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 [https://www.accessable.co.uk/birmingham-city-council/access-guides/stechford-leisure-centre#c090cc45-e5f4-2444-8b38-ea7351f4994d]. Tickets are priced at £5. If cost is a barrier, please e-mail us at contact@wearefierce.org.
Fierce Jams 01: Stechford Leisure Centre
Dana Michel, Felix King, Tammy Woodrow, Eric Scutaro, Jessie McLaughlin
(Birmingham / Montreal)
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. The first edition of Fierce Jams is the pool at Stechford Leisure Centre and will feature Birmingham-based artists Hassan Hussain, Eric Scutaro, Felix King, 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.
Photo: Daniel McClane
artist bio
Hassan Hussain is a writer, researcher, and facilitator. Having recently completed a PhD investigating the de/construction of gay men in contemporary British theatre, his practice explores the transformative effects of queer histories and lived experiences on present and future iterations of queer identities, communities, and (sub)cultures. As a proud Birmingham Bab, Hassan is particularly invested in situating his work within the city and has secured development funding from Arts Council England to redress the underrepresentation of queer South Asian voices in British playwriting.
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.
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.
Dana Michel: 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.
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.
VENUE INFO
Fierce Jams is made possible with support from The Saintbury Trust and Fabric.