London, 25

Identified by East London Dance

Leila has been performing, choreographing and teaching dance within the UK and internationally for four years. She has an MA in Performance and a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance from Laban and was a member of transitions dance company. As a performer, Leila has worked with many renowned choreographers such as Jeanefer Jean-Charles, Athina Vahla, Henry Montes, Crystal Pite, Alicia Herrero Simon and Wendy Houston. This year she was awarded the Blueprint Bursary from East London Dance, Sadler’s Wells and London Youth Dance and premiered a new piece of work, iD, at the Lilian Baylis Theatre and Stratford Circus in March. Leila’s choreography is inspired by the city she lives in and fuses street art and fashion, raw sound and explosive contemporary movement, aiming to create cross-art form, innovative performance. In 2007, Leila created Why don’t we just be..?, for GDA Cabaret and began collaborating with Darrell Aldridge on Red Tape, a work in progress. In 2005 she choreographed for the Urban Species fashion shows at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, which is where she began her ongoing collaboration with music producer Oliver Daniel Barnes. Leila has recently been working with Upswing Aerial as a dancer and is learning Bungee dance.