MICHIYAYA Dance is a contemporary dance company based in New York City and Pittsburgh. Artistic Directors Anya and Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery founded MICHIYAYA in 2015 as a way to combine their voices as artists—Anya, a Black queer choreographer/dance artist and Mitsuko, a white & Japanese queer visual/performance artist. Together they create multidisciplinary works that push boundaries, and center queerness and the divine feminine.
Their performances have spread nationally at venues and institutions such as Yale University, Brooklyn Museum, Andy Warhol Museum, Gibney, among others. Their powerful group of femme voices has been featured in Art Forum, Vice i-D, and more.
MICHIYAYA’s educational and community initiatives have reached the University California – Santa Barbara, Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program, among others. Anya & Mitsuko have served as adjunct faculty for Purchase College Conservatory of Dance and Point Park University. They’ve been invited as artists in residence at the UC Santa Barbara, Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Art & Drama, and more. The duo has been commissioned by Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, UT Austin, and more. Anya & Mitsuko’s vision has been supported by Microsoft, CVS Health, New York State Council on the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Opportunity Fund, Dance/NYC, among others.
Anya & Mitsuko’s newest venture is their multidisciplinary artist residency space in Pittsburgh titled inter-. inter- is an extension of MICHIYAYA providing both creative and living space for local and visiting artists.
FB & IG: @michiyayadance
Photo by Alexander Diaz