PROJECTS + PERFORMANCES
If She Is The Storm... (2025)
Medium: Dance Performance + Choreography
Choreographed by Nancy Hughes, "If She Is The Storm" is a duet inspired by the family and friend relationships in the Hayao Miyazaki film Ponyo. The piece explores how care, chaos, and transformation live together in the body. In the piece, the image of a two-headed monster emerged. Together, we build a shared narrative from our individual histories. This work has been presented at the School of Contemporary Dance & Thought Work-In-Progress showing (April 2025) and the Association of Performing Arts Professionals Conference (January 2025).
Umwelten in Avant-Garde (2024)
Medium: Dance + Installation
Directed by Jonathon Santomieri, this performance work follows "The Well," a musical score by Pauline Oliveros and explores the relationship between humans, nature, and technology involving plants in backpacks, lighting sculpture, and improvised movement. This work was performed at Agatha Falls Gallery in December 2024.
This Grass Is So Close To This Building (2024)
Medium: Improvised Site-Specific Dance
Directed by Nancy Hughes and choreographed in collaboration with the cast, this site-specific improvised performance explores the exterior of the Burchfield Penney Art Center. This piece was performed in August 2024.
Tandem Traces (2024)
Medium: Dance Performance + Choreography
Directed by Kaley Pruitt and choreographed in collaboration with Michaela Neild, Tandem Traces explores spatial pathways and architectural forms through the ideas of tandem movement, reflection, shadowing, and focus. The choreography designs the body, and also how the body leaves traces that design and shape the space. This piece was performed at the Vision of Sound Concert Series presented by the Society for New Music in February 2024.
The Language Within Us (2023)
Medium: Dance, Projection, Installation
The Language of Movement” is a three-part dance concert performed in and inspired by the multi-sensory installation, The Language Within Us, by artists Muhammed Zaman and Michael Mandolfo. The installation and performance explores themes of conflict, longing, and resolution--and the magic of language as a powerful and unifying force. This work was presented at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in October 2023.
Moving Sound (2023)
Medium: Dance, Projection, Installation
Moving Sound is an improvised, multidisciplinary performance based on an interactive device that acts as an extension of the dancers’ bodies to enhance the creation, exploration & experience of movement through sound. Device invention by composer Matias Homar. Dancing by Dominic Giambra, Muriel Ventura Pontin, and Michaela Neild. Video Projection by Michael Mandolfo. This work was presented at the Rochester FRINGE Festival in September 2023.
Phil (2022)
Medium: Nebuta Wire Sculpture
Phil, a 5-foot-tall rubber ducky was conceived during a two-week Nebuta wire sculpting workshop with Brooklyn-based artist George Ferrandi. Phil enjoys warm bathwater, worms, and sunshine.
Nest (2022)
Medium: Dance Performance + Choreography
Co-choreographed by Michaela Neild, Melanie Aceto, Dominic Giambra, Sari Hoke, and Adalia Pemberton-Smith. Nest explores how materials affect and are affected by movement. This work was created under the direction of Melanie Aceto.
Untitled Improvisation #2 (2022)
Medium: Improvised Dance + Music Performance
This untitled improvised duet by Michaela Neild and Dominic Giambra was performed at the 2022 Inaugural Summer Arts Festival at Alfred University in Alfred, New York, and danced to the live performance of "A Letter From Treetops" by multi-instrumentalist, Jesse Chandler.
Untitled Improvisation #1 (2022)
Medium: Improvised Dance + Music Performance
This untitled improvised duet by Michaela Neild and Jacquie Sochacki-Pittman was selected to perform at the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio, and danced to the live performance of Jaryn Danz on violin. The duet explores motifs of reconnection after intense and prolonged isolation.
Creating an Open System (2022)
Medium: Dance Performance + Choreography
Co-choreographed by Michaela Neild, Matias Homar, Melanie Aceto, Dominic Giambra, Sari Hoke, and Adalia Pemberton-Smith. Creating an Open System explores how materials affect and are affected by movement. This work was created under the direction of Melanie Aceto. Danced to live improvised performances by musicians Ben Zucker, Jesse Chandler, and Thelonius Garcia.
The "DTD" Project (2021-2022)
Mediums: Community Engaged, Interdisciplinary Arts Programming, Dance Performance + Intermedia.
The "Dancing Through Difficulty" project was a year-long research project offering online, integrated arts programming for aging adults. Participants engaged in weekly dance classes and monthly workshops in writing, music skills, painting, collage, and poetry. The project concluded with a collaborative, live performance over zoom.
Interdependent (2021)
Medium: Dance Film/ScreenDance
Interdependent by Michaela Neild is part of a series of short dance films/studies which explore the framework of Emergent Strategy, which creates large-scale growth in communities through small-scale growth. Specifically, Interdependent focuses on themes of relating, dependence, reliance, sustainability, and reciprocity. Danced by Mollie Wolf and Katie O' Loughlin.
Inside/Out (2021)
Medium: Improvised Dance + Music Performance
This site-specific ensemble piece danced by Michaela Neild, Yukina Sato, and Teddi Vargas and choreographed by Laura Neese was performed at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio as part of Neese's thesis research on embodied and experiential anatomy. Danced to Sarah Troeller on cello.
Impetus (2020)
Medium: Dance Film/ScreenDance
Impetus by Michaela Neild and danced by KerryLyn Kercher is part of a series of short dance films/studies which explore the framework of Emergent Strategy. Specifically, Impetus analyzes the element of “intentional adaptation”—the process of willingly and intentionally changing in ways that align our daily actions with our larger values and beliefs. Impetus was nominated by the Ohio State University for the 2021 inaugural ACDA Screen Dance Festival and selected for the ACDA Festival Gala Concert.
Be The Street (2020)
Medium: Community Engaged, Arts Programming, Devised Dance & Theatre.
The "Be The Street" Project was conceived and directed by Moriah Flagler as part of a Humanities and the Arts Discovery Theme Project at The Ohio State University. The project was dedicated to creating collaborative spaces with and for the community, offering weekly devised theatre and dance workshops.
The Blue (2019)
Medium: Immersive Dance Performance, Installation, Exhibit
In collaboration with Melanie Aceto Contemporary Dance, performance artist Hanae Utamura offers a meditation on Niagara Falls, narrated through the lens of the ancient Japanese Shinto religion and the Japanese postwar consciousness.
PastFuture/FuturePast (2019)
Medium: Site-Specific, Immersive, Interdisciplinary Performance, Community-Engaged Programming.
Under the direction of Stanzi Vaubel, Indeterminacy Festival is an annual arts festival that explores indeterminacy. Michaela served as head choreographer for the festival in 2019, working separately with one group of college-age dancers, one group of refugee youth, and one group of adults with Parkinson’s Disease.
What A Joy It Will Always Be... (2018)
Medium: Dance Performance + Choreography
What A Joy It Will Always Be... by Michaela Neild was choreographed in dedication to Michaela's Mother, inspired by the lines, colors, shapes, and memories associated with her favorite photo, and titled after a line from a poem included in a birthday card saved for many years - "what a joy it will always be, to be your Mother." This work was selected to perform at the 2018 Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts in Buffalo, New York.
It's Just a Phase (2018)
Medium: Dance + Live Music Performance
The 1960s were a time of social, political, and cultural unrest and this manifested itself in the art and music of the period. Complementing Albright-Knox’s exhibition "Giant Steps: Artists and the 1960s", the concert program features The Buffalo Chamber Players welcomes Anne Burnidge Dance, exploring the various musical trends of the 1960s.