The Dan Daw Show
After being an inspiration to others for a whole lifetime, Dan Daw, the award-winning choreographer and performer from Great Britain, finally seizes the opportunity to inspire himself. He appropriates the beautiful chaos that characterises everything he is. At the same time, Dan lets go of what he once was and makes room for who he wants to be. Dan Daw and his accomplice Christopher Owen find themselves in an intimate, playful evening: Dan Daw reclaims power while he is being dominated, according to his own rules. Nominated for the National Dance Awards 2021 as well as for the Achievement in Dance Award of the UK Theatre Awards, The Dan Daw Show, under Mark Maughan’s direction, provides insight into the glistening and diaphoretic turmoil of living with shame while simultaneously abounding with pride. An impressive show about care, intimacy, and resilience as well as about the attempt to let go and reconquer oneself.
Dan Daw is the artistic director and CEO of Dan Daw Creative Projects, a company led by disabled persons working collaboratively, and the hub of a growing network of additional companies and artists. They develop and tour productions that blur the distinction between theatre and dance. Dan Daw’s work explores what it means for a queer and disabled body to unequivocally occupy non-disabled spaces. Dan Daw began his work as a performer with the Australian Restless Dance Theatre in 2002. He has been working with artists such as Claire Cunningham, Factory Artist at tanzhaus nrw from 2017 until 2019, since. Most recently, Dan Daw served as the Associate Curator of the international Tanzmesse NRW in Düsseldorf, with which he collaborates from 2021 until 2024. Work on The Dan Daw Show began in cooperation with a larger creative team at the end of 2019. The work premiered at Dance City in Newcastle in September 2021 and has been touring globally since then.