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Biography

Dr. Leslie Elkins, Associate Professor of Dance, teaches dance theory and technique and specializes in improvisational composition and performance. Body-Presence: Lived Experience of Choreography and Performance, her phenomenological-hermeneutic study involving work with noted artist Deborah Hay and two Philadelphia-based dance artists, is published by Lambert Academic Publishing. She is also co-author on several published papers about the potentials and challenges of collaborative interdisciplinary teaching. Dr. Elkins is one of the founding members of Foursome, a collaborative arts ensemble in Philadelphia. Other performance work includes Quick Change, an improvisational dance-theatre collage with colleague Paule Turner, as well as various projects with artists including Grace Mi-He Lee, Tania Isaac, and Merian Soto. Her current research focuses on the philosophy and use of play in education, as well as how the arts festival, Prospect New Orleans, can be used as a model of urban regeneration. Dr. Elkins received her Ph.D. in Dance from Temple University.