OUR DIRECTOR
“Advocating for racial inclusivity, body positivity and more diversity within the arts.”
Mikaela Morisato is a dance artist, choreographer and founder of MORISATO. Her dance background comprises 18 years of concert and commercial dance styles, alongside improv development and choreographic composition. Mikaela's studies led her to Israel in 2018 where she trained extensively with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and other companies such as Vertigo Dance Company and Batsheva Dance Company. Throughout her career, she has had the privilege of performing works by artists from Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Barak Marshall Dance Theatre, Cullberg and more. Based in New York City, Mikaela has danced for Peter & Co, Mignolo, Nathaniel’s Dance Collective and independent contemporary artists. Her personal work has been premiered on various stages such as “Her” 2018 at the Zichri Theater, Israel, and “All of Us” 2019 at the Midtown Arts & Theater Center, Houston, Texas. In creation of MORISATO, her choreography has been commissioned through Mare Nostrum Elements 2022, SMUSH Gallery 2019-2022, Metuchen Arts Council 2020 and several musical artists. Mikaela focuses on creating accessibility with every new endeavor by sharing her artistic experience of live performance, digital media and film production within the art industry.
ARTIST STATEMENT
"With my view of dance as interdisciplinary art that can transcend a raw presence to encapsulate memories and feelings within movement, I love continuous absorption of research and experiences to translate into my work. My desire to extract emotions from audiences and provoke individual interpretation of my choreography to impact others encourages the start of each new creation.
My current choreographic process involves challenging the physicality of the body and the opportunity to evolve motion with sound. Questioning the importance of a phrase or relevance to the potential exposition in my work is habitual for me when setting material. I am attracted to the musicality that performers can express while introducing interactive senses through performance, which I find inspirational to my repertoire.
Adding onto this, I believe my work is immensely influenced by the connectivity dancers can create with themselves, music and other art forms. For my choreography with MORISATO and other projects, no matter the medium, I strive to create diversity in humanistic themes and the display of reciprocated energy within the space."