CHOREOGRAPHER & DANCER

Dorota Michalak is a choreographer/dancer from Poland, based in Berlin; graduate of Tanz, Kontext, Choreographie (HZT/Berlin) and Intercultural Communication (UAM/Poznań). Her work draws on somatics, microbiology of relatedness, folk heritage and voice practice. She relates to choreography as a meshwork - a relational and rebellious process encompassing staged and site-responsive performances (“Lush Blast Series”, “Doing Things”, “Divine Smell of Paste”), public space interventions (“Exposure”), and collective research-creation. She hosts spaces of collective learning, bringing together people of different cultures and ages around dance and music practices (“Cry of the Soil”, “Space Reclaims”). She is a part of Polyester trio co-created with Lena Czerniawska & Malwina Kołodziejczyk focusing on multimedial improvisation as a post-melancholic rite. In a trio with Xenia Koghilaki and Julek Kreutzer, she explores how to conspire with the non-human (“Nudes and Conspiracies”). She is a member of Otucha Collective, a vocal ensemble of FLINTA+ practitioners focusing on phenomena of the human voice and rural Eastern European vocal traditions. In 2024, she co-instigated Plant Babes, a permeable collective of Berlin-based dance artists, to practice new forms of solidarity in collaboration with plants. Her ongoing research “Dance in Planthroposcene” has been supported by Tanzpraxis 2022-2024 of the Berlin Senate. She facilitates Phyto-Somatic Dance workshops combining somatic methodologies with folk tradition and plant science. As a dancer, she has worked with i.a. Alice Chauchat, Isabelle Schad, Zufit Simon, Pauline Payen, Forough Fami, Angela Schubot & Jared Gradinger. Her work has been presented internationally & supported by i.a. FondsDaku, Goethe Institut, DAAD, danceWEB Scholarship, Dock11/Berlin, Hellerau/Dresden, Studio Alta/Prague, White Wall Studio/Montreal, Xarkis Festival/Cyprus, Malta Festival/Poznań, Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
https://doromichalak.com/