
Michigan Movement Performance Projects
2025 PROGRAM
GAYÁ (by MARCAT)
Choreography: Catherine Coury & Mario Bermúdez
Score: Aphex Twin, Senking
BEHOLD THESE HAPPENINGS (by VIM VIGOR)
Choreographers: Shannon Gillen, Jason Cianciulli
Choreographic Assistant: Katherine Kiessling
Created in collaboration with the dancers
Score: Scott Li
PRELUDE (by MARCAT)
Choreography:Mario Bermúdez
Choreographic Assistant: Catherine Coury
Score: Ancestral Voices, Ludovico Einaudi, Mercan Dede
MARCAT - guest company for M2P2
Marcat Dance is the artistic home of Mario Bermúdez – the multi-award winning Spanish choreographer, and Catherine Coury – the American dancer and co-founder of the company. Based in the rural town of Vilches, Spain, the company is dedicated to sharing their creativity and joy of movement through performance, creation, and teaching opportunities around the world. Marcat Dance believes in the power of the imagination, creative risk-taking, and continuous research towards dynamic physicality. Marcat Dance connects to the human spirit and finds inspiration from world cultures, rituals, and landscapes.
Since 2016, the company performs internationally and has transmitted its teachings touring the Middle East, Europe, Asia and America, at festivals such as Festival Itálica (Spain), Jacob’s Pillow (USA), Vanguard Body (China), Yokohama Collection (Japan), or the Cali International Dance Biennial (Colombia), among others.
Choreographer Mario Bermúdez has created dance works in other relevant international companies such as the National Dance Company of Spain, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Hung Dance Taiwan, il Nuovo Balletto di Toscana, and the National Company of Wales.
In 2020, Marcat Dance launched Festival Vildanza, an international contemporary dance festival held every summer in their hometown of Vilches, Jaén.
Marcat Dance has received recognition such as ¨Best Choreography¨ ¨Best Dance Show¨ and ¨Best Dancer¨ from the National Radio of Spain, the Spanish Academy Talía Awards, the MAX awards, the Andalucian Lorca Awards, the Association PAD awards, the Escenarios de Sevilla, amongst others, and are first prize winners of international dance contests such as CICBUNY and Masdanza.
VIM VIGOR - resident company of M2P2
VIM VIGOR is a physical dance theater company under the artistic direction of Shannon Gillen and co-choreographer Jason Cianciulli, and is one of the United States’ most cutting-edge dance-theater companies. Founded following Gillen’s successful choreographic and performance run in Germany, VIM VIGOR began as a collaborative think tank—a platform for profoundly gifted artists from around the world to come together in the creation of genre-defying dance theater.
Now a decade-strong nonprofit organization, VIM VIGOR is many things: a dance theater research group, a team of seasoned educators dedicated to rich and rigorous exploration of the arts, and a company of curious, fearless performers pushing the boundaries of live performance. The company’s signature language blends bombastic contemporary movement with theatrical worlds and cinematic dreamscapes, all in service of broadening the traditional dance audience. VIM has created 40 new works since 2010 with notable commissions including L.A. Dance Project, b12 Festival in Berlin, Icelandic University of the Arts, the IAB in Spain, Zagreb Dance Company, The Gibney Dance Company, Hubbard Street’s International Commissioning Competition, the Lobero Theatre/DANCEworks, PRISMA Festival in Panama, Ruvuelo inConcepcion, Chile, Treffpunkt- Rotebuehlplatz, Springboard Danse Festival, New York Live Arts, Judson Church, PULSE Art Fair as part of Art Basel, NYC’s River to River Festival, Bryant Park Presents, HERE Arts Center, Festival Oltre Passo in Italy, and Steps Repertory Company for the The Joyce Theater and Jacob’s Pillow.
Our collective training spans The Juilliard School, SUNY Purchase, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Brown University, Berklee College of Music, and the University of Michigan. We have taught at universities and institutions around the world and are now proud to be resident artists in the Department of Dance at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Through this residency, VIM VIGOR regularly engages with students and the local community while developing new platforms to support and uplift artists throughout the Midwest.

Assistant Choreographer for VIM VIGOR's creation for M2P2
KATHERINE KIESSLING
Katherine Kiessling (She/Her) is a dancer and recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a double major in Dance and Computer Science. She has trained and performed across the United States and Europe with companies such as Vim Vigor, b12, Whim W’Him, Sidra Bell, and Christina Mertzani, among others. In April 2024, she traveled to Iceland with Vim Vigor as a choreographic collaborator and assistant rehearsal director for their commission, DON’T LET ME DOWN, for the graduating class of contemporary dance at the Iceland University of the Arts. She performed in Vim Vigor’s DRACULA at the University of Michigan in November 2024, and in MOTHERLOAD during the company’s London tour in March 2025. She also assisted the company in their commissions at the b12 festival in Berlin and at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona. Katherine officially joined Vim Vigor following her graduation in May 2025 and has assisted the company throughout their physical practice and choreographic processes at Michigan Movement Performance Projects.