Working at the forefront of dance and disability in the UK, acclaimed British/Australian performer and performance maker Dan Daw will present his work Beast as part of the 2018 Sydney Festival. This work explores the intersection of 'normal' and 'abnormal' through the lens of his ‘otherness.'

Join us in conversation as Dan shares insights into his practice and how he pushes boundaries of mainstream performance to shift perceptions and expectations as an artist with disability. Dan has worked with companies from Scottish Dance Theatre to Force Majeure, and is a part of the current cohort at Sadler’s Wells Summer University.

Dan Daw has worked with Restless Dance Theatre (Aus), 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, Liv Lorent, Kate Champion, Janet Smith, Adam Benjamin, Wendy Houstoun, Sarah Michelson, Rachid Ouramdane, Nigel Charnock, Matthias Sperling, Marc Brew, Claire Cunningham, Javier de Frutos, Martin Forsberg/Jenny Nordberg and Carl Olof Berg.

Blurring the divide between theatre and dance, Dan’s collaborations are a series of attempts. Exploring the notion of “success” and “failure” he plays, in different ways, with audience expectation in connection to his body’s deviating functionality.

CHAIR – Michelle Silby (Director, Ausdance)

Michelle has an extensive 20 year career in dance in both creative and administrative functions. Recently, Michelle produced iOU projects, who performed in Spring Dance Festival 2012, Sydney Opera House and Anton’s work Supermodern Dance of Distraction at Riverside Theatre’s Parramatta. Many of you may know Michelle who was formerly the Program Manager for Dance at the Australia Council for the Arts where her responsibilities included; working with the board, policy and strategy, dance funding programs, key dance initiatives, such as Tasmanian Community Dance Project and Young Emerging opportunities e.g JUMP. During her 15 year professional dance career in the UK and Europe, Michelle worked across a variety of contexts as performer, educator, choreographer, director, festival director, company manager and consultant. A particular highlight of her career in the UK included making a significant contribution to the dance infrastructure for the North East of England, through the formulation and delivery of a dance development plan with secured funding. Michelle was born in the UK, where she studied dance at Arts Educational Schools London, followed by a post graduate year at London Contemporary Dance School, The Place.

Beast plays at Carriageworks between 16 and 19 January as part of About an Hour – get tickets here.