Leigha Porter

Leigha Porter
Creative Director, Parc Village

A native of Lafayette, Louisiana, Leigha Porter M.Ed is the founder and artistic director of F.I.R.E. Expressions Performing Arts Conservatory, Co-Creator of The Creole Nutcracker and owner of PARC Village, a Community Art Center that supplies resources to empower creatives of color. Leigha has a bachelor degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Major: Dance, 2010), a Masters of Education from Grand Canyon University (2016), studied Theater Arts at Dillard University in New Orleans, trained in ballet, modern and jazz techniques with world renowned choreographers such as Debbie Allen, Lula Washington, and Walter Hull. In 2015, Leigha attended the Horton Pedagogy Teacher Workshop at The Ailey School in New York City to study the Horton Technique and is a candidate with the Institute for Dunham Technique Certification, to allow her to teach this technique in her community and globally. Leigha provides community service as an adjudicator for the NAACP National Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics and has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Delta Women in Business Award (2019), Spoken Red Enterprise Small Business Award (2019), and Grand Canyon University Success Spotlight (2019). For the past 8 years, Ms.Porter has served as an arts advocate, arts administrator, and movement artist and continues to serve the North side of Lafayette, a historically black and economically and culturally under-served community.