Michael Reed

Michael Reed - Senior Director of Programs & Organizational Initiatives - has worked with ASU Cultural Affairs/ASU Gammage for over twenty-five years since retiring from an international dance career with Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and Boston Ballet. Mr. Reed oversees programming, new productions, and cultural participation/education programs for ASU Gammage and ASU Kerr. 

At ASU Gammage, Michael has produced and or premiered productions such as Motion e (Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown – motion capture), Dearest Home (Kyle Abraham – Avant Premiere) Native Nations (Larissa FastHorse /Cornerstone Theater), Towards a More Perfect Union (Daniel Roumain, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Tamar-Kali Brown), Impermanence (Meredith Monk), and Voices of Valor (Theater - James Garcia). In addition, Mr. Reed has presented internationally renowned artists; Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, The Bolshoi Ballet, Philip Glass, Bill T. Jones, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, Camille A. Brown, Kyle Abraham, Batsheva Dance Company, Trisha Brown, Malpaso Dance, Nora Chipaumire, Contra Tiempo, El Teatro Campesino/Zoot Suit (Luis Valdez), Anne Bogart/SITI Company, Company Jant-Bi (Senegal), Eiko,  Eiko & Koma, Chekhov International Theater Festival, Menahem Pressler, and many others. In his work at ASU Gammage, he has also commissioned (production developmental residency) original work by Camille A. Brown (Ink), Kota Yamazaki, Geoff Sobelle (Home), Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Anne Bogart, Phantom Limb, Kareem Roustom, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. 

Michael is the recipient of the Western Arts Alliance’s Leadership Award, MetLife Arts Access award (APAP), 100 Black Men - Phoenix Chapter Community Service award, The ASU Chicano/Latino Faculty and Staff Association César Chávez Community Service Award. In addition, he has served as a board member for Western Arts Alliance, APAP, co-chair for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals annual conference, APAP Board Vice Chair, The Broadway League conference committee, a Hubsite and Advisor for the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project. He has served on numerous grant panels (NEA presenting & dance, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trust, The Lila Wallace Foundation, and the Arizona Commission on the Arts). Michael has spoken at conferences and festivals in the UK, China, Australia, Canada, and Mexico and served as a “Dance Down Under Ambassador” to the Australian Council on the Arts and a LIFT Festival advisor to Canadian touring artists.

Photo by Lilyana Reed

Full Land Acknowledgement

ASU acknowledges the twenty-two Tribal Nations and Communities that have inhabited this land for centuries. Arizona State University’s four metropolitan campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. They are still here. ASU acknowledges the sovereignty of these nations and seeks to foster an environment of success and possibility for Native American students and patrons. 

Return to National Dance Project