Leah Mann

Leah Mann, a former competitive gymnast with a passion for aerial dance (bungee cords and hanging inventions), has been creating dance that simultaneously plays large-scale kinetic musical sculpture for the last 15 years. This grand multi-tasking has stretched her aerial and modern dance skills to include classical Indian dance, polyrhythmic systems, Brain Gym, Brain Dance and all forms of improvisation. She 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, The Pacific School of Religion, Seattle Arts Commission Artist’s Grant, Change Inc, Bossak Heilbron Foundation, King County Special Projects and The Puffin Foundation. Mann is the Director of Emeritus, a Co-founder of the award-winning company Moving in the Spirit, and a Co-founder of Lelavision Physical Music (with partner, Ela Lamblin, founder/administrator of Integrated Music). In 2013, she choreographed Lelavision’s piece for the One Billion Rising campaign against rape. Performance highlights include touring to the UK, Italy, Singapore and Bangkok.

Leah received a 2011 GAP, which served as her artistic fee for Harvesting Light. In Harvesting Light she collaborated with sculptor/composer Ela Lamblin, the founder of the Center for Chemical Evolution, Dr. David Lynn, and biochemist Tim Liam of the Bio-Inspired Renewable Energy Laboratory at Emory University.