David Leventhal

Mark Morris Dance Group's Dance for PD® programme
USA

David Leventhal leads classes for people with Parkinson’s disease around the world and trains other teachers in the Dance for PD® approach, present in 25 countries. He’s co-produced a DVD series for the program and Moving Through Glassa dance-based Google Glass App for people with Parkinson’s. He received the 2016 World Parkinson Congress Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Parkinson’s Community and was a co-recipient, with Olie Westheimer, of the 2013 Alan Bonander Humanitarian Award from the Parkinson’s Unity Walk. His writing about the program appears in Moving Ideas: Multimodal Learning in Communities and Schools (Peter Lang), and Creating Dance: A Traveler’s Guide (Hampton Press). He serves on the boards of the Davis Phinney Foundation and the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Arts and Humanities Program, as well as the Dance & Creative Wellness Foundation. David teaches a pioneering dance-based elective course in the Narrative Medicine curriculum at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. As a dancer, he performed in principal roles with the Mark Morris Dance Group from 1997-2011, receiving a 2010 Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) for his performing career. He graduated from Brown University with honors in English Literature.