MICHELLE SUI is an artist, composer, choreographer, performer, and director. Their work exists at the intersection of film, opera, dance, theater, installation, oral histories and new technologies and draws upon the body and voice in relation to cinematic icons, language in translation, and the dislocations of memory.
Their films, experimental operas, site-responsive performances, dance scores and immersive multimedia compositions have been presented across the United States and internationally.
Michelle's decade-long research in polyphonic folk and ritual music traditions has taken them to study and perform in many post-Soviet landscapes of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. They are known for their performance work that merges choreographic, spatial, and vocal improvisations, and have taught voice, dance, and the visual arts at University of Michigan, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and Loyola Marymount University.
Past performance venues and residencies include Museum of Contemporary Art, LA Music Center, REDCAT, Hammer Museum, Chinese American Museum, Walker Art Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Rubin Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, BAM, La MaMa Umbria International (Spoleto, IT), and Cité internationale des arts (Paris, FR).
Michelle is a member of the inaugural 2024-2025 Public Artists in Development (PAiD) Artist Council, a group of 8 artists selected by the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture to develop recommendations to improve public policy. In Aug 2024, the county commissioned the artist to create a public artwork in the historic building Pico House in downtown Los Angeles.
Their work has received support from Foundation of Contemporary Arts, Sundance, The Mellon Foundation, Center for Asian American Media, Rauschenberg Foundation, California Arts Council, New York Foundation for the Arts, Bang on a Can, Poets and Writers, and the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers.
As a performer Michelle has worked for artists such as Simone Forti, Annie-B Parson/Big Dance Theater, Mary Overlie, Cecilia Vicuña, Xu Zhen, and Sir Kenneth Branagh and with composers Meredith Monk and Billy Harper. They lead workshops and training for dancers and performers internationally, and currently teach in the Department of Visual Arts at University of California, San Diego.