Leigh Schanfein is a freelance dancer, choreographer, and teacher as well as an independent researcher in the fields of kinesiology and biomechanics. In October 2020, after 11 years in NYC, she relocated her home to Billings, Montana.

Leigh has trained and performed across the USA and abroad in modern, ballet, and contemporary dance. She has performed with companies such as City Ballet of San Diego, Indelible Dance, Christopher Caines Dance Company, Yoo and Dancers, and the Park Avenue Armory, and has guested with Benjamin Briones Ballet, New American Youth Ballet, Lafayette Ballet, and CONNetic Dance. She has performed in commercial productions including on stage with comedian Hannibal Buress as part of the Oddball Comedy Tour, during Fashion Week NYC for designers such as Malan Breton, and for brands such as Xerox, Suave, Oreo, and Estee Lauder. Leigh is a former Director of Dance for Periapsis Music and Dance, where her choreography was described as "gorgeous and lush" (Dance Informa Magazine). She taught regularly with NYC Community Ballet (live and online), has subbed at the major NYC open studios, and has been a guest instructor and choreographer for pre-professional schools in Indiana, Montana, California, Idaho, Connecticut, and Ohio (online). In 2021, Leigh founded the Yellowstone Valley Creative Residency to help bring creative minds in dance to Billings, and, in 2022, she co-founded School of Classical Ballet Company, also in Billings.

Leigh received her M.S. degree in kinesiology with a specialization in biomechanics from Purdue University, and her B.S. degree in animal physiology and neuroscience with a minor in dance from the University of California San Diego. As a graduate student, she received multiple awards for her research with dancers including two awards through the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. Her research has focused on the mechanisms by which humans control balance and how sensory feedback is integrated for the control of posture. For five years, Leigh worked as a research associate at the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, part of NYU Langone Health. Her research there covered a wide range of topics concerning injury prevention among dancers. Leigh has taught courses in health, motor development, biomechanics lab, and stress at Purdue University, and anatomy at Peridance Capezio Center. From 2015 through 2020, she was adjunct lecturer of biomechanics at Barnard College in the department of dance. She joined the faculty of MSUB for Spring 2021, co-founded workshop series Dance Dissection in 2018, and was a contributing journalist for Dance Informa Magazine from 2011-2019.

School of Classical Ballet

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