Michael Spencer Phillips / Site-Specific Dances

Michael Spencer Phillips (he/him) is an interdisciplinary, queer artist/choreographer/producer working at the intersection of dance, community engagement, film, as well as environmental and social issues. 

 

Inspired by the natural world, sites, and the issues facing them, Phillips co-founded Site-Specific Dances with architectural designer Dino Kiratzidis, as an experiment in merging dance and site. In each location, the husband team explores the theatrical potential of found landscapes, engages with local communities, and brings attention to environmental and/or social issues. 

 

Phillips and Site-Specific Dances have received support from Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy, ArtBridge, Stonewall Community Foundation, ArtsEverywhere Canada, Musagetes Foundation. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, The Bloody Sunday Trust, and The Arts Council of Sweden.  Recent commissions include works for the Museum of Free Derry in Northern Ireland and the PLX Festival in Sweden.

 

Phillips’ site-specific performance works have been commissioned and performed throughout the United States, the UK, and Scandinavia. For the stage, he has choreographed original works for dance companies, conservatories, and educational institutions around the globe. His stage works have been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Universal Records, Ariel Rivka Dance, The Silesian Dance Festival, LangLab, The Open Look Dance Festival, Notre Dame, University of Michigan, Interlochen, the Ailey School, Lehigh University, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, UC Berkeley, and Traverse City Dance Project.  In 2019, He choreographed and co-directed his first opera, Haunted, a dance-opera in one act.

Phillips is a graduate of the University of Michigan where he received his BFA in Dance and has been recognized as one of their distinguished alumni, receiving their prestigious Emerging Artist Award.  He received further training in New York from the Merce Cunningham School and the Martha Graham School.  His performance credits include: RIOULT Dance NY, Robert Battle’s Battleworks, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company, and Jennifer Muller / The Works. 

Mr. Phillips also choreographs and directs fashion films and composes bodies for stills as an art/movement director for editorial publications and ad campaigns. Some of his clients include VOGUE, Harper’s Bazaar, Tiffany & Co., SAKS, Uniqlo, Zara, Samsung, and Vince Camuto.