Michio Woirgardt is currently one of the most sought-after composers and live musicians for ballet and contemporary dance.
The studied guitarist received his education at the renowned University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, as well as at the University of Music and Performing Arts Saarland.
As the son of a Japanese mother and a German father, the Düsseldorf-based artist has been used to carrying and merging the most diverse cultural circles since childhood.
Therefore his compositional approach also consists of the merging of musical parameters that at first glance appear to be completely contradictory.
Everyday objects such as household appliances, sealing rings or Sellotape film become musical instruments for Michio just as naturally as the fusion of Cuban Yoruba chants with the baroque suite.
In this way Michio has created a very personal style in recent years, which appeals to the choreographers of the ballet ensembles of state theatres as much as it does to contemporary ensembles of the independent scene.
He has composed, for example, for the state theatres:
- Ballet of the Darmstadt State Theatre
- Ballet of Theater Hagen
- TanzTheater Münster
- Theater für Niedersachsen
- Ballet of the Saarland State Theatre
- Ballet of the Landestheater Linz
- Dance Company Landesbühnen Sachsen
- Vorpommern Ballet
- Magdeburg Ballet
- Provincial Dances Theatre, Ekaterinburg/Russia
as well as for the independent companies and choreographers etc:
- Cooperativa Maura Morales
- Landerer & Company/Hanover
- Donlon Dance Collective
- Company Idem/Switzerland
- Felix Bürkle-Staring Point/Düsseldorf
- Minako Seki and Yumiko Yoshioka/Berlin
- Leonor Leal/Seville
- Massimo Gerardi/Dresden
In 2010 he founded the contemporary dance company “Cooperativa Maura Morales” with choreographer Maura Morales, with whom he has since realised numerous stage plays and with whom he regularly gives guest performances throughout Europe, Asia and South America.
As well as many awards, the ensemble has established itself in the international dance scene in a very short time through the broad public response to its productions. Among the awards are two of the most renowned dance prizes in NRW: the Kurt Jooss Prize 2013 and the Sponsorship Prize for Performing Arts 2014 of the state capital Düsseldorf.