YOU CANNOT CAN

As the world shows itself to be more and more in a state of emergency, i become more and more calm, in true dana form. and then i see: how can i be expected to fight or survive without some more fundamental survival skills in my tool belt? like, i am cozy in grocery stores but i am scared of being immersed in water? that can’t work. we can’t be only knowing how to buy mechanically separated coconut oil. i need to know more about how to be with these fundamental liquids. and how to live, function, with my sensitivities. not just tiptoeing around them? not just excusing or surviving them? but softly interlace fingers with them. interlace fingers with water, with myself.

the way that i make things is i guess related to the kind of relationship that i want to have with the unknown. i want to feel curious and i want to welcome the unknown. i want to be flexible so that i can move in the most appropriate ways when i’m hit with the unknown—seems like i could assume no better position. so for sure i fortify myself with love and i have all kinds of tools in my belt…but it seems best to not assume that i’m gonna know which exact tools i’m gonna need nor when exactly i’m gonna need them.

yesterday i was talking with romano about how i was a different me inside of every conversation or interaction i had with another being. each situation must be co-created, i’m gonna be a new me in front of each new you. so the premiere of each piece becomes an opportunity to make a new thing with a group of unknown people and variables and this is VERY exciting. i bring the ingredients, i pick the place, i bring some tools, i bring part of the soundscape. i have many ideas and memories. i come with love and curiosity. and then WE ALL START TO KNEAD. and what comes out of the oven is highly dependent not only on what i have brought and what actions i have taken but by what the audience is doing energetically based on what they have brought inside of them and how they are responding to what we are making. this is why studio work can only be so alive for me. i’m not interested in what i can make in isolation anymore. i have been in isolation soooo much in my life. these performance moments are an opportunity to make all together feel all together. it’s definitely co-creation time. and every time it gets performed, it’s co-creation time. each new performance adds a layer. each performance
allows me to get to know the world around me a little
more, allows me to connect to the collective a microscopic bit more. 

• Dana Michel