Leifert: Meditation doesn’t have to be performed in stillness—just consider disciplines like tai chi—often described as meditation in motion. For me, meditation is about being awake and aware which is the main tenant of meditation. When you are moving, you can be meditating and at the same time accomplishing your goals in life. The repetition of the dance warmup that we dancers do is very meditative. Each day you have to bring your awareness to it, making it feel new and inspired.
I take a jazz based ballet class twice a week and a funky jazz class two other times. For a long time, I practiced yoga, but injured my shoulder, so when that heals I will go back to Vinyassa yoga. I also walk, bike and have a strength training regimen.
I believe in exercise, but I do not over-exercise. It keeps you young in body and mind. Motion and movement have been shown to improve learning by stimulating certain types of neurotransmitters. There are studies where people have gotten on exercise bicycles given information, and they have been more successful
at retaining that information because of the movement. Retirement is not appealing to me. I have always been a results producer and I am very passionate about painting and creating, challenging myself, growing and developing as a human. I would like to leave something for future generations.
Faktorovich: You also have some credits in the cinematographic arts. You were a Video Producer on “In Rehearsal,” featuring David Storey at Broadway Dance Center, in NYC, and for “Without Your Love,” featuring Los Angeles based a capella singing group M-Pact. And you were a Film Producer on “Roam the Dome,” filmed in Tacoma, WA. What did you do in these production roles? Why haven’t you explored this field more? Were you less inspired by the camera than by the canvas?
Leifert: I only produce a video when I am really passionate about the subject. David Storey was a very talented teacher of mine at the Broadway Dance Center and a great choreographer. It was just fun dancing his choreography. He wanted me to dance in the video, but I could not produce and perform at the same time. The acapella group MPACT were friends of mine. They are very talented and were performing acapella before it was as mainstream as it now is. I loved their music, particularly the song we interpreted in the video. I hired beautiful modern dancers to perform in a segment of the video and one of the dancers acted in it as the love interest of the band member. As a producer, I was responsible for getting the funding, the locations, hiring the director, hair, makeup people and dancers and for the creative concept of each of these videos.
For “Roam the Dome,” I hired the filmmakers and created the concept along with the board of Directors of the Tacoma Dome District.
Faktorovich: In the interview with The Dance Enthusiast, you mention that some of your opening night exhibits include choreographed dances that you partially design. This seems like a great way to make an art exhibit more dynamic and exciting to visit. Why did you start doing these combinations? Do you notice a larger audience when dance is involved?
Leifert: I love having dancers involved in my exhibitions. It brings the paintings to life. It adds dimension to the exhibition and provides work for these dance artists. I remember what it was like to be young and in need of work. I have an upcoming workshop I am creating for the Tacoma Art Museums’s “30 Americans” exhibition, where I will be teaching painting and I have also had the museum hire one of my dance teachers, Chris Daigre, to lead a funky jazz dance there—it adds a participation and fun! I think the museum has not seen anything like this. We are the grande finale to their exhibit and the Tacoma News Tribune is writing a piece about us.
Faktorovich: You have said that you need to be physically fit to paint giant canvases, and you have referred to your choreography as an art. Do you see dance and art as intertwined in your art because of some innate match between them? You have drawn a few people who are chubby and who are reclining casually, but you hid their outlines in abstract shapes in contrast with photographically recording the profiles of the fit bodies of the dancers. Do you enjoy watching and depicting the beauty of the human form in dance perhaps more than dancing, or do you appreciate it because it helps you and the viewer to enter a moment of idyllic movement?
Leifert: There is probably nothing I love more than dancing and watching excellent dance. It resonates with my aesthetic. I like to show that on the canvas. There are all kinds of dancers these days. They are not all thin and lithe. I have very few pieces where I uses shadow and light to paint the body of the dancer. I paint the line—the rest you are seeing into it—which is my goal. I want the viewer to interpret the interior landscape of the figure. As for the innate match between dance and art—that’s the big question I’m exploring. It’s not something you can