Biography
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 Level 1 aerialist teacher for fabric and trapeze and a Certified 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. Her evening-length concert, POP DEMO, was featured on the cover of OutSmart Magazine (September, 2023). Valle received a B.A. in Dance from University of Houston.
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 at City Hall, and 5 dance for camera works for “Making HERstory” in 2021 at the march online due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Valle is currently working with ROADWomen, the oldest democratic organization in Houston, to provide performing art at political events to engage young voters.
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. 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 to original music by George Heathco. Valle premiered the evening length Never Again (2018), a vaudevillian look at Texas Legislation and the Resistance, to 5 SOLD OUT performances, in collaboration with costume designer Judy Masliyah. POP DEMO (2023), another 2-year collaboration with Masliyah and composer George Heathco, focused on propaganda in politics and media to sway public opinion. Valle premiered “HUMAN re/con/struct/” for the 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 Inacheve” at Buffalo Bayou ArtPark, live dance, the score “Shifting Landscape” by Heathco, and the addition of aerial trapeze dance.
In 2024, Heathco and Valle premiered Testimony: Seen and Heard, a multidisciplinary collaboration of original music, aerial, and contemporary dance, focused on an artistic response to the sculpture “Witness” by artist Shahzia Sikander. “Witness” was protested by Pro-Life organizations, and then vandalized during Hurricane Beryl in an attempt to silence Sikander. Testimony: Seen and Heard celebrates the original intention of the sculpture – to honor the strength and resilience of women within a patriarchal society and magnify the importance of feminism and bodily autonomy through sociological, historical, and Biblical references embedded in the sculpture.
For 2025, Heathco and Valle are premiering two new works. Testimony: Epilogue addresses the beheading of the sculpture, Sikander’s response, and the local art community’s defiance in not being artistically silenced. Make/SHIFT highlights the Houston unhoused community from an outside perspective.
Valle’s 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 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 Artificial 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). Valle and Penton present a live collaboration of improvisation dance and voice at Penton’s video release party December 9, 2023.
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.
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