Upcoming:

• September 20-21 McKnight SOLO Show
  Premiere of a new work choreographed by Alexandre Paulikevitch for Leila Awadallah, McKnight Dancer Fellow of 2022

• November 1-3 Body Watani at the Southern Theater
  After the Last Red Sky created and performed by Noelle & Leila in collaboration with musician Tarek Abdelqader.

Leila Awadallah (she/her) is a dancer, choreographer, and film wanderer based between Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce and Beirut, Lebanon. Her research in dance centers movement that activates relationships to land / place / peoples, rooted in the context of her own skin as a body and soul that holds indigenous Palestinian, Arab-American, SWANA, Sicilian and mixed Mediterranean worlds and ways. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of the Body Watani (body-as-homeland) dance project and practice in collaboration with Noelle Awadallah, Co-Artistic Director.

Body Watani’s new work After the Last Red Sky, a duet between the Awadallah sisters will premiere this November at the Southern Theater. The work has already received NEFA’s National Dance Project Funding to create, develop and tour in 2025-2026.

Body Watani's previous work TERRANEA premiered at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis, MN and toured to Links Hall (Chicago, IL) and the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, MI). This followed a 3 year creative process with performances also taking place in Lebanon at the Hammana Artist House and Al Madina Theater, as well as at the Candy Box Festivals in MN. It was supported by National Performance Network, Goethe Institute, MSAB, ARENA, Links Hall and the Arab American National Museum and will premiere at Red Eye Theater in April 2023.

YISSH (2019), Leila’s solo work which was commissioned / presented by the Cedar Tree Project (Winona) has been performed at festivals in Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine.

Leila is a McKnight Dancer Fellow (2023), Jerome Hill Fellow (2021-2023), and previously a Springboard 20/20 and Daring Dances Fellow. Leila's works have been supported through research residencies and performances at the Hammana Artist House, Amalgam, and Lebanese National Theatre (Lebanon), Camargo Foundation (France), Diyar School (Palestine), Arab American National Museum (Michigan), and most widely across spaces and places in and around her home in the Twin Cities. Mentored by Ananya Chatterjea, she trained, taught and performed with Ananya Dance Theatre as a company member (2014-2019) and she is a founding member of the Kelvin Wailey dance trio (2015-2023). She has also performed in works by Alexandre Paulikevitch, Paula Mann, Emily Jacir, Taja Will & Mathew Janczewski, Emily Gastinaeu, Magnolia Yang Sao Yia, Laura Osterhaus, Emma Marlar, and Karla Grotting. Leila has a BFA in Dance and minor in Arabic Language & Literature from the University of Minnesota.

In her free time she enjoys practicing Aikido, Tai Chi, and swimming.