Curriculum Vitae
Xavi Francis emergence into the art scene started at age 7 with his enrollment in Dance. Out of his eleven siblings he was the only one to pursue a professional career in the dance world. His most influential teaching came from Pennsylvania Ballet. This is where he decided to follow a career in dance.
Mr. Francis dance career took him all over the United States. He danced with Ballet Arizona performing in many repertoires such as Giselle, Nutcracker, and Coppelia.
Never one to settle, he then added to his career Musical Theater. He performed in West Side Story with Robert Redford’s Sundance Theater Company in Utah. Moving back to Arizona he danced in “Fire and Ice”. This was a collaborative mix of ballet, Scottish highland dancing, and contemporary dance.
He was then asked to perform in the Celtic show “Needfire Passion of the Heart” in Toronto. This was a multimillion dollar production under the famous Ed Mirvish productions.
Mr. Francis was then asked by a talent scout watching “Needfire” to perform in Edinburgh, Scotland at the Edinburgh Playhouse. The show was “Rhythm of the Celts”, and ran all summer to rave reviews. It was during these performances that he was asked to perform on a PBS special. Mr. Francis returned to Scotland again to film the video “Driven Celtic” which was the 2002 first place winner at the Zoie Film Festival.
With multiple years of dance and touring in his repertoire, Mr. Francis decided to settle down in Michigan to teach, and be a father. It was during the building of sets for one of his dance productions that he found his love of visual arts. Mr. Francis does not have any art training but found that he had a natural talent for creativity. He started creating art pieces about 8 years ago.
Mr. Francis works in all media.
Some of his favorite artists are: Hieronymus Bosch, Max Ernst, and Dali. He found Surrealism to be his favorite type of expression.