Thomas, Michael

Born at Fresno, CA; mild hearing loss began about age 7, possibly from infant mumps and encephalitis. An initial interest in music turned into an interest in modern dance and ballet. Increasing vertigo appeared at age 20, but he kept both deafness and vertigo a secret from everyone. He attended the Severance Ballet School and the dance program at the University of Utah. Danced with Harkness House for Ballet Arts, New York City, then studied dance in Germany on a competitive scholarship despite increasing deafness and vertigo. In 1972, joined Les Gands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, then to the San Francisco Ballet Company. He finally admitted his deafness in his late 20s, and left dance for a while before returning in 1981. In 1987, he decided he should teach dance to other deaf people, and the following year became artist-in-residence at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.