Associate Professor of Dance. BFA, Butler University. MFA in Choreography, California Institute of the Arts.

André Megerdichian performed professionally with such companies and choreographers as the Limón Dance Company, Janis Brenner and Dancers, The Mary Anthony Dance Theatre, Soundance Repertory Company, Reidel Dance Theatre, Daniel Charon, Seán Curran, and Dance Kaleidoscope.  An Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina he has also served as a faculty member at the Duncan Center Conservatory in Prague Czech, Republic, The Limón Institute in New York City, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, among others. In addition, he regularly teaches workshops and master classes throughout the United States, and internationally at such institutions as the Xing Hai Conservatory of Music, Institutes of the Arts Barcelona, The Beijing Dance Academy, Pole D’Enseignement Superior Music/Dance of Bordeaux, France, and as a Master Teacher for the 3rd Annual Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition

André’s work has been commissioned by numerous Universities, festivals, and dance institutions throughout the United States, including The Hollywood Ballet, Dance Kaleidoscope, The Cincinnati Ballet (CB II), the Next Dance Company, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Daedalus Project. Internationally, André collaborated with Czech physical theatre director Petr Hudecek and co-choreographer / performer Jennifer Deckert, in the creation of the evening length duet, Kiss Romeo Bang! Juliet, which premiered at the Alta Theatre in Prague, Czech Republic, choreographed for the Opening Ceremony of the Corpus Christi Annual Commemorative Run – presented by Prague Castle and presided over by the Archbishop of Prague. He was also commissioned by the Painted Lights Dance Project to create Moving Light, an evening length work premiered at the Statkino Theatre in Salzburg, Austria – André’s work is rooted in the deeply humanistic, highly physical, explorations of modern dance traditions while exploring the diverse tensions and curiosities of today.

Of his most recent work for Dance Kaleidoscope, Rita Kohn of Nuvo Newsweekly wrote, “...allows us to see ourselves in a hero/heroine journey... a civics lesson for our time... beautifully rendered...” 

With composer Fahad Siadat, André co-founded The Resonance Collective, creating and presenting interdisciplinary works that explore themes of mystical transformation, while cross-pollinating the aesthetic, formalistic, creative, and performative aspects of multiple genres. The intent in all their work is to blur the line between genre’s and unify all the elements into a singular story-telling entity. 

Offbroadway.com said of their first evening length work, Saharava-a ritualized dance-opera – “Megerdichian’s precise and inventive dances evoke wonder, desire, and terror in us...”

Since then, they have created The Moon Has Made Us Brothers, and 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, in addition to works for such institutions as the New York International Fringe Festival, the Xing Hai Conservatory of Music Dance Ensemble, California Institute of the Arts, the Monmouth University Pollak Gallery with visual artist Lucy Kalian, along with performances throughout the NYC and Los Angeles area. Their newest evening length work, created in collaboration with poet Sholeh Wolpé, The Conference of the Birds, based on her translation of the 11th century Sufi text (of the same name) written by Attar, was presented by the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. 

Mark Swed of The Los Angeles Times said, “Elegantly staged and choreographed by André Megerdichian, 'Birds' remains apart from much contemporary work today...” 

And Jeff Slayton of the Los Angeles Dance Chronicle called it “An extraordinary theater experience that bordered on being a spiritual journey... Choreographer Megerdichian seamlessly wove the singers, who also moved and danced, and the two beautiful dancers, through all twelve sections of the 60-minute work. Never did it feel like now we listen to singers and now we watch dancers. The entire hour was as one tapestry of voices, text, dance, and theater.” 

His performance experiences, paired with training ranging from classical modern to contemporary works, leads him to embody a personal sense of dance history along with an optimism about how those lineages can feed contemporary dance, and dancers in the world today.

Thinking of the human body as a dynamic vehicle of creative expression, André is a Functional Range Conditioning movement specialist (FRCms), certified yoga instructor, and CPT through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. He has presented research in dance science for the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science conferences (IADMS), and the Dance Science and Somatics Educators conference. He also serves on the IADMS Dance Educators Committee. 

Raised in Beirut Lebanon, Athens Greece, and Geneva Switzerland, André started dancing during his senior year at Fishburne Military School. He holds a BFA from Butler University, and an MFA in Choreography from the California Institute of the Arts.