Fierce Festival

14 — 18 October

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SCHEDULE:
  • Wheelchair Accessible Visual
  • Wheelchair Accessible Visual

DURATION:

60 mins

VENUE:

Beeches Pool & Fitness Centre
Beeches Rd, Birmingham B42 2HQ

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YOU CANNOT CAN

Dana Michel

(Montreal)

UK Premiere

Performance artist Dana Michel considers the ability to swim to be one of the ways in which we might embody self-trust and wonders why, despite many attempts at learning, she still cannot really feel at ease in the water. And what is it that holds back the majority of her family from swimming, despite hailing from an island that is surrounded by both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea? How safe can you feel in the world if you cannot float in the liquid that makes up a large part of your body?

With YOU CANNOT CAN, Michel creates a new solo performance in a swimming pool. Surrounded by the audience, she wades inside global histories and socio-economic realities of swimming and safe access to water. She uses her kaleidoscopically-curious approach to focus on how we might shake off fears. Might this watery adventure be an entry point to ultimate liberation?

FIERCE SAYS

“We presented an early version of YOU CANNOT CAN as part of our inaugural Fierce Jams and could not be more excited for Dana to return with the full-length work. We’ve said it before and will say it again and again: no one is doing it like Dana. With a finely tuned but inexplicable sense of logic and timing, Dana transforms the pool into a site of trust and transformation, edging us towards liberation.”

 

Performance artist Dana Michel considers the ability to swim to be one of the ways in which we might embody self-trust and wonders why, despite many attempts at learning, she still cannot really feel at ease in the water. And what is it that holds back the majority of her family from swimming, despite hailing from an island that is surrounded by both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea? How safe can you feel in the world if you cannot float in the liquid that makes up a large part of your body?

With YOU CANNOT CAN, Michel creates a new solo performance in a swimming pool. Surrounded by the audience, she wades inside global histories and socio-economic realities of swimming and safe access to water. She uses her kaleidoscopically-curious approach to focus on how we might shake off fears. Might this watery adventure be an entry point to ultimate liberation?

FIERCE SAYS

“We presented an early version of YOU CANNOT CAN as part of our inaugural Fierce Jams and could not be more excited for Dana to return with the full-length work. We’ve said it before and will say it again and again: no one is doing it like Dana. With a finely tuned but inexplicable sense of logic and timing, Dana transforms the pool into a site of trust and transformation, edging us towards liberation.”

 

artist bio

▶︎

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 theJacqueline-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.

 

Based in Montréal, Michel is currently touring five solo performance works: YELLOW TOWEL, MERCURIAL GEORGE, CUTLASS SPRING, MIKE and YOU CANNOT CAN.

CREDITS

▶︎

Created and performed by: Dana Michel
Artistic activators: Alex Samaras, Angélique Willkie, Heidi Louis,
Karl Notargiovanni, Roscoe Michel, Sierra Holder, Silvy Panet-Raymond, Simon Couturier, Tracy Maurice, Yoan Sorin.
Scenographic consultant – Technical direction: Romain Guillet
Sound consultant: David Drury
Production: SCORP CORPS – Dana Michel, Viva Delorme.
Distribution: neon lobster – Giulia Messia & Katharina Wallisch
Coproduction: Arsenic – Centre d’Art Scénique Contemporain (Lausanne, Switzerland), Bergen Internasjonale Teater (Bergen, Norway), Festival TransAmériques (Montréal, Canada), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, Belgium), Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt, Germany), MDT (Stockholm, Sweden), O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-novo, Portugal), Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna, Austria).
Creative residencies: Baltic Triennial (Vilnius, Lithuania), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity – Leighton Artist Studios (Banff, Canada), Battersea Arts Centre (London, United Kingdom), Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV (Montréal, Canada), Festival TransAmériques (Montréal, Canada), Fierce Festival and performance, possession + automation with funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (Birmingham, United Kingdom), Institutet (Vitsaniemi, Sweden), Kinosaki International Arts Center (Kinosaki, Japan), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, Belgium), marvaða (Reykjavik, Iceland / Island), Rimbun Dahan (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), The Chocolate Factory (New York City, United States of America), Toronto Dance Theatre (Toronto, Canada), Tangente St. Pölten (St. Pölten, Austria).

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 and Conseil des Arts de Montréal.

VENUE INFO

The pool provides 2 accessible parking bays and step free access. An accessible toilet is available off the main reception (key must be requested from a member of staff).

 

Please note that it will be hot and humid in the swimming pool – we invite you to consider bringing light clothing and refreshments.

access

Visual