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Leighann Kowalsky

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NYC-based ground & air movement artistperformance, choreography, education, program & curriculum developmentsynesthete, perpetual student of physical culture, very short film maker

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Leighann Kowalsky

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    • Choreography
    • Performance
    • Film
    • Education
  • News
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May 2025 Update

May 31, 2025 Leighann Kowalsky

Photo Credit: Hudson Valley Visuals

May and June tend to be ripe with “end of school year” things for the worlds where I’m still involved in students. Recitals, Concerts, Auditions - ‘tis the season. That being said, I’m less and less involved with kids, students and school-aged folk, these days, if I’m honest. I could probably use a refresh in where that age is at from a development standpoint, because they are definitely DIFFERENT than they were ten years, fifteen years, 20 years ago when I started teaching! And that’s not to say I don’t love to, or want to, keep working with them - (in fact I’m so looking forward to working with that age group this July at Berkshire Pulse, and this August in New Orleans!) - I just find myself making a bigger impact at the college and adult levels as of late!

April 2025 Update

April 30, 2025 Leighann Kowalsky

Photo Credit: Hudson Valley Visuals

April included two weeks in residency at Wildheart Center in Wallkill, NY with the Institute for the Study of Somatic Communication and Nita Little. Part Contact Improv workshop, Part ISSC Training in Somatic Research, and part prep for a performance project that I was producer, choreographer AND dancer for - it was such a tease to be close to home, but not exactly at home. The Hudson Valley is such a sweet, rich, expansive place, and still after so much travel this winter I’m hungry for home home. I was reminded also the month that I’m no longer in a season of life where I can wear quite so many hats, and wear them all very well - so being producer, choreographer AND dancer for a project was living at the edges of my capacities. I find it so critical to notice these tiniest details in our abilities, such that we might stay in our wellness as we move forward!

March 2025 Update

March 31, 2025 Leighann Kowalsky

March was about “getting home” and “being home” - returning from a season of traveling and diving back into the community here, including producing a Student Dance Summit and supporting an artist in residence at Kaatsbaan, Imani Gaudin of Gaudanse. Kaatsbaan is a local-to-me Art & Culture park, and Imani had also been a “mentor” on a project in Boulder, Colorado that I had been part of over the summer! I snuck into her residency at did a little promo shoot for a piece she’ll premiere in New Orleans in April. If you know me, you know New Orleans feels like a second home - so it was such a joy to find all these sweet overlaps!

February 2025 Update

February 28, 2025 Leighann Kowalsky

February brought with it the end of a tour in Australia. I’ve been thinking alot about how exhausting the “leaving” part of travel can be. Going to all these places, these communities - joining in with these people and becoming invested in them, in their life - loving them. And then having to leave! I’m definitely taking some time this February to rest, and settle after this big “leaving”. And, frankly, already looking forward to returning down under in February and March of next year.

January 2025 Update

February 1, 2025 Leighann Kowalsky

I’ve been here in Sydney, Australia for the month, in a sweet little central city neighborhood called Darlinghurst. My daily jogs include running through the Royal Botanical Garden, which brings me past the National Art Gallery of NSW (think the MET in NY) - and a gorgeous view of the opera house. I’ve been working hard with Nita Little, first in an Open CI Workshop, then in a CI into Ensemble Dancing, and then third with my “Global Coordinator” hat on for the ISSC in a Somatic Research training at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development. Lastly, at Sydney Dance Company with their Pre Professional students! What a beautiful city!

December 2024 Update

December 31, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

www.movingrasa.com

December marked “Month #2” working with Moving Rasa, an organization that helps people break free from limiting habits by exploring movement and connecting to their Rasa—their "essence" or the feeling they sense with their heart. The MR framework is built, in part, from skills developed in Contact Improv, so it has been an easeful shift to use some of my skills in support of them. December also comes with some rest and recharge, and the start of hibernation. Coming up at the end of the month I’ll travel to Switzerland, followed by San Francisco, CA and Sydney Australia.

November 2024 Update

November 28, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

November brought with it the premiere of a new work, I Had A Dream About Cyborgs, on T2 Dance Company as part of their Voices Concert. Conveniently for me, Nita Little was also in Boulder, Colorado giving a workshop, which gave me the distinct privilege of attending to collaborate with her, and learn through the workshop. I also had the joy of attending an almost-as-old-as-contact-is private jam called Tumblebones, with the most gorgeous group of dancers I’ve possibly ever danced CI with. The new work went on to be performed at the Color Wheel performance, also by T2, with a colorful backdrop of artwork by local students.

October 2024 Update

November 1, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

October was unseasonably warm this year on the East Coast. It meant that for the annual Village Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, NYC, we were march in 70 degree air! We’re quite used to having to bundle up, but this year we arrived on 16th street practically soaking wet. This year I wrangled about 80 “cat ladies”, and I dressed appropriately like a black cat. Earlier in the month I dodged hurricanes in Tampa/St. Pete area for a performance with “Break the Mould” dance company, for their “Our Stories” showcase. I reset a piece from last year featuring these handheld lights in the hopes to catch a proper film capture of it - but due to the hurricane related re-schedules, I ended up having to perform, and therefore I still haven’t been able to film! We’ll try again soon, I’m sure!

September 2024 Update

September 30, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

September means summer official comes to a close. Summer, I’ve found, is always my favorite. I really REALLY recharge in the sunlight, and I love the maximalist show that nature puts on during the summer, at least here on the east coast. I performed a bunch, and worked on some new projects ahead - redirecting energy away from working with school-aged kids, and into working with college age and professionals. I’m bringing something exciting up with Nita Little, more on that soon, as well as a big trip out to Australia in the new year. Much to come in this new season!

August 2024 Update

August 31, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

August featured a number of performances, travel (back up to Montreal!) and most importantly of all, a bit of rest. Classes started for the inaugural cohort at Reinhardt University, for which I am adjunct professor, and once we’re rolling with a “year two” class, Research Advisor as well. It’s all digital, so I can work from wherever I am. As such, I observed this big sense of “restart” all around me - kids going back to school, friends going back to working at schools, but not “in” me, if that makes sense. I find I get to take a little longer, perhaps to the proper equinox, to let summer drip to its close.

July 2024 Update

July 31, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

July came with a delicious residency in the Catskills, a few other performances and projects, and a big decision not to return to the school setting this fall. That particular detail was wrought because I really appreciated the humans I was working with within the art department. However, I’ve been feeling like I need a break from working with that age group, specifically in that setting. I may have returned to independent school life prematurely (since leaving Millbrook in 2021). Working back in full-time freelance life takes a bit of time to churn back into gears, and brings along with it even more travel. I look forward to it all!

June 2024 Update

July 3, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

June is my birth month and gemini season and the start of summer. Frankly, it’s time for play, more often than not. I spent most of the month in Europe (Piemonte Region Italy, French Riviera, Monaco), and a bit of it with friends in New Orleans. I wouldn’t say it was all play and no work, but I definitely find myself being pickier on where I spend my time in this particular season.

May 2024 Update

May 31, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

May and June are recital season around here, and working with so many students across the country means so many babies are getting all dressed up and performing the culmination of their year of training! The only studio I teach at regularly (or as regularly as possible) is Duchess School of Performing Arts in Arlington (Poughkeepsie), NY. Their concert will feature some beautiful work in ballet, tap, contemporary and Irish dance! Lots of love to my kiddos near and far! Merde!

April 2024 Update

April 30, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

This April is the one-year anniversary of graduating with my MFA degree. I have felt incredibly stifled as an artist since entering that program in the first place. This month, though, I discovered a program I had been building with some friends (a Master of Fine Arts degree in Choreography - but - make it the program I wish I had gotten) received it’s accreditation and will run through Reinhardt University in Atlanta, GA. More on that as it launches in August, but I discovered, upon receiving that accreditation, a real sense of relief and release of my artist self. I feel inspired to make work again! It’s been too long! Let’s go!!!

March 2024 Update

March 31, 2024 Leighann Kowalsky

Since I’m working again with a proper school, I have to corral most of my travel at the moment to the school schedule. With March comes Spring Break! And off I went to 5 cities in 2 weeks! I had the opportunity of working with Lauren Anderson and the whole team at DANCEFEST in Atlanta, GA, as well as help with a new work in development with physical theater company AuraCuriatlas in Richmond, VA. I naturally went down to my home away from home in New Orleans, LA, and stopped by Boca Raton, FL, too. Atlanta was a huge highlight because I got to work and play with some of my MFA cohort friends! yay!

October 2023 Update

October 31, 2023 Leighann Kowalsky

October meant I could turn toward projects I deeply cared about, such as the Student Dance Summit, created by a group of volunteer powerhouse women, produced at Kaatsbaan in Tivoli, NY, and which brought together a group of school-aged kids to learn from new teachers, present their own choreography, and develop relationships with other dance peers (me, excitedly, pictured here).

I also engaged with the NYC Halloween Parade, choreographing the main float with Grand Marshal Laurie Anderson - wow!

Lastly, I rooted into home and friends (who are family), because my August and September were interpersonally especially challenging! Here’s to REST.

September 2023 Update

September 30, 2023 Leighann Kowalsky

No sooner did Westchester Circus Arts tent “Lucy” come down from it’s post in Troy, NY with the Contemporary Circus and Immersive Arts Center, than it went right back up in Sleepy Hollow, NY for the second year of The Legend Cirque. September was costuming, props, rehearsals and launching this 7 week performance run!

August 2023 Update

September 1, 2023 Leighann Kowalsky

My brain was entirely in circus mode for this particular August. I wasn’t expecting to need to be quite so tunnel-visioned! As a gig-worker, I’m often juggling multiple projects and clients at a time - that’s just the norm - but this month it became abundantly clear that this little “Circus in the Park” project required all of my attention - physical, emotional, mental - you name it. Things went off without a hitch to the public-eye. It will surely take me long past a month just to recover!

July 2023 Update

July 31, 2023 Leighann Kowalsky

For almost all of July, I was in Europe. I started the trip in Italy for both a bit of work and pleasure (work with Nita Little at Spazio Nu for a Contact Improv intensive) before dashing off to Amsterdam, Netherlands to catch a birthday celebration with a friend (who know those canals were quite so intricate!). Lastly, I found my way to Ireland to meet up with a variety of old and new friends, in old and new ways.

June 2023 Update

June 30, 2023 Leighann Kowalsky

I became a high-fashion model by shooting for an editorial campaign for a brand that a friend of mine runs! I returned to my friends in New Orleans to teach for them at their summer intensive! I shot for ROGUEWAVE at their Dragon’s Egg Residency, I shot the New York Academy of Ballet annual residency performance - wow - I did alot! and I also gardened - I grew - and I rested before a full month of travel in July!

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