Agency Details:

Dance Elixir, a California non-profit organization, was founded in 2003 by Artistic Director Leyya Mona Tawil in order to pursue a collaboration-based vision of contemporary dance. Dance Elixir facilitates programming in the following areas: research and presentation of cutting edge contemporary dance, professional training in dance, and cultivating culturally relevant artistic communities through international and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Description:
“Stylish” (SF Chronicle) and “Elegant” (SF Bay Guardian) are the words most used to describe the work of contemporary dance company Leyya Tawil's Dance Elixir. Founded in 2003 by Artistic Director Leyya Tawil and Resident Composer Topher Keyes, Dance Elixir is based in the Oakland Bay Area, maintains annual programming in New York City and Detroit, and tours nationally and internationally. The company reaches a broad cross section of arts audiences, while showcasing the glamorous aesthetic and fierce technique that has become Dance Elixir’s hallmark. Collaborations with professional artists from a range of disciplines have included composers Mark Gergis and Stephen Rush, media artist David Szlasa, designers Jeffery Bauer and Malinda Trimble, lighting designer Matthew Antaky, costumer Leigh Anne Martin and violinist Mike Khoury. They also provide profession dance training through community classes and academic residencies. Their outreach program focuses on making the arts accessible to the public at large and also specifically to senior citizens.

History:
Dance Elixir has been presented internationally at the Beirut International Platform On Dance 2009, La Sala Rosa (Montreal), Overtoom 301 (Amsterdam), The Place (London), and CESTA/Spektrum Theater (Czech Republic). Within the U.S., Dance Elixir has been presented by San Francisco International Arts Festival (SF), The Flea (NYC), Oakland Art Gallery (Oakland, CA), Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, Arab American National Museum's Ford Comerica Performance Series (MI), Bohemian National Home (MI), Arts at Middlebury (VT), Alwan for the Arts (NYC), as well as throughout northern California. Tawil’s work with Dance Elixir has been featured on Future TV (Lebanon), WDET's "Morning Edition" (MI), NBC11 (CA), KRON4 (CA), KNOE-TV8 (LA), and KALX’s “Women in the Arts” (CA).

Dance Elixir is currently touring a solo show entitled Grace on a Friday Night, which has been performed in New York City, Beirut, Amsterdam, Tabor (Czech Republic), Middlebury (Vermont) and Oakland (CA). It is part of their “Angels and Saints” series, which she has been researching a producing since 2008.

From 2005-2008, Dance Elixir’s work focused on a series entitled “Capital Life Triptych.” The first work in the series, MEDIA (2006), “a fast-paced, impressively structured explosion of pure movement,” according to Dance View Times, premiered at Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco, then toured to Detroit and Ann Arbor, MI. The second work, LAND (2007), was a collaboration with renowned media design artist David Szlasa that premiered at the Oakland Art Gallery in July 2007. The final section, Capital Life, was created in collaboration with composer Mark Gergis and premiered at the San Francisco International Arts Festival in the spring of 2008.

Dance Elixir has received grants and awards from the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program, the East Bay Community Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, the W&F Hewlett Foundation, W A Gerbode Foundation, Theatre Bay Area's CA$H, the Clorox Company Foundation, and Arts at Middlebury (Middlebury College).

Contact people:

Leyya Tawil, Chief Executive Officer, (phone), (email) Jeff Keyes, Treasurer, (phone), (email) Isabelle Sjahsam, Assistant Director, (phone), (email)

Address:

737 2nd Street #403 Oakland, CA 94607 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.danceElixir.org

Directions:

Corner of 2nd Street and Brush Street, Oakland.

Miscellaneous Information

Besides English, which languages are spoken at your agency?
	No others
What is the minimum age for volunteers at your agency?
	18years
Is your agency wheelchair accessible?
	Yes
Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 10?
	Yes
Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 20?
	No

Last updated on November 13, 2009