David Leventhal

David Leventhal is a dancer, teaching artist and non-profit director whose work exemplifies the power of dance to transform and support individuals and communities across the lifespan. He is a founding teacher and Program Director for the Mark Morris Dance Group's Dance for PD® program, which serves as a model for classes in more than 400 communities in 30 countries. He leads classes for people with Parkinson's around the world and trains teachers in the Dance for PD® approach globally. He's co-produced five volumes of a successful At Home instructional video series for the program and has been instrumental in designing innovative projects like Moving Through Glass, a dance-based Google Glass App for people with Parkinson's.

For his work on behalf of the Parkinson's community, he received the Alan Bonander Humanitarian Award from the Parkinson's Unity Walk, the Martha Hill Mid-Career Artist Award, the IADMS Pioneer Dance Educator Award, and the 2016 WPC Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Parkinson's Community. He was recently featured in the 2024 'Art Desk 100' listing of creators, thinkers, and voices who give the best of themselves and "evangelize for a better world in a way that transcends their own success."

Leventhal has contributed chapters to Renée Fleming's Music and Mind (Viking, 2024), the Bloomsbury Handbook of Philosophy and Dance (Bloomsbury, 2021), Moving Ideas: Multimodal Learning in Communities and Schools (Peter Lang, 2013), and Creating Dance: A Traveler's Guide (Hampton Press, 2013), and has served as a co-author on a number of peer-reviewed studies. Leventhal designed and currently teaches a pioneering dance-based elective course that is part of the Narrative Medicine curriculum at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. He's featured in the award-winning 2014 documentary Capturing Grace directed by Dave Iverson.

Leventhal serves on the Board of Directors of the Davis Phinney Foundation and Dance & Creative Wellness Foundation and on the Advisory Board for the Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center Arts & Humanities Program. He's a charter member of IADMS' Dance for Health Committee.

As a dancer, he performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group from 1997-2011, appearing in principal roles in Mark Morris' The Hard Nut, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet, on Motifs of Shakespeare. Leventhal received a 2010 Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) for his performing career with Mark Morris. He graduated from Brown University with honors in English Literature.