Performance
Dana Michel
MIKE
How can the “self” exist amid a life dedicated to “work”?
Influenced by the likes of sculpture, electronica, cinematography, and psychology, Dana Michel is a choreographer who disrupts various social conventions through her own unique physical language. Her latest work and first live performance in Japan focuses on the theme of work-life balance—exploring the relation between work, which takes up the majority of everyone’s life, and individual identity.
Endless work tasks push the real “self” into a corner and force the individual to be a “working self.” How many “selves,” then, exist within ourselves? In 2022, Michel carried out a residency in Kinosaki and Kyoto in which she examined people working in a diverse range of fields to see how individual beliefs and spirituality are constructed.
MIKE takes shape as an improvisational performance through Michel’s application of this research process and use of her own body and objects related to “work.” The piece is performed in a space, where audience members can freely come and go. Experience the power of physical expression that unravels through this three-hour performance.
10.20 (Fri) 18:00 ★
10.21 (Sat) 18:00 ◆
10.22 (Sun) 16:00 ♡
★ Post-show talk
◆Student Festival Share Cafe
♡ Childcare Service (reservation required 7 days before each performance)
Duration: 180 min
⚠️ Re-entry to the performance at any time.
Audiences aged 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult.
Dana Michel
Montreal
Born in Ottawa, Canada in 1976, Dana Michel is a choreographer and live artist based in Montreal. Her works interact with the expanded fields of improvisation, choreography, sculpture, comedy, hip-hop, cinematography, techno, poetry, psychology, dub and social commentary to create a centrifuge of experience. Before graduating from the BFA program in Contemporary Dance at Concordia University in her late twenties, Michel was a marketing executive and a competitive runner and football player. In 2014, she was awarded the newly created ImPulsTanz Award (Vienna) in recognition for outstanding artistic accomplishments and was highlighted among notable female choreographers of the year by the New York Times. In 2017 Michel was awarded the Silver Lion for Innovation in Dance at the Venice Biennale. In 2018 she became the first ever dance artist in residence at the National Arts Centre, Canada. In 2019, she was awarded the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art (Kuopio, Finland). In 2023 she received the Canada Council for the Arts Jacqueline Lemieux prize, for her outstanding contribution to dance in Canada.
Created and Performed by Dana Michel
Artistic Activators: Viva Delorme, Ellen Furey, Peter James, Heidi Louis, Tracy
Maurice, Roscoe Michel, Karlyn Percil, Yoan Sorin
Scenographic Consultant and Technical Direction: Romain Guillet
Sound Consultant: David Drury
Production: SCORP CORPS -Viva Delorme, Dana Michel
Distribution: Key Performance - Anna Skonecka, Koen Vanhove
Co-produced by ARSENIC - Centre d‛art scénique contemporain, Centre national
des Arts, Festival TransAmériques, Julidans Amsterdam,
Kunstenfestivaldesarts, MDT, Montpellier Danse, Moving in November, Wexner
Center for the Arts of The Ohio State University in Colombus
Creative Residencies: Alkantara, ANTI Festival, Centre national des Arts,
Kinosaki International Arts Center and Kyoto Experiment,
Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Montpellier Danse résidence
de création à l‛ Agora, cité internationale de la danse with the support of BNP
Paribas Foundation, RIMI/IMIR SceneKunst, Shedhalle with the kind support of
Tanzhaus Zürich and the Embassy of Canada to Switzerland, The Chocolate
Factory
The creation of this work is being made possible thanks to the financial support
of Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec,
Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie and Conseil des
Arts de Montréal.
Performance in Kyoto in co-operation with Délégation générale du Québec à
Tokyo
Performance in Kyoto supported by The Agency for Cultural Affairs,
Government of Japan, through the Japan Arts Council
Presented by Kyoto Experiment
Kyoto Experiment Staff
Technical Director: Masaya Natsume
Technical Coordinator: Yuhi Kobayashi
Sound: Mina Hayashi
Talk Interpreter: Miho Tsujii
Production Coordinator: Kanoko Hirai (KYOTO ART CENTER)
Intern: Yukako Kikuoka
