Sarah Michelson, an influential choreographer known for her rigorous and uncompromising approach to dance, is presenting a major new project at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The exhibition, titled “nowhere,” occupies the expansive second-floor atrium of MoMA and runs through October 11. The installation blends performance, visual art, and conceptual inquiry, exploring the question, “What is a dance?”
Michelson’s career spans over three decades, characterized by works that challenge traditional definitions of choreography. Her productions have ranged from large-scale outdoor performances involving children and trained dancers to intense solo pieces marked by physical extremity and dark humor. With “nowhere,” she returns to large-format dance, filling the museum’s atrium with daily live performances and open participatory events.
From Saturday through Thursday, Michelson performs daily in the atrium during public museum hours, inviting audiences to witness a continuous exploration of movement and presence. On Fridays, the space opens to dance artists, arts workers, and the public for sessions hosted by Michelson and guest facilitators. This structure reflects her broader vision of dance as an inclusive, ongoing engagement rather than a fixed presentation.
“Dances are like embodied questions,” Michelson explained, emphasizing her interest in the dynamic relationship between performer and viewer. She described dance as a living philosophy, an argument conveyed through the body. Central to her work is the experience of the dancer over time, with Michelson’s own body as a primary site of investigation. She acknowledged the physical and emotional challenges inherent in this pursuit, describing a deep trust in her body despite its vulnerabilities.
Michelson’s journey began in Manchester, England, where she discovered dance watching classic films. Her path led her to New York City in the early 1990s as a scholarship student at the Merce Cunningham Studio. Over the years, she has eschewed commercial visibility, maintaining an ethos that emphasizes the immediacy and ephemerality of live performance. Her works are typically not recorded or streamed, reinforcing the importance of presence in dance.
Her commitment to this approach has found support in the visual art world, with major institutions like MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Walker Art Center hosting her work. Since 2023, she has been represented by the gallery David Zwirner. Despite her success, Michelson has spoken candidly about the difficulties dancers face when art forms collide, including challenges related to objectification and the ways dance is assessed through the value systems of other disciplines.
“nowhere” represents both a culmination of Michelson’s artistic path and an ongoing investigation into the nature of dance. By activating the museum space as a stage and community hub, she invites consideration not only of dance’s form and content but of its social and experiential dimensions. The project underscores dance’s potential to be an immersive practice that transcends traditional boundaries, open to evolution and collective participation.