous! A great teacher!
Phil Porter, Co-director, Body Wisdom, Inc.; Co-creator of InterPlay
Visually fascinating...joyful abandon...eclectic, wildly creative.
Elizabeth Lenhard, Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Leah combines her contagious, revitalizing energy source with loving, nurturing compassion. She's
exhilarating, fun, powerful, sweet and sassy. She goes towards the edge - what loots to be impos-
sible - and then jumps or flows into it seemingly effortlessly. How did she do that?
Diane Wilson, Minister, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Rambunctious...whimsical...brilliant...transported the audience to another environment, where
movement and sound occurred as if being experienced for the first time.
Dan Liss, Art Papers Magazine
There is something very special about Leah Mann, perhaps it is her open face and sweet smile...
maybe it's her compassion and insight or it could be her willingness to look inside herself and
study the fears, hopes and happiness that she shares with humanity. Whatever the basis for her
specialness, Leah brings it to her dance.
Susan Wiesner, Creative Loafing, Atlanta
blessingsfromthelelavisionaries.blogspot.com
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