CATIE LEASCA • CONTEMPORARY

Catie Leasca is a dance artist currently based in Brooklyn, NY. With roots in Massachusetts, she has traveled and danced abroad in Israel, France, Belgium, and Germany. Catie has worked professionally with Netta Yerushalmy, Helen Simoneau Danse, Ambika Raina, Jessie Young, Janessa Clark, and is a founding member of MG+Artists. Catie has been awarded choreographic residencies at Gibney Dance through Work Up 5.0, New Dance Alliance through LiftOff, Brooklyn Arts Exchange as a 2019 Space Grant Recipient, as well as an Upstart artist. She has shown her work at Movement Research through Judson Church, FAILSPACE at The Woods, Center for Performance Research, WIP IV at STUDIO4, CreateART/Dance in Bushwick, and Salt Dance Fest, among others. Catie has taught in NYC at Gibney Dance, Bridge for Dance, Joffrey Ballet School, FAILSPACE, and recently assisted and co-taught at Princeton University with Netta Yerushalmy. Catie premiered her newest work "our sky is a limitless expanse" with the trainees at the Joffrey Ballet School's Jazz and Contemporary Program at their Winter Performance, "Subject to Change". She received the Masterworks Foundation Choreography Award and was a dancer in Janessa Clark's work, COMMUNION, a 2021 Bessie nominated piece that has been shown at American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Here Arts Center, as well as in Stockholm and Berlin. Catie's writing can be found in Dancegeist Magazine. She graduated with her B.F.A. in Dance from The University of the Arts.

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Class Description:

As a teacher, I seek to help students uncover the "how else.." My class aims to open unknown terrain by moving past judgements, enabling a freer, wilder self to emerge. In studio practice, we focus on our relationship to weight, space and the bodies around us.. asking for a willingness, silliness and attentiveness from ourselves and each other. Movement phrases often derive from a hybrid mentality, challenging the class to a clear execution inside intricate, quick-moving material. I hope to create an imaginative space where students feel liberated to take chances and risk failure, feeling continuous encouragement from myself and their peers. I am incredibly excited to be teaching at PMT!