Leila Bakhtali
Bremen (DE) based, Leila Bakhtali is a dance artist working as a performer, choreographer and pedagogue (teaching dance and yoga classes) throughout Europe.
Leila was born in Leiden in 1989 from a Dutch mother and a Suriname father.
After her training at Royal Ballet School of Antwerp, Leila studied at London Contemporary Dance School obtaining a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in 2011. Whilst creating and performing the piece Alpha 1 with wee dance company, she researched the integral use of set design in contemporary dance, through which she obtained a Masters Degree with distinction in 2012 from London Contemporary Dance School.
Leila has worked with companies such as Scottish Dance Theatre, Of Curious Nature/TanzRaumNord, Tanztheater Ulm and wee dance company/Gerhart Hauptmann Theatre Görlitz. She has danced various (freelance) works from many different choreographers including Felix Landerer, Helge Letonja|steptext dance project, Gaia Gonnelli|Dadodans, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Roberto Scafati, Jorge Crecis, Siobhan Davies, Dan Pelleg & Marko E. Weigert, Saar Magal, Hofesh Shechter and Emanuel Gat (workshop into performance).
Leila's choreographic work is mostly created in collaboration with other artists from various disciplines. For example, the collaboration with her sister Ishtar Bakhtali -vocalist and sound maker- resulted in the work Arriving, created for an intimate space and performed at Home of Art Amsterdam in summer 2017.
Leila also enjoys teaching professional trainings for companies and the freelance scene. In spring 2018 she became a certified Vinyasa Yoga teacher and started teaching yoga & sound workshops in Germany and The Netherlands.
Photography by Eva van 't Loo