Leslie Roybal-Geraldes began her dance career at age 5 performing with a Mexican folkloric dance company in her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She earned a BFA in Theater from Stephens College, and continued her education at the University of New Mexico where she studied contemporary dance and flamenco. Leslie has performed locally and throughout the U.S. with companies such as Murray Spalding Mandalas, Fred Darsow Dance, Neville Dance Company, The Metropolitan Opera, Pasión y Arte, A Palo Seco Flamenco, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana and in the New York and New Jersey tablaos.  As a teacher, Leslie leads lecture demonstrations, conducts workshops, professional development sessions and master classes as well as gives lectures within the contemporary dance and flamenco ideologies throughout the Tri-State area. She is the Director of The Center for Flamenco Arts at Flamenco Vivo and spearheads such projects as the Annual Boros Tour and The New York State Flamenco Certamen.  She was a scholarship recipient for the NALAC Leadership Institute, a pioneering member of the Performers in Transition Fellowship for the BAM Professional Development Program/DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center, was a 2016 Coors Light Líderes Program finalist and is currently a HIP 2017 Next Generation Latino Philanthropy Leadership Fellow.

For the past two years I have been working with a group of older adults at a community center in Manhattan. I have found that most days I leave our classes together feeling as though I have learned more from my students than they have learned from me. From learning to make adjustments to accommodate physical limitations, to deepening my knowledge of the flamenco art form in order to keep up with the widespread knowledge of these elders, I have to stretch out of my comfort zone as a Teaching Artist. I find that working with older adults is wholly fulfilling and challenging at the same time.