Music for

modern dance

Twenty years ago, musician Michael Wall noticed dance teachers spending their evenings searching through piles of CDs to find the right track for their classes—something with the right meter, tempo, feel, and without awkward lyrics. He thought: What if there were a website offering a wide range of music in various meters, tempos, and styles, all made specifically for dance teachers and creators? When mp3s became popular and could be linked to PayPal, Michael teamed up with coders and web designers, going through many versions of websites to build what is now Sound for Movement.

Michael has been playing music for dance classes for nearly 30 years, working with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students. A versatile musician, he plays piano, trumpet, harmonica, djembe, congas, modular synths, and sings—all blending traditional instruments with modern technology. He's experienced with all types of dance techniques, including improvisation, contemporary, modern, ballet, pointe, Gaga, contact improvisation, partnering, West African classes, yoga, meditation classes, and various hybrid styles that mix different musical genres and movements.

His journey started in 1995 when he began playing for ballet classes at Rutgers University under the guidance of Robert "Tigger" Benford. He learned a lot from different technique classes and teaching styles, and he further expanded his knowledge by learning from leading musicians at the American Dance Festival and Bates Dance Festival. These mentors included Glen Fittin, Natalie Gilbert, Terrence Karn, Albert Mathias, Peter Jones, Khalid Saleem, John Hanks, Mike Vargas, Ken Ray Wileman, Vladimir Espinoza, Arthur Solari, Norman Beede, Raj Bhandari, Adam Crawley, Atiba Rorie, Jefferson Dalby, and many more.

As a composer, Michael has created thousands of pieces for choreographers, dance filmmakers, international TV and film companies, students, and friends. He currently works on over a hundred music for dance projects each year. He has also taught at several universities and guest lectured at smaller dance programs, where he developed a curriculum to teach music to dancers. By sharing what he's learned, he helps dancers create their own music using software—a method now widely used in the dance community. He's also helped several dancers build music careers alongside their dance work.

The goals of Sound for Movement are to keep expanding its diverse music library, improve music licensing options for the community, collaborate with emerging choreographers around the world, teach anyone interested in making music for dance, and stay up-to-date with web and music distribution technology. By doing this, the platform hopes to support the next generation of artists creating sound for movement.