Dana Michel

Dana Michel è artista, coreografa e performer basata a Montreal, Canada. Prima di conseguire un BFA in Contemporary Dance alla Concordia University, poco più che ventenne, è stata marketing executive, corridore agonista e giocatrice di football. Dana Michel esplora l'identità come molteplicità disordinata, con una pratica ‘expanded’ che si nutre di coreografia, improvvisazione, gesto intuitivo, performing arts, cinema, hip-hop, techno, poesia, psicologia, dub e commento sociale. In scena si appropria di oggetti, rimastica storia personale, desideri futuri e preoccupazioni attuali, partendo dai concetti di alchimia performativa e bricolage post-culturale, e creando una centrifuga empatica fra lei e i suoi testimoni. Dal 2012 ha realizzato opere performative in solo: Yellow Towel, Palna Easy Francis, Mercurial George, Cutlass Spring e MIKE. Nel 2014 ha ricevuto l'Impulstanz Award di Vienna ed è stata inclusa fra le coreografe più apprezzate dell'anno dal New York Times; nel 2017 le è stato assegnato il Leone d'Argento per l'Innovazione alla Biennale Danza di Venezia; nel 2018 è stata la prima dance-artist in residenza al National Arts Centre di Ottawa, in Canada; nel 2019 le è stato assegnato il Premio Internazionale ANTI Festival for Live Art a Kuopio, Finlandia.

Dana Michel is a live artist based in Montreal, Canada. Her works interact with the expanded fields of improvisation, choreography, sculpture, comedy, hip-hop, cinematography, techno, poetry, psychology, dub and social commentary. Her artistic practice is rooted in exploring identity as disordered multiplicity. She works with notions of performative alchemy and post-cultural bricolage, using live moments, object appropriation, personal history, future desires and current preoccupations to create an empathetic centrifuge of experience between her and her witnesses. Before graduating from the BFA program in Contemporary Dance at Concordia University in her late twenties, she was a marketing executive, and a competitive runner and football player. Since 2012 she created solo performance works including Yellow Towel, Palna Easy Francis, Mercurial George, Cutlass Spring and MIKE. In 2014 she was awarded the 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 she 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 in Ottawa, Canada. In 2019 she was awarded the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art at Kuopio, Finland.