A new performance series rises!
Fierce Jams is a new, ongoing, and nomadic performance series that indulges in small-scale experiments in contemporary performance and live art. It is an excuse for Birmingham’s performance community to gather and to develop their practice in conversation with each other. Each edition features 4 local artists – selected through a mixture of invitations and an open call – plus a guest national or international artist. With a keen desire for new collaborations across the city, Fierce Jams is an attempt to refute the models of scarcity imposed upon our present artistic ecology while insisting on experimentation as an essential ingredient to artistic practice.
Fierce Jams 01 will be in the pool at Stechford Leisure Centre and will feature Birmingham-based artists Felix King, Jessie McLaughlin, Eric Scutaro, Tammy Woodrow, and Montreal-based Dana Michel.
If you’re a Birmingham artist and interested in participating in future editions of Fierce Jams, we have a rolling, ongoing call for expressions of interest.
Fierce Jams is made possible with support from The Saintbury Trust and Fabric.
About the Artists
Felix King is a live artist hailing from the San Francisco bay area and currently residing in Birmingham, UK. His original context is in theatre and film, moving between acting and costume. His experience in live performance has largely been in collaborative spaces, historically working with the University of Birmingham at The Exchange for events celebrating world refugee day and other times Cultural and Creative Industries. His self-devised performances tend to be based in the body negotiating with material forms. Textile, tactile, and oftentimes strenuous. His work explores themes of queerness and gender, environmentalism and the natural world, and the constant undertow of letting oneself have a vulnerable heart.
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 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. In 2024, she was awarded the Prix de la danse de Montréal, International Distribution Category, presented by CINARS.
Jessie McLaughlin is an artist/ writer/ researcher from London, now based between London and Birmingham. Jessie likes to read books and poetry, and at the moment is most interested in SEX, PAIN, CLASS and MUSIC.
Eric Scutaro is a Venezuelan choreographer, dance performer and activist, refugee in the United Kingdom and based in Birmingham. For 16 years, he has been a TrailBlazer in his country in Waacking and Voguing, dance styles belonging to the LGBTIQ+ community since the 70s. And now TrailBlazer in the West Midlands for 5 years. His choreographies, workshops and performances explore hip-hop, Waacking and the Voguing style as a way to advocate for LGBTIQ+ community. His work has also stood out for doing Queer activism within the hip-hop culture.
Tammy Woodrow is a multidisciplinary, transcultural artist based in Birmingham and acts as an ACTIVATOR -INITIATOR -INSTIGATOR – INFILTRATOR. Being part of the postfeminist, postpunk protest performance group Bapz on Crack and coordinating an experimental platform for woman artists called Ventilator Gallery (based at the OldPrintWorks, Balsall Heath) are a few strands of her subversive activities. She recently gained her MA Fine Art (School of Art, BCU) and currently explores the relations between performance art and personal social experience. As a mixed heritage woman artist, she uses her own life as inspiration. Tammy creates alternative projects that challenge conceptions about gendered historic heritage. These propositions will ultimately create pockets of ‘micro-utopias’ through feminist activism and collaborations. Her artworks have been shown nationwide.
Access
Stechford Leisure Centre is accessible with step-free access through the entrance, the changing rooms, bathrooms as well as the pool. For more information, please click here.
We operate a relaxed performance approach across our events. Relaxed Performances were originally devised to make performance more accessible to people disabled by the usual rules of theatre / arts event etiquette. Whilst we do not adjust the sound and light levels of our shows, we do encourage audiences who may need to tic / stem, or make other noises and/or movements during the shows to do so. We also understand that sometimes people need to come and go from the space. We want to create a community where everyone is welcome.
If cost is a barrier to attend Fierce Jams, we offer free tickets. Please email contact@wearefierce.org and we will add you to the attendee list.
