Past Performing Arts | Interdisciplinary

Dana Michel

MIKE

Interdisciplinary | US Premiere

Info & Tickets

A person lays on the ground with a harmonica in their mouth holding a vacuum hose.

May 03, 2024–May 04, 2024

Fri, May 03, 4:00 PM
Sat, May 04, 4:00 PM

Galleries

ACCESSIBILITY
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation such as CART captioning or ASL interpretation to participate in this event, please email accessibility@wexarts.org or call (614) 688-3890. Requests made by two weeks in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

Become a Member

Interdisciplinary artist Dana Michel takes over the galleries to perform a critique of the work environment, transforming daily actions into choreographic experiments.

Michel’s artistic approach questions modes of existence with humor and depth. For MIKE, she started with a question: if we cannot be ourselves at work, where we spend most of our lives—what kind of lives are we living? To find an answer, Michel created a meditation on the work environment, transforming daily actions into choreographic experiments. Yet every action is interrupted, seemingly losing its fluidity, as if her body has become imprisoned by routine repetition.

During a three-hour performance set in the open space of the Wexner Center galleries, Michel retraces the aesthetics of a day’s work. Her incredible presence hovers between tragic and comic, and we watch as our daily routines seem to get stuck, only to become something else.

See the entire performing arts spring 2024 lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
MIKE, photo: Carla Schleiffer.

Know before you go

We recommend parking in Ohio Union North Garage or Arps Garage on May 3 and 4 to avoid special event parking fees.
The Wexner Center is closed May 3 through 5, but the Visitor Desk will be open from 3 to 6 PM for these performances.
When you arrive at the Wexner Center Visitor Desk, request a validation sticker for your parking ticket to take advantage of $2 parking in CampusParc garages for Wexner Center programs and events. Insert your validated parking ticket when leaving the garage to receive the discount.

Interview: Choreographer & Artist Dana Michel Brings the US Premiere of Interdisciplinary Work 'Mike' to the Wexner Center, Richard Sanford, Columbus Underground

About the artist

Dana Michel is a live artist. Her works interact with the expanded fields of improvisation, sculpture, hip-hop, comedy, cinematography, and social commentary to create centrifuge of experience. Before graduating from the BFA program in contemporary dance at Concordia University in her late twenties, Michel was a marketing executive, 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).

Tag(s)

Performing Arts

MIKE is co-comissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.

PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Doris Duke Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Ohio Department of Development
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme
The Columbus Foundation
Nationwide Foundation
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Axium Packaging
Nancy Kramer
Ohio State Energy Partners
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection
Larry and Donna James
Bruce and Joy Soll
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle
Jones Day
Alex and Renée Shumate