WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING:
"Michael Mizerany is an award winning local dance star with an impressive resume. He’s danced with the late Bella Lewitzky and for years has performed and collaborated with John Malashock Dance, to great critical acclaim. But his best work may be with his own group, MIZERANYDANCE!
In “Feral,” Mizerany’s choreography was masculine and boldly athletic, but the dancers never seemed to be performing stunts, because each sequence was connected by smooth transitions. Music by the ethnic fusion duo Vas, filled with strange vocalizations and percussion, created a mysterious mood with a middle-eastern twist, and Mizerany capitalized on the changing musical tempos and textures."
Kris Eitland, Sandiego.com
"There was also powerful dancing from San Diego-based dancer/choreographer Michael Mizerany's ACQUIESCE."
Michael Crabb, Toronto National Post, Canada
"The value of a curated event is proven by Mixed Program 1 which featured strong works from Toronto’s D.A.Hoskins, Montreal’s Ghislaine Doté, and San Diego’s Michael Mizerany."
Paula Citron, Classical 96.3 FM, Toronto, Canada
"What is the appropriate response to war? Something as chaotic and dehumanizing as the organized destruction of human life beggars the logical, rational mind. And so in choreographer/dancer Michael Mizerany's KRUEL SUMMER, two men in the middle of a war respond with movement. Discarding the verbal and the rational, Mizerany explores the viscera of war with the controlled explosions of the well-tuned body, depicting madness and terror through motion and stillness, touch and distance."
Paul Friswold, St. Louis Riverfront Times
"Michael Mizerany is one of Southern California’s modern dance stars, routinely pushing the envelope in terms of the vocabulary of choreography, as well as the breadth of ideas that language expresses. It’s breakthrough physical movement intent on affecting social and political ones."
Rebecca Epstein, LA City Beat
"(Kruel Summer)—... allows Michael plenty of latitude for impressively fluid, soulful solos. Formerly a fixture on the local modern dance scene, he's now a San Diego-based artist, and his dancing remains as technically and expressively commanding as ever."
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"The Horton-award winner presents the Bush administration and the Christian right as fueled by domestic and international policies. Agree or disagree with his insights, Mizerany is a dancer with a mission and the technical and artistic chops to articulate his argument."
Ann Haskins, LA Weekly
“Michael Mizerany follows in the tradition of Los Angeles modern dance great Lester Horton in making work with strong political messages. Mizerany's Kruel Summer, addresses the Christian right, the Patriot Act, militarism, and Abu Ghraib. Kruel Summer is a gutsy, heartfelt piece that raises important questions about the nature of torture—for instance, why is it so often sexual?—and there's some powerful dancing by Mizerany and his committed cast. Mizerany (who's danced with Bella Lewitzky and John Malashock) is a riveting soloist, both in fast, flinging, angular passages and sustained phrases, for instance, when he mimes scooping up water and trickling it over his body.”
Janice Steinberg, San Diego Theater Scene
“Michael is the master of coordination, balance and transition. He demonstrates the facial and visual maturity that comes through years of rigorous training and a very rare quality-that of a guru/teacher who knows the audience like the back of his hand…He demonstrated right away his affinity with Bella Lewitzky.”
Sepehr Samandani, Critical Dance.Com
"Bump in the Road" is a unique tour-de-force created by Michael Mizerany and danced by Jeff Bulkley with Chaplainesque physicality and a Jack Benny air of pseudo-conceited, self-depreciation that wins "funniest piece laurels."
Joseph Sirota, Easy Reader
“Michael Mizerany definitely does not know his own strength and was by far the strongest man dancing in the program.”
Diane Monore, Beverly Hills Outlook
"Mizerany offers a broad canvas and a dazzling array of ideas and sitations in EDGEWALKERS and the overall shape is crystal clear...eloquent and emotionally-loaded dancing..."
Ted Flagg, The Pink Sheet
“A locally based modern dancer of high technical and expressive authority…possesses an impressive ability to convey erotic heat, energy and deep need abstractly through convulsive gymnastic action and bold athletic interplay…a genuine talent well on his way to a breakthrough…”
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"A finely honed dancer, Mizerany knows how to occupy and cut an expressive figure in space as well as focus the viewer’s eye exactly where he wants it. The surprise is how good a writer he is in balancing the seriousness and comedy and the general and particular…THE BIBLE WALL is witty and touching.”
Chris Pasles, Los Angeles Times
“Terpsichorean gods and goddesses were on view Thursday evening…but the reigning deity, however, was Michael Mizerany who premiered his achingly beautiful 2X2 as if possessed…”
Victoria Looseleaf, Los Angeles Times
“No one has ever accused dancer-choreographer Michael Mizerany of not taking risk. Besides making use of full frontal male nudity, heavy homosexual osculations and daring contortions that would do a yogi proud, Mizerany’s work has a fluidity and core of authenticity that quickens the senses.”
Victoria Looseleaf, Los Angeles Times
"THE BOX...a sensual duet between Mizerany and the radiant Lisa Gillespie revolved around Marco De Leon's prop - a large kinetic sculpture that could have been a perforated sarcophagus or Cleopatra's barge depending on its position. The pair alternately rocked in it, around it and away from it The couple also rocked: Mizerany hoisting Fillespie in a series of gravity-defying lifts before the couple moved in gentle unison."
Victoria Loosleaf, Los Angeles Times
“A master of movement innuendo.”
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"...BUMP IN THE ROAD is unique and witty..."
Dance Magazine
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AWARDS/HONORS
2007 Commission for MADCO/Strange Addiction
2007 Commission for Michigan Dance Collective/Haunted 2006 Restaging for Michigan Dance Collective/Acquiesce
2006 Commission for Michigan Dance Collective/Feral
2006 Toronto International Dance Festival Participant/Acquiesce
2005 Lester Horton Award Nomination/Performance
2005 Commission for Cerritos Center for the Arts/Acquiesce
2004 Commission for MADCO/Tribal Ground
2004 Small Organization Grant/Kruel Summer
2004 Regional Emmy Award Nomination for Performance
2003 Lester Horton Award Nomination/Choreography
2003 Durfee Foundation Artist Completion Grant
2003 California Community Foundation
2003 Entry Level Organizational Grant
2003 Los Angeles County Arts Commission
2002 Lester Horton Award Nomination/Performance
2002 ADA Award Nomination/Outstanding Production
2002 ADA Award Nomination/Choreography
2002 ADA Award Nomination/Lead Performance
2002 California Community Foundation
2002 Entry Level Organizational Grant
2002 Regional Arts Grant, Cultural Affairs Department
2002 California Community Foundation
2001 Lester Horton Award Nomination/Choreography
2001 Lester Horton Award Nomination/Performance
2001 Durfee Foundation Grant
2001 Armory Center for the Arts Commission/Static
2000 Lester Horton Award Nomination/Performance
2000 City of Los Angeles, Individual Artist Fellowship
1999 Lester Horton Award Nomination/Choreography
1999 Lester Horton Award Nomination/Performance
1998 ACDF Gala Concert Participant
1996 Lester Horton Award for Performance
1995 Lester Horton Award for Performance
1994 Lester Horton Award Nomination/Choreography
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