Online dance education 

Michael is artist faculty/co-director for Jacob's Pillow Curriculum-in-Motion Institute, which teaches a community partnership methodology for choreographers.  Michael is the co-developer and co-teacher of the Language of Dance® Foundations and Master Practitioner certification courses in motif notation for international teachers and choreographers.  He created and leads the Dancing Reading Online Group, which provides mentoring and community for North American dance teachers and choreographers. 

Michael is also a leader of Sensory Awareness, a somatic practice, brought to the US by Charlotte Selver. He has presented this work in Mexico, Germany and the United States.  He co-created and is faculty in the Selver/Sensory Awareness Leaders Training Institute, which offers online and in-person professional development for new leaders.

As a researcher, Michael engages with individuals and groups to investigate topics ranging from professional problems to romantic and health issues. This work, developed with Celeste Miller, is Dancing Dialogic Research (DDR) and is akin to Authentic Movement and choreographic coaching. He has presented this method both in the USA and Colombia. He has also researched how dance improvisation promotes wellness and diminishes bias among diverse groups. 

As a bilingual Spanish-English teacher, Michael has taught and developed course curricula for teachers and learners between ages 3 - 70. He was a professor at the Instituto Tecnológico de La Paz, Centro de Capacitación para el Trabajo Industrial (in a Masters program in Criminology), and the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, Mexico. He also taught in pre-school, prison and  juvenile hall. 

As a dance educator, Michael has trained and mentored dance and classroom teachers. He has written K-12 curricula for using creative dance to teach math, language, science and social studies. He was a professor of Teaching Creative Dance at California State University, Northridge, and has been returning faculty for the Choreographer’s Lab and Curriculum-in-Motion program for high school teachers and students at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in western Massachusetts.  

Michael has garnered grant support from the Dana and Harkness Foundations for Dance, Dance/USA, The Mark Morris Dance Group, and the California Arts and Humanities Councils. He has served on the boards of the Language of Dance Center, USA, the International Sensory Awareness Leaders Guild and the California Dance Educators Association.

As a performer, Michael has danced, choreographed, and acted in New York, California, and in multiple states in Mexico.  He won the State Theater Competition in Baja California Sur for performing in the piece Devaneo, which was written about his early life.

As an entrepreneur, in Los Angeles, he co-founded and directed Move, Dance, and Yoga, which provided dance residencies and professional development to over 30 schools annually.  In Mexico, he founded and directed Encorporarte, which created community and school creative dance programs, as well as international artistic collaborations.