About Us

Micaela Gardner has lived and danced in the bay Area since 1985. She trained classically all over the Southwest from the age of seven. At seventeen she moved to San Francisco to study Modern and found herself instead consumed almost entirely with Afro-Haitian for four years. At the same time she began to make and perform her own hybrid dances laced with the austerity and darkness discovered in Butoh workshops and performances she attended. Since then she has developed and taught what she refers to as Post Modern. She has directed the Temescal Arts Center for at least eight years.

Leyya Tawil is the artistic director of Leyya Tawil's DANCE ELIXIR, a contemporary dance company dedicated to artistic collaboration.  She joined the Temescal Arts Center community in 1997 and has been creating dances on TAC's beautiful floor ever since.

Leyya's works have been produced and presented by Dance Art, Inc, Doug Baird Productions, Footloose Dance/Venue 9, Dance Mission Theater, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, Arab American National Museum, Oakland Art Gallery, USF’s Thacher Gallery and at academic institutions nationwide. Leyya was honored to be a Visiting Artist at the University of Michigan Dance Department for the fall of 2006.  She is currently Adjunct Professor of dance at the University of San Francisco and Sonoma State University and has taught at numerous colleges, universities, and professional studios around the country.