Contemporary Choreographer Research: Mia Michaels

Mia Michaels: A Contemporary Genius

Mia Michaels is a contemporary choreographer. I chose Mia because I love every aspect of every dance she has choreographed. From her themes, to her use of movement, timing, and space, to her choice of music, Michaels’ pieces infinitely inspire me.

Mia Michaels, born February 22 1966 in Coconut Grove, Florida was born destined to dance. Starting her lessons at Miami Conservatory and Miami Performing Arts Center, ultimately Michaels began her dance training with her father Joe, a jazz, tap, and ballet dance teacher and with her sister Dana who taught her contemporary. Some of Mia’s earliest memories are of her in diapers, watching dancers at her father’s studio. Mia Michaels has taught at Miami Dance Center, the International Dance Festival of Italy, Harid Conservatory in Florida and at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City, to name a few places.

Michaels has continued her career as a choreographer for tours including Madonna, Ricky Martin, Prince, Jimmy Ray, and Cirque du Soleil. She has also choreographed for many commercials, some of which are award winning commercials. In 1997 Michaels founded her critically acclaimed New York based dance company Reality At Work, acting as founder, artistic director, and choreographer. Michaels founded this company because with her body type causing many rejections for opportunities of a professional career in dance, she wanted to create her “own world of dance.”

With her growing name as a choreographer, Nigel Lithgrow hired her for his new dance show So You Think You Can Dance. The show has run over ten seasons, giving Michaels three Emmy wins for her choreography, making her a household name. After a long run on the show, Michaels left to pursue other projects. She has aspirations to get into creating, directing and choreographing musicals, as well as a hope to have her own television show for aspiring professional choreographers.

Her style can be described as fusion of movement but in her choreographic pieces, it is difficult to narrow her work down into one certain mold. Her mixed background of training explains this aspect of her style. Michaels’ pieces have a strong connection between musicality and timing. Her dances channel the power of the music and lyrics in combination with movement to create a powerhouse of emotion that is easily felt by viewers. Michaels’ timing plays a huge significance in her work. Michaels’ use of space is also unique. Often times in her pieces she confines her dances to a small part of the stage. Then, as the music and movement grow to a climax, Michaels’ spacing explodes outwards filling the stage. As the piece resolves towards the end the dancers often shrink back into a smaller space either together as a duet or each dancer holding their own small space apart from each other. This pattern is found in many of her pieces including “Addiction”, “Stay”, and “Eyes”.

In Mia Michaels’ style, a connection to the music is clearly visible. In an interview about her work in Rock of Ages, she spoke about how important this connection is to her choreography. Her style is truly unique, a result of never dancing professionally. Her pieces showcase a fresh and innovative style that demonstrates her quest to push herself and her dancers to new, sometimes awkward, places. Michaels thinks of choreographing like painting a picture, pushing movement to the unknown through directing her dancers. Michaels’ inspiration comes from all over the spectrum which really allows her to utilize all the different training she has her foundation in. She channels these inspirations into different feelings and movement. Michaels’ philosophy in her choreography and teaching is that it is “not only of movement but of life, spirit and soul. You need an understanding of why we’re here, why we do what we do, and why we love to dance.”

Michaels’ style is one that I truly enjoy. In fact, when I began my research I was unaware that she had choreographed many of my favorite dances I have seen on So You Think You Can Dance. In looking for her work online I was surprised to see that I had already seen a lot of her pieces on YouTube. Michaels’ movement and dance style is incredibly intense. Every movement is full of power and strong dynamics between the dancers in the piece. Whether it is a small movement or a large movement, her work is full of high energy. To put this type of energy into smaller movements, Michaels uses tension both within the body and between the dancers. Full range of movement is always used in her work. Michaels always pushes her pieces to the unknown, using lifts, jumps and leaps in contrast with falls and contractions. Often in her pieces it is easy to see the play between shrinking inward and exploding outward. The battle between these contrasting elements keeps a viewer on their toes throughout a performance. This energy throughout her pieces captures attention in an almost magical sense. I find myself not blinking when watching her work, worried I’ll miss something important.

I am inspired by Mia Michaels work because of her strong connection to the music she choreographs to. Through my work as a choreographer in the past, I get a lot of my inspiration from the music I dance to so I really appreciate when as a viewer, I can feel this connection through someone’s work. I love how her pieces capture so much movement which fosters a strong sense of emotion in the pieces. Her use of full range of motion helps to fully exemplify the emotions portrayed in a piece.

Through my research on Mia Michaels I have found elements of dancing that I would like to put into my own work as a dancer and a choreographer. One idea I will use to inspire my own work is Michaels’ use of high level energy. I would like to attain this type of movement in my dancing. With my sometimes reserved personality, I have always struggled to fully take my space in a performance. I tend to shy away from such powerful use of expression, not always reaching the highest energy level that I could in a dance. I would like to work toward using my full range of motion and highest effort to bring my dancing to a level of performance that radiates power.  I hope to lose my timid approach to dancing and fully develop my movement.

Another idea I would like to use to inspire my own work is Michaels’ use of contrasting movements. I believe Michaels’ work is so effective because of the play between strong, large movements and tight smaller movements. I tend to dance in a middle zone that generalizes every movement into a similar feeling. I would like to work on really exploding outwards and really contracting inwards throughout a piece to give my dancing more interesting and attention grabbing dynamics. I would like to find a way to focus on little details in a piece of choreography to improve my work such as how sharp a movement is, exact placement of hands and feet, and facial positions and focus points. I believe improving on these three smaller details of a piece would make all the difference in my work.

Works Cited

Brenoff, Ann. "Mia Michaels: 'Rock of Ages' Choreographer Dishes On Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 June 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/08/mia-michaels_n_1562300.html>.

"Get To Know: Mia Michaels." Get to Know: Mia Michaels. HUNGER TV, 15 Jan. 3013. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. <http://www.hungertv.com/art-culture/feature/get-to-know-mia-michaels/>.

Ley-moon. "Biography." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1677074/bio>.

Searle, Deborah. "Choreographer Mia Michaels." Choreographer Mia Michaels. Dance Informa, Apr.-May 2009. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. <http://www.danceinforma.com/EZINE14_Mia_Michaels.html>.