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Michelle Thompson Ulerich

Lecturer of Dance

Originally from California, Michelle Thompson Ulerich trained at San Francisco Ballet for nine years. She also received training from the Kirov Academy of Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and Tisch School of the Arts. She moved to Texas and joined Ballet Austin in 2001. During her 14 years with Ballet Austin, she performed in works by Stephen Mills, George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Ulysses Dove, Nelly van Bommel, KT Nelson, James Gregg, Thang Dao, Greg Dolbashian, Jimmy Orrante, Amy Seiwert, Gina Patterson, Thaddeus Davis, Jennifer Hart, and Sidra Bell. Also during her time in Austin she completed a Dance and Humanities degree from St. Edward’s University. Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Ballet Austin II, Ballet Spartanburg, Blanton Museum, Motion Dance Theater, Prelude Projects, CounterPointe, SUNY Purchase, Ballet Hartford, Hartt School, Harvard Ballet, New England Ballet Collective, and Spark Movement Collective have commissioned Michelle for choreography. Michelle’s Illusory Impressions collaboration and co-directorship with composer Catherine Davis was given an award by the Austin Critics’Table for excellence in a Site-Specific work as well as Robert Faires’ Top 10 Classical Music/Dance Treasures of 2016. She was featured in Pointe magazine as the 2017 winner of the Women’s Choreography Project, spearheaded by Dallas-based Avant Chamber Ballet. In the summer of 2019 she was announced as the CORE Choreography Winner by J Chen Project, and her new work for the company premiered at the Ailey Citigroup Theater in November 2019. During her time in New York she has also self produced her choreography, created movement for film and music video projects, and performed with XAOC Contemporary Ballet and Spark Movement Collective. Michelle is a professor of ballet, pointe, and yoga at SUNY Purchase, and a mother of two boys. She is the newly appointed Artistic Director for Spark Movement Collective as of April of 2020 and is excited to take this 10 year old company into its next decade.