About

Before anything else, I am a creator. I create in and across the boundaries of many creative forms. Everything informs everything, and all things are subject to the creative process. The creative act is a sacred act and therefore my artistic practice is my spiritual practice. In the creative process I am in collaboration with ideas, feelings, matter, other beings, and life itself. I have faith in the primacy and reality creating function of imagination. I have faith in the transformative and healing capacities of creativity in all forms. I have faith in the inseparability of form and the formless. Creativity is an expression of the formless through form. Art is not about. Art is. The thing is the meaning.

There is always more to say. And no need to say anything. This is enough for now.

Statement on somatic/dance education:

Somatic/Dance education is a radical political act. Teaching people to be embodied with nuanced awareness, articulation, expression, generosity, love, care, vulnerability, and creativity is a form of political activism that flies in the face of oppressive regimes. 

BIO:

Mikey Rioux is from Chicago. They received a BFA Magna Cum Laude in Studio Art from Cornish College of The Arts and are currently working towards their MFA in Choreography at The University of Iowa.

As a performer Mikey has had the pleasure of working with countless companies and independent choreographers, including River North Dance Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Lucky Plush Productions, Mordine & Co., Kate Corby & Dancers, Salt Horse, Scott/Powell Performance, Jessie Young, Erin Kilmurray, and Lingo.

As a choreographer Mikey’s work has been commisioned by Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Jacksonville Dance Theater, Mordine & Co., Instruments of Movement, Chicago Dance Crash, American Theater Co., The Inconvenience, and Cornish Dance Theater. Their choreography has been presented by PICA’s TBA Festival, Ten Tiny Dances, Northwest Film Forum, Chop Shop Dance Festival, and Links Hall.

In 2001 Mikey formed Impetus Dance Theater and served as Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer until 2005. Under Mikey’s direction Impetus Dance Theater produced and presented the choreography of Sarita Smith Childs, Jay Franke, Jeff Hancock, Cheryl Mann, Michelle Manzanales, and Mario Zambrano. During their four years with the company Mikey created eight original works.

Mikey's visual art, which can be seen here, has been presented in over 30 solo and group shows. Their work is in numerous private collections and also included in The Mary Alice Cooley Print Collection.

Mikey has been on faculty at Lou Conte Dance Studio, Velocity Dance Center, The School of Spectrum Dance Theater, and Visceral Dance Center. Mikey has been a guest teacher for The University of Arizona, Cornish College of the Arts, Dickinson College, The University of Wisconsin/Madison, Northern Illinois University, Gus Giordano Jazz Dance, Mordine & Co., and Luna Negra Dance Theater.

200 hr certified yoga teacher

*All photographs on this site by Matthew Gregory Hollis, William Frederking, Jessie Young, Ryan Bourque, Peter Mumford, Tim Summers, Erica Jaree

…. if you took any of these photos and are not credited please let me know.