Toni Valle
Professor of Practice, Dance
Toni Leago Valle is trained in contemporary, modern, and aerial dance. Valle is a Professor of Practice at University of Houston Kathrine G. McGovern College for the Arts, School of Theatre & Dance, where she teaches Grant Writing and Development, Dance Production, Marketing for Entrepreneurs, the GYROTONIC® Method and Aerial Dance. Valle is a certified Level 1 aerialist teacher for fabric and trapeze and a Level 1 Foundation Trainer in the GYROTONIC® Method. Valle was featured as one of four Texas aerialists in Arts and Culture Texas Magazine, June 2019. Valle received a B.A. in Dance from University of Houston.
Valle has received three Individual Artist Grants from Houston Arts Alliance to produce “It’s All Relative” (2002), “tetris” (2009), and “POP DEMO” (2023). Valle premiered “I Am Mother” (2004), 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 premiered “CRACKED” in 2006 as a recipient of the DiverseWorks Artist Residency and again in an encore performance in 2016. Valle premiered her company name, 6 Degrees in “Baptism” (2010) and co-produced “Regifting Lions” (2012) with Catalina Alexandra and Lynn Lane. Valle premiered the evening length “Never Again” in 2018, a vaudevillian look at Texas Legislation and the Resistance, to 5 SOLD OUT performances. Valle premiered the sister project, “POP DEMO” in 2023, a live 3-D experience of contemporary dance, aerial dance, theatre, and visual projections. Through 60’s Pop Art costume designs by Judy Masliyah, lighting by Hudson Davis, and live music by George Heathco, POP DEMO created the surreal world of political cartoons.
Valle was the featured dance company of the Houston Women’s March On rallies 2019-2021, presenting excerpts from “Never Again” in 2019, “HUMAN” in 2020, and 5 dance for camera works for “Making HERstory” in 2021 for a march online. 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.
Valle premiered “HUMAN re/con/struct/” for the Pilot Project’s Houston Fringe Festival at MATCH, Downtown Houston in 2021. This live performance was a culmination of a two-year endeavor that consisted of both live and dance for film performances throughout 2019-2021. The “HUMAN re/con/struct/” final live performance included the dance for camera video at the sculpture “Passage Inachieve” at Buffalo Bayou ArtPark, live dance, the score “Shifting Landscape” by Houston composer George Heathco, and the addition of aerial trapeze dance.
Valle was a company member with Karen Stokes Dance (12 seasons), Becky Valls & Company for Young Audiences (19 seasons), and Becky Valls' Memoirs of the Sistahood Series (4 Seasons). Valle has guest performed with Chapman Dance, Dancepatheatre, Divergence Vocal Theatre, Psophonia Dance Company, Suchu Dance, and Vault. Valle was featured in Natural Acts in Artifical Water and Open Book, Open House by Bessie Award winner 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.
Since 2004, Valle has partnered with vocalist Misha Penton in various works, both as a collaborator and choreographer. Penton has written and performed original music for “CRACKED” and performed text written by Valle in “Mockingbird.” Valle has choreographed for Penton’s “The Ottavia Project” and “Autumn Spectre.” Valle featured the painted Butoh goddess in Penton’s experimental opera on film, “The Captured Goddess,” (2015).
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, Ars Lyrica, BBAP, Chapman Dance, Divergence Vocal Theatre, Houston Ballet, Mercury Baroque Ensemble, Psophonia Dance Company, Sandra Organ Dance Company, Leslie Scates, Society for the Performing Arts, Karen Stokes Dance, Suchu Dance, Vault, and many others.
For 12 years, Valle served as Project Coordinator of Dance Source Houston, coordinating the production of Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance at Miller Outdoor Theatre.