Straddle #2025 - MIKE by Dana Michel

Dana Michel specializes in creating situations governed by their own logic. She lives in a world of objects to which she gives new meaning and purposes, away from binary and linear thinking and doing. She breaches social norms from a position of curiosity rather than provocation, gently ushering supposed “marginal figures” to the centre of the conversation. With humour and sensitivity, she questions our very modes of existence.

MIKE asserts the nomadic aesthetic that has become Michel’s calling card over the course of her career. In an open space, during three hours, MIKE invites the audience to spend time inside its universe. It revolves around work culture and self-respect, and puts forward a burning question: is it possible to live public lives that reflect our inner selves?

About the artist: 
Dana Michel is a live artist. 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 2022, the Canada Council for The Arts awarded her the Jacqueline-Lemieux prize in recognition of her contribution to dance in Canada.

Based in Montréal, Michel is currently touring four solo performance works: YELLOW TOWEL, MERCURIAL GEORGE, CUTLASS SPRING and MIKE.

MIKE Team

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 - Technical direction: Romain Guillet

Sound consultant: David Drury

Production: SCORP CORPS - Viva Delorme, Dana Michel

Distribution: neon lobster - Giulia Messia & Katharina Wallisch

Coproduction: ARSENIC - Centre d’art scénique contemporain (Lausanne, Switzerland / Suisse), Centre national des Arts (Ottawa, Canada), Festival TransAmériques (Montréal, Canada), Julidans Amsterdam (Netherlands / Pays-Bas), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, Belgium / Bruxelles, Belgique), MDT (Stockholm, Sweden / Suède), Montpellier Danse (France), Moving in November, (Helsinki, Finland / Finlande), Wexner Center for the Arts of The Ohio State University in Colombus (United States of America / États-Unis d’Amérique).

Creative residencies: Alkantara (Lisbon, Portugal), ANTI Festival (Kuopio, Finland), Centre national des Arts (Ottawa, Canada), Kinosaki International Arts Center and Kyoto Experiment (Japan), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, Belgium), Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt, Germany), Montpellier Danse (France) résidence de création à l’Agora, cité internationale de la danse, avec le soutien de la Fondation BNP Paribas / creation residency at Agora, cité internationale de la danse, with support from BNP Paribas Foundation, RIMI/ IMIR SceneKunst (Stavanger, Norway), Shedhalle (Zürich, Switzerland) with the kind support of Tanzhaus Zürich and the Embassy of Canada to Switzerland / avec l’aimable support de Tanzhaus Zürich et de l’Ambassade du Canada en Suisse, The Chocolate Factory (NYC, United States of America).    

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

Details of the performance:
Date: 9th April (Wednesday)
Time: 1pm - 4pm 
Venue: GMBB, Kuala Lumpur

Important notes:
1. The performance will take place in the common spaces of GMBB Mall, Kuala Lumpur. The exact starting location will be updated soon.

2. The audience may be seated on the floor and will be required to move along with the performer.

3. The performance lasts for 3 hours, and the audience is welcome to move freely throughout the performance.

This performance is part of the programme of Straddle #2025. For the full programme pass, please check out details here. 

Straddle #2025 is a new platform by Five Arts Centre aimed at nurturing connections between artists in Kuala Lumpur and other cities. 

A special shoutout to our community partner, GMBB.