Michael is a Baton Rouge native and graduate Belhaven College, recipient of a BFA in modern dance. At Belhaven, he has studied with and performed the work of such choreographers as Stephen Wynne, Britta Wynne, Cynthia Newland, Amy Roark-McIntosh, Laura Morton, Sharon Perry, and additional guest artists Bobby Wesner, Bill Wade, Randall Flynn, and others. He was three times awarded the Bezalel Award for artistic excellence at Belhaven for his performance, choreography, and teaching.
In Louisiana, Michael has studied with Garland Goodwin Wilson, Sharon Mathews, Susan Perlis, CoCo Loupe, and a number of other fine local instructors. Michael has also danced with the Louisiana-based Of Moving Colors Productions since 2003. He has appeared in a number of productions as well as working extensively with the company�s educational outreach program, C.L.O.S.E.R. He has also worked on supplemental grant material for the company. With OMC, he has had the opportunity to perform the work of choreographers such as Garland Wilson, Emilie Plauche Flink, Nicole Cassivio, and Stephen Wynne.
Michael has created multiple dance works over the past several years. His work has been presented at both collegiate and national levels, most recently at the American College Dance Festival and the Louisiana Dance Festival.
In 2006, he studied butoh at the Kazuo Ohno Studio in Yokohama, Japan. Butoh has become significant in his work. He also works in improvisational and multi-arts collaborative settings.
In addition to his work as a performer and choreographer, Michael also served as the costume director for the Belhaven College Dance Department for three years, designing and overseeing all costume construction. He has also costumed for Of Moving Colors and a number of independent projects.
�The Apple Never Fell�
This piece was my first work of choreography in college, an exploration of what it means to defy the status quo, socially, religiously, even personally.
Music: Clint Mansell
Number of Dancers: solo
Length: 5 minutes
Where: Belhaven College
Year: 2004
�Return Address�
This solo was created in response to my personal spiritual journey. It was concerned with nearness to and distance from one's creator.
Music: 100 Portraits
Number of Dancers: solo
Length: 5 minutes
Where: Belhaven College
Year: 2005
�The Alchemy of Self Discovery�
This solo was set on Meg Ferris. Its subject was the journey of coming to know oneself, and the powerful transfomative depths of such a journey.
Music: Philip Glass
Number of Dancers: solo , performed by Meg Ferris
Length: 5 minutes
Where: Belhaven College
Year: 2005
�The Group Work�
This piece was set on untrained dancers and was an experiement in utilizing those without a history in dance training in dance expression. The piece itself was concerned with the intrinsic fear of intimacy and vulnerability within our society.
Music: sound effects by
Number of Dancers: 7
Length: 6 minutes
Where: Belhaven College
Year: 2005
�Phoenix�
This piece was choreographed as part of a worship dance concert and explored the nature of sacrifice, new life coming out of death and loss.
Music: Elliot Goldenthal
Number of Dancers: solo
Length: 6 minutes
Where: Belhaven College
Year: 2005; restaged 2006
�Host and Apocalypse of the Unknown�
Music: Dead Can Dance
Number of Dancers: 6, plus 1 painter
Length: 13 minutes
Where: Belhaven College
Year: 2005
�Ode to Humanity: Of All That We Are Capable�
This solo was choreographed for presentation at ACDF. It was a reflection on the capacity of humanity for both great evil, such as hate, rape, and war, but also the human grace to endure such evil, to thrive and grow from it.
Music: Jocelyn Pook
Number of Dancers: solo
Length: 8 minutes
Where: American College Dance Festival; restaged at the Louisiana Dance Festival
Year: 2006
�Shades of the Edged Existence�
This piece was my senior project for my undergraduate degree. It was an extensive representation of the limited state of our human existence, our inescapable isolation, and the nature of such "edges" from birth, through love, and into death and loss.
Music: Meredith Monk; Jahna after L�o Delibes; Arvo P�rt
Number of Dancers: 10
Length: 35 minutes
Where: Belhaven College
Year: 2007
�Sketches on Shame�
This was a pair of solos created for myself and Clara Underwood, minimalist, gestural explorations of the common human experience of shame, especially as a definitve experience of one's self knowledge.
Music: Jocelyn Pook; Arvo P�rt
Number of Dancers: 2
Length: 14 minutes
Where: Belhaven College
Year: 2007
