MICHAEL
NICKERSON
ROSSI
Founding Artistic Director
"BREATHE
IN THE BEAUTY, EXHALE THE UGLY."
Michael's dance journey began as a young man in grief. With the traumatic loss of his mother to cancer at the age of 17 and just a short few years later losing his father, Michael found himself enrolled at Modesto Junior College to focus on film and design. One of the early projects of his classes brought him to film the dance department's upcoming concert.
"Everything that I saw was everything that I felt." - Michael Nickerson-Rossi
Michael instantly fell in love with dance, watching on stage the choreographic work of those who would become his mentors, Kim T. Davis and Lori Bryhni. Michael started with two left feet, late in the game, but with a mad passion set ablaze with unshaken focus.
Michael launched and founded his dance company, “Nickerson-Rossi Dance,” in 2011. Touring as a professional contemporary dance company, Michael's work was sought after early in his professional career.
Staying true to Michael's beginnings, he created The “uNdeRstanD program,” which was created to carry out Michael's mission for his outreach work. This program provides diverse and minority communities a platform to engage in dance, using it as an artistic expression that can unify the body as a tool when words are not enough.
His passion for impact has been felt by organizations such as the LGBTQ Center in Long Beach, Versa-Style P.E.C. in Los Angeles, Project Home in Philadelphia, Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, and Eisenhower Hospital Lucy Curci Cancer Center, both in the Coachella Valley.
Through his work, Michael found himself in Palm Springs, California, where a local philanthropist in the Coachella Valley, Terri Ketover, saw Michael's work and commissioned the company to perform at the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Annenberg Theater in 2013. Michael was then motivated to create and provide educational experiences for the communities of Coachella Valley and began to work with the Palm Springs Unified School District under the Helene Galen Foundation for the following 3 years.
His firm belief in charitable and educational benefits propelled Michael to incorporate his company into a non-profit 501c3.
Michael's work brought him to the East Coast where he assumed the position of Creative Director of Dance at the Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
There, he built a modern/contemporary technique program and performance series at Princeton Ballet and became a founding faculty member at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Conservatory Maryland. While traveling between the East and West coasts Michael's teaching career collected numerous accolades --- now reaching over 30 other universities and colleges.
During his travels, Michael was commissioned a second time by the Palm Springs Art Museum where he produced his concert "Past & Present" in 2016. As an outgrowth of this program, he founded and produced the Palm Springs Dance Festival. The festival continued gaining momentum which led to an expansion and reformation, now, the Palm Springs International Dance Festival. The growth of the International Dance Festival inspired Michael to move to Palm Springs full-time in 2019.
A world pandemic plagued humanity in 2020, and every artist had to pivot.
Michael decided to establish the Palm Springs Dance Academy with the support of Dr. John and Laurie Bianchin. The Academy is the official school of the Nickerson-Rossi Dance Company, where they provide comprehensive dance education for pre-professional dancers and serve the community with enrichment, outreach, and after-school dance programs. Nickerson-Rossi continued to build and opened the only dance theatre in the Coachella Valley, "Nickerson-Rossi's Dance House" in 2021. With rapid growth in the Coachella Valley, Nickerson-Rossi found himself partnering with multiple school districts, private schools, and expanding additional facilities in Palm Desert and Desert Hot Springs.
By 2025, Michael’s vision had grown into a network connecting professional performance, dance education, and community outreach. One of its most meaningful milestones came that year when Nickerson-Rossi Dance awarded 88 scholarships to Palm Springs Unified School District students and reported more than $70,000 in scholarship support. These opportunities included full-tuition scholarships through BOYS DANCE!, helping young boys see a place for themselves in dance. For Michael, expanding access carries forward the possibility he discovered as a young man: that movement can open a door to expression, belonging, and a different future.
In 2026, his commitment to developing artists continued through The Dance Platform, bringing masterclasses, a choreographic residency, and a culminating gala to Palm Springs. With programming at Nickerson-Rossi’s Dance House and Palm Springs Art Museum, the initiative connected students and emerging choreographers with professional artists, creating space to develop original work and share it onstage.
As of fall 2026, Michael is preparing the company’s 2026–27 season, A Living Mosaic. The season brings together contemporary dance, live music, education, and community partnerships, with performances planned at Palm Springs Art Museum, Sunnylands Center & Gardens, and the Rancho Mirage Amphitheater. An expanded collaboration with Eisenhower Health Lucy Curci Cancer Center will include Our Bodies, an evening honoring the stories, strength, and hope of those touched by lung cancer. For an artist whose journey began after losing his mother to cancer, this work holds a deeply personal connection to his beginnings.
Upcoming projects also include Male Aesthetic, exploring the strength, beauty, and vulnerability of the male form through dance, live vocals, and visual art, and The Sound of Movement, a planned series pairing contemporary choreography with live vocals inspired by iconic music.
What began behind a camera in a college dance concert has become a life devoted to giving others opportunities to move, create, and be heard. Michael’s story continues through the artists he mentors, the students who enter a studio for the first time, and the communities whose experiences find expression in his choreography. The feeling that first drew him to dance remains at the center of his work: the recognition that a body in motion can reveal what words cannot.