Photo credit Tyana Danae
Michelle N. Gibson
A symbol of rhythmic eloquence and cultural immersion, Michelle N. Gibson is a consummate storyteller, employing body and mind to build a bridge between the culture and academia, but most importantly, humanity. Gibson intricately intertwines Black African American dance traditions, choreography, and associated scholarship linking the vibrant heritage of New Orleans through the Caribbean to the vast expanses of Africa, evoking the social, political, economic, and spiritual understandings central to building bonds within and across cultures. This journey steeped in both tradition and innovation, encapsulates Gibson’s unwavering commitment to heal the world through the culture.
About the Artist
Mother, Choreographer, Cultural Ambassador, Professor, Performing Artist, and Spiritualist. Michelle N. Gibson received her BFA in Dance from Tulane University and her MFA from Hollins University in collaboration with the American Dance Festival at Duke University. Gibson showcases a vast repertoire spanning genres of the African Diaspora, Contemporary Afro Modern, Afro Funk, Jazz, and her own New Orleans Second Line Aesthetic.
Gibson shares acclaimed through a series of workshops coined “The New Orleans Original BuckShop LLC”. A number of original works include: “Takin’ it To The Roots”, supported by the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network’s Creation Fund; “Displaced Yet Rebirth” performed by Dallas Black Dance Theatre; “Origins of Life on Earth” with the Ashé Cultural Arts Center; and “Voices of Congo Square”, presented at Sun Theatre in St Louis, Missouri, and the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans.
Ms. Gibson has curated events tied to her practice with Arts Walk West, hosted by the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce and AT&T. 2020 was a year of continuous cultural exploration for Gibson sharing on symposiums with Duke University Dance Department, University of Florida Dance and College of Arts, Sankofa Talks with Caribbean Cultural Center, Black Nature Conversation Series, and a virtual interview with University of Southern California dance historian and ethnographer E. Moncell Durden, Intangible Roots, and the Black Artist Collective. In 2021 and 2022 (and upcoming November 2023) Gibson curated Culture, Brass, and Jazz in the Park Festival as a partnership between The New Orleans Original BuckShop and ArtsBridge Powered by Toyota, a community arts program of the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas TX.
Summer of 2022, Gibson accepted an invitation to Grand Marshal for the Ascona Jazz Festival in Switzerland leading Second Line processionals and conducting movement workshops. Gibson was honored, as an alumnus, to be a part of the esteemed Jacob’s Pillow 90th Anniversary Season performing her one-woman show “Takin’ It To The Roots” accompanied by Adonis Rose / NOJO 7, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Jawara Simon, and Alexandro Perez - it garnered her a feature article in The New York Times.
In a teaching capacity, Gibson serves as a 13-year faculty member with the American Dance Festival and at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas for four years. She works with senior citizens in facilities throughout the Dallas Metroplex using a movement therapy curriculum she created while serving as a resident artist at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans. Currently Professor of Practice in Dance at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, Gibson presented in spring 2023 as guest panelist and instructor for Black Women Embodied Aesthetics Symposium at Duke University, Intangible Roots Professional Development Summer Intensive at Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at University of Southern California, and is one of the featured artists in Moving Together, an official documentary selected for Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center that premiered in February 2023. Gibson is beginning14th year on faculty with the American Dance Festival’s Pre-Professional Intensive at Duke University, followed by her journey & practice to Trinidad with New Waves Institute 2023.
In the fall of 2023 Gibson is purposed with promises, setting choreographic works on Red Clay Dance Company, and sharing her practice in residency with the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. Each endeavor, each step, underscores Michelle N. Gibson’s commitment to celebrating, persevering, and innovating the deep-seated traditions of her spirit through the culture, while opening spaces for humanity to spiritually align, respect, and heal.