Artist Biography

Mher Kandoyan is a dancer, choreographer, and educator currently completing his MFA in Dance at UMD. His research challenges Eurocentric dance forms and develops pedagogical approaches that modernize social dances, including the degendering of lead-follow roles. His work challenges systems of oppression and the violence they produce, using movement as a tool for creative collaboration, resistance, and catharsis.

Mher is driven by empowering and educating individuals through dance and witnessing its transformative impact on their lives. He founded The Backstage with psychotherapist Ghinwa Slaiby, an organization dedicated to keeping dance alive in Lebanon’s unpredictable environment. The Backstage’s mission is to make dance accessible to everyone and ensure it remains a medium of expression and freedom.

His project Journey, a lifelong initiative to engage 1.5 million dancers in embodied performances addressing generational trauma, was peer-selected for the 40th Annual Choreographers’ Showcase. He also received an IPCCR award in 2023 and the 2024 DEL Arnhold Summer Fellowship in NYC. Mher and his partner won the “Best Show” award at the Egypt International Dance Congress, and he is the seven-time champion of Latin Dance in Lebanon. 

Mher also holds a BA in economics and a Master’s in Management. Before moving to the United States, he taught at Haigazian University and Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Lebanon, as well as at many dance festivals across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Gulf. 

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