Michael Miller,, Artistic Associate
Michael Miller, Wellspring's Artistic Associate, has been teaching, choreographing, and performing with Wellspring since 1991. He began his movement studies as a competitive gymnast in Royal Oak and went on to explore music and dance at Western Michigan University. He taught Modern and Jazz Dance technique at WMU from 1992-2000. In 1995, he received an Irving S. Gilmore Foundation Emerging Artists Grant to study with the Joe Goode Performance Group in San Francisco, and in 2000, he received the grant again to study with Jan Erkert at Columbia College in Chicago.
Since 2001, he has been working and performing with Wendy Rodgers' Choreographics in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City on site-specific works. Since 2007, Michael has also been choreographing and performing with slam poetry duo Kinetic Affect. When away from Wellspring, Mr. Miller works at Main St. Cafe in Kalamazoo.
Rachel Miller
Rachel Miller began dancing at the age of seven and went on to train with Southold Dance Theater as a member of their training company. She performed with the University Dance Company at Ohio State where she studied as a dance major. She then resumed teaching, choreographing and professionally performing with the Southold Dance Theater. Rachel graduated Magna Cum Laude from Western Michigan University with a BA in English with an emphasis in creative writing. She joined Wellspring in 2001.
Rachel also studied in Prague with the Batsheva Dance Company of Israel where she received high honors for her choreography. In 2005, she received an Irving S. Gilmore Foundation Emerging Artist Grant to choreograph and perform a new evening-length work titled "Prose In Motion." Rachel is a Stott Pilates instructor as well as an Aerial Artist for ZFX Flying in Louisville.
Francesca Pileci-Bates
Francesca Pileci-Bates received a BA with Honors in Creative Arts and earned her Masters degree in Dance from the internationally renowned LABAN in London. As a full-time member of the professional performers' union British Equity, she danced with Dance Company 7, a modern dance company based in London. Since coming to the U.S., Francesca has danced with companies in Michigan and Ohio and recently traveled abroad to study "Gaga" technique with Batsheva Dance Company members and to perform works by Rambert Dance Company, England. Performance credits include London Theaters, BBC Television, ITV, Channel 4, Music Hall and Opera House. Choreography credits include Eastern Michigan University's dance program, NDEO and MAPSA.
Francesca joined Wellspring as a company member in 2005. She is also a Michigan certified K-12 dance educator and a resident artist with KRESA's Education for the Arts.
Jasmine Statzer
Jasmine Statzer began her dance studies in the professional training program at the Southold Dance Theater, where she also taught. She continued her training at Lou Conte in Chicago. She has studied under Kevin Wynn and Rebecca Jung of Pilobolus and trained in traditional drum and dance in Guinea, West Africa. Jasmine is thrilled to perform with Wellspring and in her spare time, she teaches and draws.
