Artist Detail

• Tell-a-friend

Toni Valle

Choreographer - Dancer - Writer

About the artist:

Choreographer, Dancer University of Houston Dance Faculty Project Coordinator, Dance Source Houston Toni Leago Valle has a three-fold career. As Artistic Director and choreographer for 6’, she combines writing, acting, and dance to create multi-sensual works that challenge the audience to watch for what is not being said. Valle received a B.A. in Theatre, specializing in dance, from University of Houston in 2000. Valle has received two Individual Artist Grants from Houston Arts Alliance to produce It’s All Relative in 2002 and again in 2007 for her third evening-length concert, tetris, that premiered in January 2009. As Resident Choreographer for Dancepatheatre, Valle premiered Glass Before Marriage and LifeSavor (2003); and Mockingbird (2004). As an individual choreographer, Valle premiered the solo, I Am Mother (2005), a white-painted goddess inspired by Japanese Butoh dance that Valle performed two weeks before she delivered her son, Dante. The goddess character was later adapted for Psophonia Dance Company’s Phantasia 2005 at the Hobby Center for Performing Arts. Valle presented Interview for a Date/I Take My Clothes Off at the Big Range Dance Festival 2006, for the preview of CRACKED, her second evening length concert that premiered in December 2006 as a recipient of the DiverseWorks Artist Residency. Her choreography has been seen at DiverseWorks, JCC, University of Houston, San Jacinto College, HSPVA/Houston, Freneticore Theatre’s Fringe Festival and various art openings and outdoor events. In 2010, Valle premiered her new dance company, 6’ in Baptism. As a performer, Valle has performed with Suchu Dance, Dancepatheatre, Psophonia Dance Company, and is a current member of Travesty Dance Group/Houston under Karen Stokes and Becky Valls & Company for Young Audiences. Valle has been featured in numerous concerts, including Open Book, Open House by Stephan Koplowitz, A Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance, and Marta Lichlyter’s A Thin Line as part of the University of Houston’s Choreography in Action series on PBS. For the 2011-12 season, Ms. Valle will be featured in Karen Stokes’ The Secondary Colors (October at Hobby Center) and Becky Valls' Memoirs of the Sistahood: Chapter Three (November at DiverseWorks.) Chapter Three is the third concert in the Memoirs series. Chapter One premiered in Houston in 2007 and in Louisiana in April 2009, and Chapter Two: House premiered in Houston in 2009. As Project Coordinator of Dance Source Houston, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting dance, Valle has been coordinating the production of Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance at Miller Outdoor Theatre for 11 years. Over the past ten years, Valle maintained the houstondance.org website, the DSH Dance newsletter, the DSH marketing table and the printed Dance Card. The Austin-Houston Choreographer Exchange, Life Museum, and two collaborations with Buffalo Bayou ArtPark are a few of the concerts Valle has co-produced. Valle has offered administrative, production and promotional services for art organizations, such as Ad Deum Dance Company, BBAP, Houston Ballet, Mercury Baroque Ensemble, Psophonia Dance Company, Sandra Organ Dance Company, Society for the Performing Arts, Travesty Dance Group, Suchu Dance, and many others. This season, Valle has coordinated DSH’s Dance Days at Discovery Green and 12 Minutes Max! at DiverseWorks. Valle is also an adjunct faculty at University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance, where she teaches Dance Production and Aesthetics of Dance, and is heads up both the spring and fall dance concerts.