Co-Director of The Academy of Dance by Lori, has performed nationally and internationally with Chicago’s Mad Shak Dance Comapnay, the Pittsburgh Dance Alloy and The Neofuturists Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois. Her choreography has been performed at Dance Chicago, the Pittsburgh Choreographers Continuum, The American College Dance Festival at Penn State and Mercyhurst College, the Carnegie Museum and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland with the Unseam’d Shakespeare Company. Her choreography has received national acclaim at dance competitions and festivals. Furthermore, her students have gone on to receive numerous national dance titles and special awards. Michelle also holds a Masters Degree in Developmental Movement/Movement Science from the University of Pittsburgh. She holds an ardent interest in movement education and has worked with Dr Julius PA Deward, PT, PhD and other colleagues at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago on movement recovery research following hemiparetic stroke. This work has been published and presented at major conferences both nationally and internationally. She is currently a part-time faculty member at the University of Pitttsburgh, an adjunct instructor at Point Park University, is the founder of the ACOYA DANCE PROJECT and has served as the Local Dance Coordinator for the Moscow Ballet’s production of the great Russian Nutcracker in the fall of 2006 an d 2008.