Barbi Leifert began her studies in art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Then, she danced for Monmouth University, Cal State Long Beach and Skidmore College. After school she was a performance artist and contemporary dancer for an “avant garde company in downtown Soho” in NYC where she collaborated with other dancers and artists. She began writing about dance for USA Today and the Gannett newspapers and was the author of “The Manhattan Dance School Directory”, Marcel Dekker Inc, NYC. She performed with the Frank Hatchett of Broadway Dance Center, NYC and taught dance while raising her family. Her first show, at the Phillips Gallery of Fine Art, San Jose, CA, was sold out. Commissions by collectors and designers followed. Her recent solo show in NYC was “Dancer’s Palette.” Her artwork is also shown in Malibu, California, The Museum of Contemporary Art in London and various other venues in Palm Beach, Miami, Palm Springs and the Seattle area. Her paintings are in office buildings, corporate headquarters and fine residences. In the Summer of 2016, she was selected to be an artist for this year’s “Piano in the Parks” public art event in Seattle. She is also the Art Chairperson for the Tacoma Dome District, in Tacoma, WA. Her paintings have been used by ballet companies to decorate their studios and their set designs, and authors have used her artwork for book covers. She continues to work with collectors and designers, creating commissioned artworks independently and through her representatives. Her book Dancer’s Palette is available on Amazon.com. She lives Washington State. Painting in her studio and taking dance class are her daily rituals. Artist’s website.
“Birds of Paradise”
24″x24″
Inspired by the incomparable New York City ballet corp.
Dancer’s Palette: A Fusion of Painting and Movement: ($29.95, 54pp, Lulu, August 27, 2015): Dance is a universal language in every culture, crossing all borders; therefore, in some of the paintings in the series, I focus on the figurative of people who dance for fun. I have experimented with different ways of doing the paintings-some are more abstract than others.
Interview with Barbi Leifert,
Established Dancer, Writer and Painter
By Anna Faktorovich, PhD