Leila (PGDip Dance Studies, PBT Certified) is a passionate dancer, dance educator and dance researcher with strong pedagogy and experience teaching children and adults. Leila teaches for several dance schools across Melbourne and is available for bookings as a workshop facilitator, regular dance teacher and dance researcher. Her pedagogy focuses strongly upon student-centered learning.
In 2018, Leila presented her research on 'Transformative Dance Pedagogy in the Primary Setting' before international researchers and delegates at Panpapanpalya International Joint Dance Congress (Dance and the Child International and World Dance Alliance). She has wide experience in dance education and community dance and has danced professionally with Movement of The Human (Wellington, NZ) and trained with Yellowwheel Dance Company (Melbourne, Australia) in 2019.
Performance and choreography is an important part of her practice alongside her teaching. She has recently performed at the New Zealand International Arts Festival in RUSHES and Dance Massive Festival, Melbourne for Chunky Move's SIMULCAST. Leila alongside curator, Michaela Meadow, produced and choreographed a show for Melbourne Fringe in September called 'Jîyan', showcasing diverse femme artists. The show has toured galleries and arts spaces in Australia and Tasmania since 2019.
Performance and installation:
Jîyan bê te nina at
Sawtooth ARI Gallery
Interview for SBS
'It is never too late to start dancing ballet'
About Leila Lois
Latest Projects
'Wild Womxn'
'Everything Dances Project’. Photographer Luke Aki, Dancers: Leila Lois, Crystal Ski, Andria Pablo Sanchez, Eimear Connelly. Videographer: Jess D Lucht. Taonga Pūoro music: Jerome Kavanagh Poutama. Body paint: Gabriel Heimler.
Everything Dances
A dance photography and videography project with artists of diverse backgrounds. Celebrating diversity and community arts collaboration.
Jîyan
Jîyan (meaning 'life and also the stem of the word 'jin' for 'woman' in Kurdish) is immersive exhibition exploring the sacred, life-giving connection of womxn to nature.
The immersive exhibition/performances/installation is a Jungian dreamscape that invites the audience into their own subconscious to reconnect with their family story and their origin. Through the creative meditations, viewers are given a space to reflect on how dance, stories, songs and traditions bind us to our own identity and the cross cultural celebration of the experience allows us to appreciate humanity's common origin and the threads that connect us all.