michael montanaro

michael montanaro

Michael Montanaro is a transdisciplinary artist, best known for his work in the field of contemporary dance and mixed media. A graduate of the Hartford Conservatory, he has performed with the Boston Ballet, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, and Le Groupe de la Place Royale, where he also served for 5 years as co-artistic director. In 1985 he founded Montanaro Dance, developing a reputation for using cutting-edge technology to create theatrical environments for his choreography. Throughout its ten-year history, Montanaro's dance toured nationally and internationally.

Since 1996, Michael has worked as a choreographer, director and collaborator on numerous projects including Cirque du Soleil's "Varekai", the "Montreal Opera" multimedia version of "Carmina Burana", the documentary "Montanaro In Time" . The play “Frankenstein's Ghosts”, and a series of short films entitled “Dances for Small Spaces”. In 2011, Michael was invited by the University of Cambridge Center for Music Studies as a Visiting Lecturer and also spent two separate periods of time at the University of Chicago as a Visiting Artist.

Senior Lecturer, Michael was Chair of the Department of Contemporary Dance from 1999 to 2014. As Director of the Topological Media Lab, he is deeply involved in working with many undergraduate and graduate students, as well as professional artists in conception, development, and creativity. Directing and conducting many of TML's diverse research streams.

Dedicated to the visualization, design and creation of projects focused on the evolution of innovative ways in which new technologies are used to improve the first person experience in responsive environments, Michael is currently the; Principal Investigator and Director of “InTime” – an FQRSC-funded research creation project focused on building a large-scale interactive installation dealing with the perception of time; a conceptual contributor and mise en scène for “Practices of Everyday Life | Cooking”, an electroacoustic composition/performance piece based on the sonicated preparation of a meal by a professional chef/dancer; a contributor to “Little Burgundy Narratives” funded by an SSHRC Insight Grant; Arts and Ideas in Motion and Solar Decathalon China, two projects with Professor Michael Jemtrud and members of the FARMM Lab, McGill University.

In September 2016 Michael was in Linz Austria presenting Practices of Everyday Life | The kitchen and the premiere presentation of the interactive installation “Aquaphoneia”.

In 2017-2020, Michael will have works at the Kapelica Gallery, Slovenia; Chateau Luneville, France; Sonica Festival, Glasgow and the Image Festival, Manizales Columbia.