Q&A: Mikey Thomas of Movement Activities

What is "Movement Activities?" In grad school…I started questioning what dance is and started looking at more experimental dance. Then I decided I don't even want to call it dance. I wanted to just call it movement activities, and that's what we named the business. I teach mostly aerial dance, which includes work on a low-flying trapeze or on silks, rings, circular liras or ropes-all kinds of apparatuses off the floor.

Your stage name is "Mikey Butane." Why? I like the quirkiness of the name Mikey with the combustible Butane because what we do is highly athletic and a little bit irreverent. It does cause people to question who this is and I like that.

How did you find this facility? A friend must have told me to check out Franklinton. We came down here four years ago, and this warehouse was a mess. It looked like a parking garage. We came in, doing what we do, and people thought we were nuts.

Are injuries ever a problem? Probably the biggest injuries we've seen are with overwork, which happens with a lot of exercise. I've never fallen. I'm a big chicken, though. (laughs) I work really carefully. Some people say that I'm hyper-cautious.

What motivates people to take these classes? We're really serious about what we do, but we banter. People come in because we are goofy, and we have fun. I just think it's something different. We don't take ourselves too seriously, even though we're doing challenging, serious work. movementactivities.com

Mikey Thomas: Director and instructor, Movement Activities

Bonus facts:

Thomas rides a scooter and a motorcycle.

He received a master of fine arts in choreography from Ohio State University.