XENIA MANSOUR (she/her) is a movement artist, performer, director, and coach based in Chicago, IL and working regularly in NYC. Born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, she spent her formative years studying at the Academy of Movement and Music and performing with its resident company, MOMENTA.
Mansour holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. While there, she had the opportunity to perform works by Giada Ferrone, James Martin, and Netta Yerushalmy, as well as José Limón’s Mazurkas at The Joyce Theater in New York City.
She performs regularly with experimental dance theater HOLDTIGHT in both Denver and New York City as well as dances for Katherine Maxwell’s HIVEWILD. A former company member of BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, she has also worked with Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, Sikora + Dance, Gabrielle Johnson + Artists, Javier Padilla, and Angie Moon Dance Theatre.
She has also worked with Grammy nominated musician, Nico Segal, choreographing and performing in “Welcome Home” at Steppenwolf Theatre, a production celebrating the release of his first solo album Tell The Ghost Welcome Home. She also collaborates with Greek-American Pop artist Tommy Bravos, performing in and movement directing his work.
She has performed in a range of stage, site-specific, immersive, film, and fashion work including as a performer for Brendan Fernandes’ In Two, a dance and sculptural performance in conversation with the work of Scott Burton throughout the galleries of The Pulitzer Arts Museum in St. Louis, as a guest dancer and model for Mexican fashion designer Carla Fernández, with choreography by Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, and as a feature dancer for CXN’s Fashion Commercial Come With Us, choreographed by Katherine Maxwell.
Mansour has had additional training at LINES Ballet, The Juilliard School, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, NW Dance Project’s LAUNCH: 11, New Dialect, and the Merce Cunningham Trust where she has performed works by Gregory Dawson, Bret Easterling, Alex Ketley, Ohad Naharin, Anton Rudakov, Luca Signoretti, and Merce Cunningham.
In October 2023, Mansour established Philoxenia Movement LLC, a nexus of dance & movement that delivers private movement instruction, choreography/movement direction, performance, and consultation services based in Chicago, IL. She is the founder, principal, and sole member of Philoxenia Movement.
During her time in NYC, Mansour curated pop-up contemporary dance events through Airbnb Experiences as the Head of Artistic Operations at Hi Artist, an experiential dance platform dedicated towards making contemporary dance more approachable and accessible to non-dance audiences. She is curious and passionate about alternative, more sustainable models for the dance world, and widening its reach and audience.
Mansour is a passionate athlete, with a big love and fandom for hockey and baseball specifically. Her movement vocabulary and curiosities stem from the many sports she once played and participated in, including softball, volleyball, tennis, and boxing. She continues to box and play pickup softball today, and is fascinated and driven by the intersection between these various movement modalities.