July 25th – 30th
10:00 – 11:30 am
course language: English
combinable with other workshops
Price
one day 28€
one workshop 120*/150€
two workshops 240*/275€
At next booking page choose
10 am for Michael or 12 pm for Donald.
*reduced price for studio members
Michael Blake
Contemporary class
Workshop
Michael Blake teaches a high-energy, fast-paced Contemporary dance class that combines the Humphrey/Limon movement aesthetic with jazz dance and classical ballet. He emphasizes the quality and dynamics of dance performance while focusing on the art of non-verbal storytelling purely through movement.
Biography
Michael Blake holds an MFA in dance from Purchase College, and a 2010 Bessie Award for Dance and Performance for his work with PARADIGM Dance. He began his dance career in the Murray Louis Dance Company where he danced from 1982 to 1984. In 1985, Michael moved to Osaka, Japan to become the manager of Studio Dancin’. In 1986 he joined the Jose Limon Dance Company, dancing principal roles until 1991. Michael danced with Donald Byrd/The Group from 1991 to 1998. He has also danced with Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company, PARADIGM Dance, Joyce Trisler Danscompany, Shapiro and Smith, and Netta Yerushalmy. He has appeared on stage in Vinnette Carroll’s, What You Gonna Name That Pretty Little Baby? choreographed by Talley Beatty.
He has performed at the Supper Club, NYC, in a national tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and in the Public Theater’s rock musical, Lenny and the Heartbreakers. He has toured with Cab Calloway in Cab Calloway’s Cotton Club Review and has appeared in the films The Tales of Cri Cri (Murray Louis/Alwin Nikolais), Unsettled Dreams (Donald Byrd), and the documentary, Hanya Holm (Portrait of a Dance Pioneer). He has taught numerous workshops both nationally and internationally.
He was Artistic Director of the Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Program at the Joffrey Ballet School from 2011 to 2017. Michael has taught Contemporary and Modern Dance classes at Steps on Broadway, Peridance Capezio Center, Ballet Hispanico, and has been a teaching artist at the Mark Morris Dance Group in New York City. He has served on the dance faculties of Hunter College, Purchase College, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, and Ithaca College. In 2018, he presented a TedTalk entitled Life is a Dance about the joy of dance over the age of 50.
He is currently featured in the HBO Max Documentary, UPROOTED – The Journey of Jazz Dance. Michael is an Assistant Professor of Modern Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and a proud member of the Actor’s Equity Association.