Ottawa native, based in Montreal since 2000, Dana Michel is a Canadian of Caribbean descent whose family hails from the island of Saint Lucia. She describes herself as a live artist. Exploring the world of nuance, Dana caused a stir from the start with her first creations. Since then, she has been refining her exploration of time and improvisation, finding her own way into concepts such as identity, sexuality, and work—in other words, looking for ways to expand her relationship to existence. Each of Dana’s projects exposes her vulnerability and her quest to create more vital space for us all.
“MIKE” is her fourth major piece after “Yellow Towel” (2013), “Mercurial George”(2016), and “Cutlass Spring” (2019). In this last decade, her creations have garnered some remarkable accolades. In 2014, she received the ImPulsTanz Award in recognition of creative excellence. In 2017, she was awarded the Silver Lion for Innovation in Dance at the Venice Biennale. In 2019, she received the International Prize for Live Art from the ANTI Festival (Kuopio, Finland). In 2022, she was awarded the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts for her significant contribution to dance in Canada.