In the liminal space between plié and melody, where classical discipline meets untamed creativity, Mikayla Geier discovered her voice. She found it not in the expected silence of a rehearsal studio, but in the beautiful chaos of becoming herself.
Born in Vancouver to a tapestry of Chinese and German heritage, Mikayla embraced dance at three, following her sister's footsteps. Her hands soon found piano keys and violin strings before she landed at an elite Russian ballet academy, where dreams crystallized into contracts and her body became a vessel for others' expectations. When the weight of "not enough" threatened to eclipse her light entirely, Mikayla made the radical choice to step away from the stage she'd trained her whole life to inhabit.
"I went home for recovery," she says simply, but in that quiet statement lies the seed of everything that followed.
What bloomed next was unexpected: business school, a ukulele, and the discovery that she didn't need to choose between her identities. The ballerina and the songwriter could coexist, could dance together, could create something entirely new.
Enter "Orchestral Pop Music." Mikayla's affectionate term for the genre-defying sound she's carved out for herself. It's where Tchaikovsky meets The Beatles, where French café melodies waltz with modern vulnerability. Her 2024 debut here we go again... EP exists in this enchanted space, each track a small world unto itself.
Throughout here we go again..., Mikayla excavates her deepest experiences with surgical precision and poetic grace. "i don't feel safe in my body" stands as perhaps her most vulnerable offering, a haunting meditation on the disconnection that accompanies an eating disorder. The track transforms personal pain into collective healing, offering solace to anyone who has ever felt at war with themselves. Meanwhile, "haven't been the same since" transforms the toxicity of her ballet boarding school into something transcendent, where memories of being made to feel small become the foundation for helping others feel seen.
Her latest offering, "piano in the sky," soars with theatrical grandeur that would make Mercury himself smile. Built on cascading classical progressions that recall the golden age of rock opera, the track pulses with an infectious energy that's both nostalgic and entirely fresh.
For Mikayla, the music is only the beginning. Each release arrives accompanied by a short film she directs and stars in, expanding her songs into full cinematic experiences. These visual stories become extensions of her artistry, where her multicultural identity dances with tongue-in-cheek observations about modern love. She approaches dating culture with the same eye for absurdity that once helped her survive ballet school, crafting films that feel like intimate conversations with a friend who happens to see the world in technicolor.
Mikayla Geier builds worlds. Sonic landscapes where high fashion meets otherworldly sound, where classical training serves pop sensibilities, where every note is intentional and every moment is designed to transport. She's creating sanctuaries for the stories we carry, the selves we're becoming, the magic that happens when we finally stop apologizing for taking up space.
"When I release anything, I believe it's no longer mine," she says. "If you listen to me, I want you to feel seen."
In Mikayla's universe, everyone is invited to the dance.