A brain tumor survivor, Leisa Taylor is a New York-based dancer, choreographer, movement educator, and certified Pilates mat & reformer instructor, with advanced training in ReForMat™ by Steele Pilates, PILATES THERAPEUTICS Pelvic Core, and a certified PROnatal Pre/Postnatal Performance Training Specialist, with additional training in PostPartum Fitness - A PILATES & PHYSICAL THERAPY APPROACH, approved by the Pilates Method Alliance®. Leisa is also a certified Barre Instructor through Fluid Power Barre Fitness.
The Founder/Owner of LTMovement©, a Pilates program that inspires and instills in others the tools to feel energized, confident, and empowered through mindful movement, Leisa believes firmly in the power of movement to heal. She has shared her approach to the Pilates practice in classes and wellness retreats throughout the Hamptons and NYC, including serving as an Integrative Wellness Contractor for Stony Brook Hospital, as well as in workshops in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Memphis, Tennessee. Leisa has also been featured in fitness apps and on television for her Pilates knowledge and expertise.
As a performer, Leisa has toured nationally and internationally, working with pillars in the field such as Lorry May, Vera J. Blaine, Noa Zuk, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Lynn Simonson, Bebe Miller, Zvi Gotheimer, Julia Ehrstrand, Olivier Tarpaga, Susan Van Pelt Petry, Daniel Roberts, Dr. Margaret Carlson, Ann Sofie Clemmensen, and Abby Zbikowski, in addition to performing in timeless works by Ulysses Dove, Yvonne Rainer, Anna Sokolow, and Richard Dickinson. Throughout her career, Leisa has had the immense pleasure to work and perform with companies such as Buglisi Dance Theatre at Lincoln Center, ZviDance, Verb Ballets, Collateral & Co., Columbus Moving Company, Impact Movement Collective, Cleveland Dance Academy, Ehrstrand Dance Collective, New Vision Dance Company, and Ohio Dance Theatre in the Youth America Grand Prix, among others, as well as in dance-for-camera films and commercials.
In 2014, Leisa traveled and performed in China as an American cultural ambassador, where she led movement workshops at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, Wuhan University in Hubei Province, Northeast Normal University in Changchun, and Shanghai University, conducting international, movement-driven research. Leisa has been awarded multiple dance teaching opportunities, including a consecutive three-year educational residency for Henrico Center for the Arts in Richmond, Virginia, and a commission by Collateral & Co. and Tweaking Reality Studios for a multidisciplinary dance installation at The Nevada Museum of Art.
Leisa’s desire to explore the many facets of the art form have steered her to multigenerational dance company Dances For A Variable Population, an organization that promotes dance as an innovative approach to therapy and empowerment through creative movement with special emphasis on enriching the lives of senior adults; Peridance Capezio Center; Dance/NYC as an advocate for the advancement of inclusion, accessibility, and equity at the core of today’s dance/arts culture; and Gallim, under the direction of Andrea Miller, where she curated educational arts programming and was instrumental in the company’s groundbreaking choreographic residency at The Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as its first-ever self-produced Joyce Theater season in NYC. Leisa holds a dual B.F.A. in Dance and B.A. in Journalism from Ohio State University (summa cum laude).
