MOVERS & SHAPERS: A DANCE PODCAST

In 1979, Leslie was the first dance teacher hired by Dr. Harry Clark, founding principal, and Dr. Marilyn Barnett, first Dance Department Chair to teach ballet at the newly forming, Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, originally located in Homewood, the neighborhood where she grew up. Currently, CAPA 6-12, is located prominently in downtown Pittsburgh’s growing cultural district, Leslie and has been a member of the Dance Department faculty for 36 years, where she has inspired a generations of aspiring dancers. In 1980, Leslie was selected to serve as the second artistic director of the well established, professional performing group in the Black tradition of dance, Pittsburgh Black Theater Dance Ensemble, by artistic director/ founder, the late Bob Johnson, a position she held until the company folded in 1983. Equally prominent teaching credits include Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera Academy of Musical Theater, where Leslie taught for 16 years with Buddy Thompson, with whom she shares a kinship and bond, nurtured in the early years of the high school, to inspire excellence and greatness in every serious student of dance that crossed their paths, which is a shared on-going commitment. As a result of working together at the Academy, many former students have reached the pinnacle of success in their artistic careers; they include McArthur Genius Recipient, choreographer/ dance artist Kyle Abraham, “Kinky Boots” star and Tony Award Recipient, Billy Porter, Jason McDole, former dance artist with the David Parson and Lar Lubovitch dance companies, Quela Clancy, principal dancer and instructor with Lula Washington Dance Company, Brandon Cowles, former dance artist with the Merce Cunningham Company, Erin Carlisle-Norton, choreographer/ founder/ artistic director, The Moving Architects, Sarrah Strimmel, Broadway dancer/ actress/ singer, Courtney Mazza-Lopez, Broadway dancer/ actress/ singer, Lauren Morelli, Orange is the New Black, writer, to mention a few.

Throughout the years, Leslie has been a guest teacher for many schools, dance organizations and professional dance companies throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. Leslie has served as a guest master class teacher for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Philadanco Dance Company, International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference, Dance Masters of America (PA Chapter), Checchetti Ballet Council (PA Chapter), Lee’s School of Dance, Roger’s School of Dance, Dance Arts Academy. Leslie served as principal ballet teacher and consultant for the former August Wilson Dance Ensemble in Pittsburgh, PA., for founder and artistic director, Greer A. Reed, whom Leslie has proudly mentored throughout her successful journey and career in dance. Greer A. Reed’s AWDE was named, “25 to Watch in 2012” by Dance Magazine. August, of 2012, during the 5^th annual, RDI, Reed Dance Intensive, Founder/ Director, gave the 1^st annual award, named in honor of Leslie, The Brazzy Award, for her lifetime achievement in providing outstanding excellence in dance education and mentorship. Since 2012, the award has been given annually, presented during the concluding performance to two outstanding dance artist from the Pittsburgh area, selected by a panel of judges, headed by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dance Critic, Jane Vranish. Likewise, Leslie has been available for successful former student, Ayisha Morgan-Lee Smith, MAM, founder and director of HDAT, Hill Dance Academy Theater, a successful, innovative arts education institution, located in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PA. Through the years Leslie has been available for HDAT workshops, conferences, master classes and the annual HDAT Summer Intensive. Recently, Ayisha Morgan-Lee Smith and the HDAT organization honored Leslie with their 2015 Bold Vision Shona Sharif Award, for outstanding artistic excellence, at their 10^th Anniversary, Diamond Gala Celebration. Leslie, Ayisha and HDAT were commended with an official letter from Charon Battles, of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, whom is a dear friend and someone that Leslie looked up to, as the only soloist, Black ballerina, in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. Charon commended Leslie as a Pittsburgh legend in dance for the life-long love,commitment and promotion of the art of dance. Leslie is eternally grateful for Charon’s acknowledgement of her work.

Life long mentor and consultant, the late Jeraldyne Blunden, Founder/ Director of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, constantly encouraged and urged Leslie to continually grow and share the wealth of accumulated knowledge. As a result, throughout the years, Leslie has been commissioned for choreographic works for a variety of organizations, dance companies, dance schools and individuals. Leslie received a choreography fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, National Association of Regional Ballet Choreographic Development Workshop/ Phyllis Lamhut, Director, and the Ann Vachon Choreographic Development Workshop. Leslie was commissioned for choreography for the AWDE/ Pittsburgh Symphony Collaboration, and in the past has choreographed for several northeastern performing arts groups, as well as an episode of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. She was also a recipient of a choreography fellowships from the Heinz Endowment, the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Ohio Council on the Arts. In 1986 Leslie was awarded an Outstanding Distinguished Teacher Award, for 1^st place female dance award recipient, Janeen Elliott, of the Young Arts Scholarship Program, presented at the White House by President Ronald Reagan. She was honored with an Outstanding Woman of America Award in 1982, and, Outstanding Artist Award from the Pittsburgh’s Greater Legacy Council, in celebration of African-American Artists.

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HEIDI LATSKY, originally from Montreal, first received recognition as a celebrated principal dancer for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (1987-1993). Her experience there profoundly influenced her style and her philosophy of dance as she developed a reputation in her own right as a choreographer for stage, theater, and film.

In 1993, she received a commission from the Cannes International Dance Festival. Three years later, she was chosen to represent Canada at the Suzanne Dellal International Dance Competition in Tel Aviv and at Danse a Lille in France. Since then, Latsky has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe with her own company and as part of Goldhuber & Latsky (with former partner Lawrence Goldhuber) [1996-2000].

Latsky headed the Movement Department at The School for Film and Television from 1998-2005, where she developed her teaching practice: The Latsky Method. She has taught internationally throughout her career and her “Movement Portraits in Action” program has been implemented at the AIDS Service Center and The Creative Center in NYC.

While working with Theater Director Mary Fulham, she received two Innovative Theater Award nominations. She served as choreographer on Academy Award nominated Katja Esson’s film “A Season of Madness” and as director and choreographer on Susan Murphy’s GIRL/GROUP at the Marquee, NYC (2003).

In 2001, she founded her own company, Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD). During the fall of 2006, Latsky began an intensive period of creation with bi-lateral amputee, Lisa Bufano. This marked a significant shift of focus for HLD and a period of immense growth, during which she more fully developed the company’s mission and vision. HLD received an ARC grant through Pentacle that included mentoring Latsky for a period of 18 months, and in 2009 she was chosen by Creative Capital Foundation as one of four choreographers nationally to receive a three-year award for her evening-length work, GIMP. In 2014, she was selected as the first participant in “Dance for Film on Location at Montclair State University,” a three-year short film series underwritten by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The film will premiere as part of the company’s live show at Peak Performances in April 2015.

Her range of work is as varied as guest lecturing at Harvard University, performing with other Bill T Jones’ alumni in “SUMMER REUNION,” restaging a piece of Arnie Zane’s at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, creating a work at the Aaron Academy for high school students with learning disabilities, directing workshops in performance skills, performing in 2012’s TEDxWomen, and developing new works for her contemporaries like Li Chiao Ping as featured in several films by Douglas Rosenberg, including Seven Solos in 2012.

Latsky has continued her work as an adjudicator of the American College Dance Festival Association’s (ACDFA) and serves on the Artist Advisory Board of Danspace Project. She has a BA in Psychology with Honors from Carleton University (1979), receiving the Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement and The Ottawa Ladies College Scholarship.

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