Office Phone

313-577-3508

Office Hours

 By appointment

Homepage URL

www.rasmikeyc.com

Primary E-mail

rasmikeyc@wayne.edu

Biography

 

Dr. RAS Mikey Courtney is an Emmy awarded dance professional whose life mission is to spread universal understanding to communities and cultures globally by sharing his gift of the expressive arts. He is co-founder and CEO of Fore I’m a Versatile Entertainer (F.I.V.E.) LLC. He holds a B.F.A. in Dance from the UARTS in Philadelphia, an MA in Ethnochoreology and Ph.D. in Arts Practice Research from University of Limerick in Ireland. His research investigates movement as cultural knowledge and embodiment as central theoretical concepts. Dr. RAS has developed an embodied practice, Ethio-Modern Dance and recently contributed a book chapter ‘Embodied Cultural Knowledge in Practice: An Ethio-Modern Dance Case Study of የቡና ዓለም (YeBuna Alem/A Coffee World)’ in Routledge Companion to Anthropology of Performance (2024). Professionally Dr. RAS has collaborated with artists and companies from around the world, including Pilobolus, Raven-Symoné, Major Lazer, The Marley Family, Chronixx, AfroFlow, the African Union and more.
Dr. RAS is also an established singer/songwriter, collaborating with his Producer, Kenny Allen, on three major releases RASoul (2018), Love Year (2020), and THIN LINE (2023).
As assistant professor of Dance at Wayne State University, he continues to explore movement as cultural knowledge within communities globally and he can be heard on his RAS Mikey C Radio station, streaming online.
“I nurture my gifts of artistic expression to share my experiences of movement with our global community. Movement is life and I am a Lifist.” www.rasmikeyc.com

 

Area of Expertise

 • Practice as Research
• Ethnochoreology
• Devised Performance
• Student-Led Ensemble Work
• Pedagogy of Liberation

Degrees and Certifications

Ph.D.- Arts Practice Research
Master of Arts - Ethnochoreology
Bachelor of Fine Arts - Modern Dance Performance

 

Recent Publications

 Courtney, R.M., in Miller, L. and Syring, D. (eds) (2024)  Embodied Cultural Knowledge in Practice: An Ethio-Modern Dance Case Study of የቡና ዓለም YeBuna Alem/A Coffee World, in Routledge Companion to the Anthropology of Performance

Courtney M, (2021), Interlude 10: Dancing as a Citizen of the World in Helen Phelan, Graham F. Welch The Artist and Academia, Routledge
https://www.routledge.com/The-Artist-and-Academia/Phelan-Welch/p/book/9781138359116

Links

@rasmikeyc

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