Dan Daw

UK

Dan is Associate Director of Sydney-based performance company, Murmuration. Working in partnership with Sarah-Vyne Vassallo to commission, develop and produce new work by disabled artists, Dan plays an integral role in the development and delivery of Murmuration’s artistic programs and community activities.

Dan continues to work at the forefront of dance and disability in Australia and the UK, having commissioned two solo works – Beast by Martin Forsberg and On One Condition by Graham Adey, which received the Adelaide Fringe Best Theatre Award 2017.

Beast, a Trinity Laban/Greenwich Dance Compass Commission, supported by Arts Council England, previewed at the Swedish Performing Arts Biennale (May 2015), Brighton Dome (November 2015), and premiered at Greenwich Dance (November 2015). Resulting from its inclusion in British Dance Edition (March 2016), ‘Beast’ toured to Sydney Festival (January 2018) and Berlin’s Sophiensaele (June 2018).

On One Condition, a co-commission with Murmuration (AUS), premiered at Skanes Dansteater (September 2015), before being presented at Sadler’s Wells, New York’s SoHo Playhouse, Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringe Festivals 2017, where it received the Adelaide Fringe Best Theatre Award.

Dan began working as a performer with Restless Dance Theatre in 2002, and since then Dan has gone on to work with Australian Dance Theatre (AUS), Force Majeure (AUS), FRONTLINEdance (UK), Scottish Dance Theatre (UK), balletLORENT (UK), Candoco Dance Company (UK) and Skånes Dansteater (SWE).

Throughout his performance career, Dan has worked with Kat Worth, Garry Stewart, Kate Champion, Janet Smith, Adam Benjamin, Wendy Houstoun, Sarah Michelson, Rachid Ouramdane, Nigel Charnock, Matthias Sperling, Marc Brew, Claire Cunningham, Matthias Sperling, Carlos Motta, Martin Forsberg, Carl Olof Berg, Dinis Machado and Javier de Frutos.

A Candoco Associate Artist and a Choreography Award Artist, Dan continues to work at the forefront of collaborative performance making in Australia and the UK. Dan is a recipient of the BBC/South East Dance Performing Arts Fund Fellowship, the Outlet Dance Award and the Russell Page Fellowship in Contemporary Dance amongst others. He has been a part of the National Theatre Step Change programme (2012), Dance UK’s Mentor Bursary (2013), Sadler’s Wells Summer University (2015 – 2018) and Belgrade Theatre’s Agent for Change (2018), furthermore evidencing his ambitions as disabled artist to impact and lead the conversation on dance and disability.

In spring 2019, he began making his next work, The Dan Daw Show with theatre director Mark Maughan as a continuation of their research supported by Jerwood Choreographic Research Project II. The Dan Daw Show premieres in May 2020 with an Australian Exclusive on the cards for August 2020.