Dana Michel is inimitable. Unconventional and unique, she does things her own way, overwhelms us with her instinct and intuition. Where her artistic work is concerned, this Canadian choreographer attracts the most positive of adjectives. And we are bringing her to Belgium for the first time!
In Mercurial George, Dana Michel focuses on stereotyped ideas of black identity (as she did in Yellow Towel, her previous show). She develops a strange body language based on a thorough investigation of her Caribbean roots, and utterly consistent with how she sometimes feels in life (as one of few blacks in an overwhelmingly white context). She turns her language of dance into something awkward, gawky and marginal. Her body is out of balance, in search of solid ground.
During Mercurial George (a reference to Curious George, the cartoon monkey), you dive into a bizarre and funny universe, which simultaneously embraces childlike naïveté and sacred mysteries. In this solo, Dana Michel is the archaeologist of her own life. Together with a tent, a lectern, a microphone and a pile of dough that can assume a variety of forms, she embarks on a comical and intense search for what lurks behind the concept of ‘identity’. This is a performance that will reverberate for a very long time!
Dana Michel is a choreographer and performer based in Montreal. Before obtaining a BFA in Contemporary Dance at Concordia University in her late twenties, she was a marketing executive, competitive runner and football player. An amalgam of choreography, intuitive improvisation and performance art, her artistic practice is rooted in exploring identity as disordered multiplicity.
60’
EN spoken
CREDITS
CONCEIVED AND PERFORMED BY Dana Michel
LIGHTING & TECHNICAL DIRECTION Karine Gauthier
ARTISTIC ACTIVATORS Martin Bélanger, Peter James, Mathieu Léger, Roscoe Michel, Yoan Sorin
SOUND CONSULTANT David Drury
PRODUCTION Dana Michel
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Marie-Andrée Gougeon for Daniel Léveillé Danse
COPRODUCTION Festival TransAmériques (Montréal), Tanz im August (Berlin), CDC Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson (Paris), ImPulsTanz (Vienna), Chapter (Cardiff)
CREATIVE RESIDENCIES Usine C (Montréal), Dancemakers (Toronto), ImPulsTanz (Vienna), Actoral/La Friche Belle de Mai (Marseille), WOOP (Douarnenez), CDC Atelier de Paris- Carolyn Carlson (Paris), M.A.I. (Montréal)
WITH THE SUPPORT OF Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, Canada Arts Council
In collaboration with Brussels Dance
