Michael O’Connor seamlessly blends practice and theory. His doctorate research at the Vrije Universiteit, titled Embodied Lines, looked at lines that we perceive, lines that we make with our body, and lines that we imagine as an organizing principle for experience and sense-making. Additionally with an MA from DAS Choreography at the Amsterdam University of the Arts and a BFA from the University of Utah, Michael has routinely opened doors at the university level for dance as artistic research. At the intersection of cognitive science and movement, his artistic work aims to recreate and articulate fundamental elements of human perception as performative tools. His research in sense-making, perception and movement naturally enhances his work with somatic practices and additionally as a bodyworker. His research into the cognitive science of empathy and metaphor guided his artistic work and PhD research, as well as informed the ground-work for the mind-body-environment connection as a somatic practitioner.
He has presented his research in Hong Kong at the event A day of sense-making: Living, moving, knowing, feeling, gesturing titled "Moving Bodies, Moving Landscapes”. Additionally, talks on “Touching Thoughts: creatively materializing immaterial concepts” at the Metaphor Festival in Amsterdam, a presentation called 'Lines of Experience' at the Dance Data, Cognition and Multimodal Communication and “Rope as a Thought" at the Mind & Brain School in Berlin.
In addition to being a Pantarei Approach practitioner since 2018, he is also experienced with Gabor Mate's Compassionate Inquiry and non-violent communication. Michael is also a feedback facilitator for the Fieldwork method and has taught others how to give constructive feedback since 2008. He has taught creative practice and contemporary technique as guest faculty in the Netherlands at SNDO, Fontys Dance Academic, and the MA Choreography COMMA program; Arizona State University, SEAD in Salzburg, Danish School of Performing Arts, HZT in Berlin, and University of Music and Performing Arts Frankfurt. He has presented his research on the intersection of neuroscience and dance at conferences in Germany, Portugal, UK, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. He was a THIRD research fellow at DAS Graduate School from 2018-2022.
Pantarei Approach Practitioner
Movement Researcher
Choreographer and Dancer
Facilitator
Dialogical Practices for Imagined lines: Listening, Interference and (non)straight
Published Writing
Photo © Maik Shrank