DANCE PRODUCTIONS
Dance works by: Daniel Smith
dans myth projects
3 bodies, at first vulnerable, gain strength, overcome obstacles, and learn to assert themselves.
Transforming slowly into 3 seemingly indestructible protagonists in glistening armour designed to withstand injury. But armour can also be a burden. Protection can also become an obstacle to connection. What happens when defensive strategies no longer protect a person but begin to engulf them?
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“The three form different constellations, performing alternating pas de deux. There is brief harmony, then defensiveness again. It is like feeling their way, trying things out. Finally, Mattia Serio disappears and then reappears armed with a picturesque mask and a wing-like arm shield. The others arm themselves in a similar way ... At the end, one pulls off his mask, exhausted, while two triumph with shining helmets. The audience in three full rows feels the force of the performance. Loud applause.”
— Birgit Kölgen, Düsseldorf Aktuell (Translated from German)
Premiere: Jan. 30th 2026
Choreography: Daniel Smith
Music Composition: Milan Julius Phillip
Dancers: Helena Goncalves, Ryan Drobner,
Mattia Serio
Costume Design: Edvin Spahic
Installations: Rewert Remmers
Dramaturg: Marvin Wittiber
Technical Director: Noah Weber
A memory of a child's bedroom, distorted by time, by longing, by pain. A place where stories begin -
not linearly, but as a sensation, as a physical echo. In “Sparkle Beasts”, this space becomes a stage for the innermost depths: a landscape of early imprints, of unspoken questions, of tender, sometimes wild movements that resonate deep within us.
Premiere: April 5th 2025
Choreography: Daniel Smith
Music Composition/Production - Milan Julius Phillip
Dancers - Luisa Stehmann, Oskar Eon
Design: Rewert Remmers
Dramaturg: Marvin Wittiber
Design assistant: Sirkka Vanessa Hogh
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Exploring the lasting effects of bullying, childhood experiences and social dynamics on adult lives and relationships. We examine how bullying effects members of the LGBTIQ* community and those who do not conform to perceived gender norms. We grapple with fragmented identities - one based on shame, the other exaggerated and inflated -presenting both the complexity and strength of queer identity.
Premiere: June 2024, Tanzfaktur Cologne
Choreographer: Daniel Smith
Dancers:
Valentina Restrepo Giraldo
Jonathan Reimann
Daniel Smith
Music: Yoav Bosidan
Design: Rewert Remmers
Dramaturg: Marvin Wittiber
Bully
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Sorry You Feel that way
A research oriented project exploring the ways in which traits and experiences of someone living with ADHD effects the creative process in a choreographic process.
Research and Creation supported by the Canada Council for the arts.
Choreographer: Daniel Smith
Dancers:
Valentina Restrepo Giraldo
Arthur Stashak
Daniel Smith
Ying Yun Chen
Music: Yoav Bosidan
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Other Choreographic works
Dance and Puppet theatre
The two protagonists enter into a foreign realm and encounter a mysterious entity. They quickly find themselves under its spell. But are they truly at the mercy of this being or are they themselves agents contributing to the evil through their own actions? THE DEVIL IN ME asks the questions what exactly is evil and who has the authority to interpret it.
(created in cooperation with Boat People Projekt
and Fithe Figurentheater)
The Devil in me
Co-directors: Hans Kaul and Daniel Smith
Music Composition/Production - Hans Kaul
Choreography - Daniel Smith
Dancers - Lara Bakhssar, Saeed Asad Sangabi
photo: Sebastian Dohm
Premiere: Germany October 5th 2024,
Belgium October 21 2024
" The impressive images that emerge give rise to many questions about life. Choreographed persistent hand washing as a sign of guilt, guilt that cannot be redeemed, may give rise to connections to Shakespeare's "Macbeth" for some of the audience. But the piece of about an hour is open to many mind games...."
-Ute Lawrenz, hessische niedersaechsische allgemeine
Tough Water
Highlighting both the nurturing qualities and immense power of water as a force of nature. Blending Contemporary dance, cutting edge 3D technology, Opera, theater and poetry, Tough water takes the audience on a surreal journey that blurs the lines between reality and imagination.
Co-choreographed with Yoav Bosidan
3D Art and Concept: Florian Etti,
Vocals and performance: Thomas Huy
Dance: Yoav Bosidan and Daniel Smith
Original Music: Yoav Bosidan
premiere 01.02.2024 - 19:30 Uhr,
Bilker Bunker, Düsseldorf
"...Thomas Huy joins them and the three come together in a dance. Tough Water becomes calmer: Etti's images now break in gently rippling waves. - It's all a bit enigmatic, but the interplay of video animation, dance and classical singing has a fascinating effect."
-Dietmar Zimmermann, Theater:Pur (Transalated from German)
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Rosebud
Three performers build a bridge to the past. They trace the pathways of memory and move united through them. Through dance, music and games, both the pain and joy of remembering is felt, and feelings believed to have been lost can be found and reassembled.
ROSEBUD is a dance theatre project dealing with memories. The performers are both Actors without a dance background and professional dancers. The music consists of original compositions and newly arranged songs in Arabic, Kurdish and Persian. The songs were recorded for the project and interpreted by the dancers as vocalists.
Collaboration with Theater Director Hans Kaul and Boat People Projekt
premiere 14.01.2023 - 19:30 Uhr, Werkraum Göttingen
"...Two ideas by the choreographer (Daniel Smith)
should be emphasized. Lara Bakhssar moves as if compelled by some alien, invisible
force. When moves her left arm with her right hand as if it weren't her own. This is a
deeply impressive symbol of bondage, and of heteronomy. And when all three actors,
under a black cloth, form a menacing mountain of people, on which a bright sphere shines like a divine head, this acts like a symbol for superior power."
-Michael Schäfer, Göttinger Tagesblatt (Transalated from German)
photo: Daniel Seznek
Breuninger Meets Ballett am Rhein
A Collaboration between the Fashion and Lifestyle company Breuninger Düsseldorf and Ballett am Rhein. Choreographies featuring music of Nancy Sinatra, Lee Hazlewood, and the Shirelles.
Co created with Wun Sze Chan
premiere 08.09 Breuninger, Düsseldorf
photo: Daniel Seznek
Best Offense
An posthumous examination after the death of a relationship. What remains when the romance has gone away but two people are still stuck together, Inextricably linked. Going through the motions like clockwork, glued together in unexpected ways. Perhaps glimpses of old passions reveal themselves. The need for independence grows, but an invisible force pulls you back. A piece dealing with co-dependence in relationships and the fight to keep one's own identity when merging with another.
-Premiere Tanzhaus NRW May 2022.
Mephisto Waltz for 1
The Mephisto Waltzes were composed by Franz List between 1859 and 1885. A piece of program music, using for it’s program an episode from Nikolaus Lenau’s 1836 verse drama Faust. In the story Mephistopheles persuades Faust to give in to his carnal desires by playing arousing and intoxicating strains of the fiddle.In Mephisto Waltz for 1, The devil lies within. The fight with ones own self in the mirror to live authentically and face ones inner Mephistophele ,as he beckons you to give in to your self satisfying impulses.Created as a collaboration with the artist Yvonne Schweidtmann for her "Hölle Projekt".. Presented in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 2021, Pianist Aleksander Filic
