Michel The Animals I Am

Chiara Bersani has spent years working from the radical idea that the way we admit or exclude bodies from a stage says something about who we think art belongs to. That idea is at the heart of ‘Michel The Animals I Am’. The performance takes its starting point from The Dying Swan, the most iconic piece in the classical ballet repertoire. A solo passed down from dancer to dancer across generations, but always to the same type of body. What if there is a repertoire for bodies that are differ from that model? The answer is ‘Michel The Animals I Am’. Bersani's 2021 solo work ‘L'Animale’ is passed on to three performers with a disability.

The title refers to Michel Petrucciani, the celebrated jazz pianist who shares Bersani's disability and passed away in 1999. Bersani grew up with him as a role model. But behind that example lies an uncomfortable truth. When an artist with a disability breaks through, they are quickly seen as a one-time genius, admirable, but exceptional. Bersani does not want to be an exception. As she herself puts it: "With ‘Michel The Animals I Am’, I want to multiply bodies, make the genius disappear, and return to an idea of possible collectivity. I long for a choir. For many Michels, many brilliant people with divergent bodies."

The performance celebrates its Dutch premiere at Boulevard on Wednesday, 12 August.