Tess Michaelson

Tess is a writer and multidisciplinary artist who lives in New York. She writes essays about dance, books, and aesthetic theory, as well as experimental prose. Her writing exists in dialogue with work in video, sound, and movement, as part of a larger exploration into the dynamics and practices of language, performance, and living. Tess is invested in improvisational and collective techniques as a mode of exploration and attention to forms of life. She is curious about ways of being and thinking together.

Tess studied English literature and aesthetics at Stanford University, where she was a levinthal poetry fellow and varsity middle-distance runner. In 2021, she earned her MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and now works as an editor, cultural researcher, and writing workshop instructor. Tess was previously the Interim Co-Editor of Movement Research’s online publication, Critical Correspondence, and in 2023, became MR’s Classes & Workshops Programs Associate.

[Image Description: Tess, a white woman with blonde hair, sits in loose blue pants and a mesh long-sleeve in a grassy field.]