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‘I think there's something about contemporary dance that people are fearful of, afraid of what they think personally. It's like, ‘oh, no, I don't get it’. ‘I don't want to try’, or, ‘I thought it was this, but maybe that's wrong.’ Maybe it is wrong, but that's okay. Contemporary dance is really opening a door to an intimate kind of personal connection as well as, what do you think that is? It's okay that we all think something different. We don't have to all think the same thing all the time.’

Daniel is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and creative from the Wiradjuri nation of Western NSW, and is currently Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre.

He began his dance training at Quantum Leap, ACT and since graduating from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2006 has danced for Leigh Warren & Dancers (2005-2006), New Movement Collective UK (2014), Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre UK (2014), Chunky Move (2019) and was a senior artist with Bangarra Dance Theatre (2007-2018).

In 2019 Daniel joined ILBIJERRI Theatre Company as an Associate Producer (2019-2020), and became the company's Creative Associate (2020-2021). His time with ILBIJERRI allowed him to partake in an Executive Leadership Program where he gained executive level skills to lead and run an arts organisation in the future.

In 2020 he was appointed as a Lecturer in Contemporary Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, where he launched and led Kummarge, a self-determined mentoring program for First Nations dance students. In 2021 he worked for Moogahlin Performing Arts as Birrabang Miil (outside eye) for the Yellamundie@HOMENaarm Festival and joined the cast of Stephanie Lake Company’s Manifesto for the first major creative development.

He has worked as an independent dancer, director, teacher, advocate, choreographer and sat on the Board of Chunky Move (2019-2022).

Daniel’s choreographic credits include Victorian College of the Arts: WAX (2021), RISE (2020), Louisville Ballet, USA: Tonal (2020), Sacred Shifts (2015), Melbourne International Arts Festival: Tanderrum (2019), Dancenorth: Communal Table (2019), Bangarra Dance Theatre: Dark Emu (2018), Miyagan (2016), BLAK (2013), Riley (2010), Sydney Dance Company: Reign (2015), QL2 Dance: Hit the Floor Together (2013, 2018), QUT: Twelve Ascensions (2013), Thirteen Ascensions (Twelve Ascension Rework) (2018), Third Row Dance Company UK (2014).

His film credits as Director and Choreographer include: mulunma – Inside Within (2021) for RISING Melbourne & Yirramboi, and ACT V (2021), for The Australian Ballet’s Bodytorque Digital 2021. As performer: Dan Sultan: Under Your Skin, Stephen Page (Bangarra Dance Theatre): Spear in which he worked as Director’s Attachment.

He has been nominated at the Australian Dance Awards (2010, 2013) and for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deadly Awards (2010, 2012 & 2013). Daniel is highly experienced in conducting masterclasses, facilitating workshops and teaching professional company class for a range of organisations, educational institutions and dance companies across Australia and around the world.

You can find a transcript to this episode here. You can also find another Delving into Dance interview with Daniel here.

DanceX Season

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DanceX Season |

This season has been supported by The Australian Ballet for the DanceX season taking place in Melbourne, Australia from 20 October – 1 November 2022.

Find out more

Additional episodes feature Alice Topp, Dalisa Pigram and Antony Hamilton.

Featured

Dalisa Pigram

‘We value everyone equally, but you know, of course each person has a role to play in the team that's been created, but no one is, you know, less valuable than another.’

Daniel Riley

‘My daughter Billie, she was in rehearsal today. My son Archie grew up the first two or three years of his life, like, on tour with me when I was with Bangarra Dance Theatre and just being in the artistic environment and being surrounded by people is such a beautiful gift, I think, that I can give to them as well.’

Antony Hamilton

‘When I'm making dance and when I think about choreography or art, I often relate my early childhood experiences to the things that I make now as well.’

Alice Topp

‘I guess for a lot of people, ballet is still very much an evolving, developing language. I think people think it was probably stuck in a time and hasn't progressed. But modern ballet is very challenging and arresting and it's finding new ways of working with an old structure.’

Lloyd Newson

I used to say for a long time that I thought the dance was the Prozac of the art forms. […] there is an aesthetic that dominates our work, often complex or ugly or difficult issues are glossed over because people are pointing their feet and look very lovely.

James Vu Anh Pham

“What I love about the dance world is that it has the possibility of bringing together so many different cultures, so many different people, beliefs, ways of thinking, ways of being in a space … we always find a common ground and a way to exist and support one another and to create something really beautiful”

Paul White

“I am totally hooked by collaboration, particularly with friends”

Amrita Hepi

“There is something about sharing something with somebody, or about teaching somebody something that allows space for a conversation that you might not normally have.”

Harper Watters

“I try to make the ballet world a lot more colourful, diverse and a lot more inclusive.”

Mette Ingvartsen

“The fact that the sexual undertone, or the desiring undertone that a lot of dance is operating through, for me it was very important to make it explicit. To actually say ‘okay part of what is happening here is a question of desire, it is a question of being stimulated physically. Then there are many different levels or layers of this happening of course. In my work it was about saying, we have to recognise that these underlying structures are there, and if we recognise it and even expose it explicitly then maybe we can actually look at for something else or question ourselves….”

Chase Johnsey

“I am a huge feminist, so there was something about the strength of the females going on pointe, that really interested me, I like that there was strength beyond the beauty.”

Cathy Marston

“We need to work harder to make sure that everyone has equal opportunity to make that work”

Judith Mackrell

“Sounds like a Hallmark Card, but focus on what your gift is, what your talent is, what you are. Know that if someone’s offered you a job it is because they have seen something individual in you and try and cherish that. […] Don’t try and be someone else. […] There is nothing more exciting than seeing a dancer who is completely individual. They don’t need to be perfect, but to have that flame inside.”

David McAllister

“With dance it sort of felt right, I felt I could be myself and express myself, when I was dancing.”

Damien Jalet

“I really love to see dance as a place of exploration, where you actually try to capture something that is not really conscious.”

Elizabeth Cameron Dalman

Melanie Lane

“Dance has that very exclusive possibility to express something physically, something that other forms aren’t able to express….watching a body go through some kind of negotiation, experience or sensation, which as an audience you can share”

Meryl Tankard

“People say to me, ‘are you still dancing’, and I go ‘well what is dancing? What does dancing mean, I go into the studio and put music on?’ Maybe I dance when I play with my niece. […] we are sort of dancing everyday aren’t we?”

Sue Healey

“I am interested in how we talk about dance. Because: a. I think many people are scared about it, they don’t really understand it. b. we don’t often, really get to uncover it, and talk about it much. ”

— Sue Healey

Lucy Guerin

“I like working with the dancers, I like working on the detail of the choreography and the structure of the work.”

Alexandre Hamel

“Branding it as contemporary dance is bad for marketing. Contemporary dance is often seen as elitist, boring […] for snobs by a very large section of the public.”

Gideon Obarzanek

“I didn’t have a great interest in having a dance company or directing a dance company, it came out of necessity. […] My interest has always been about making work.”

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Deborah Jowitt

Deborah Jowitt is one of the most accessible dance critics, spending her life capturing the diversity of dance in her reviews, particularly in New York City. Jowitt’s work focuses equally on ballet and modern dance with a love for both styles.