Michael O'Connor
Austria (residence), United States (citizenship)
research interests: choreography and performance, cognitive neuroscience, material engagement, metaphor
affiliation: Amsterdam University of the Arts and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
en
Currently a practice-based PhD Candidate the the VU in Amsterdam, O’Connor graduated from the Amsterdam Master of Choregraphy (DAS Choreography) program in 2015 and has a BFA from University of Utah. Currently he is a research fellow at THIRD at DAS Graduate School. Working at the intersection of cognitive science and movement, his artistic work attempts to recreate and articulate some of the basic building blocks of human perception as performative tools. Recently he has presented work at the Venice Biennale, the Mind and Brain School in Berlin, the Detroit Dance City Film Festival, and Spring Dance in Utrecht. He teaches creative practice and feedback to university students throughout Europe and is currently adapting dancer-based abstract thinking and collaboration skills for use in businesses. His piece TERTIARY was nominated for the Prix d’Jardin in the 8:Tension series at the ImpulsTanz Festival. His solo premiere work a waiting dog dies earned him Vienna’s ‘dancer to watch’ in BalletTanz Magazine 2008. He has also performed in works by Deborah Hay, David Zambrano and Willi Dorner among others