The Dan Daw Show

After having spent a lifetime being an inspiration to others, Dan is finally seizing the moment to inspire himself. Taking ownership of the beautiful mess that encompasses all that he is, Dan lets go of who he once was to make room for who he wants to be. Dan is joined in an intimate evening of play by performer Thomasin Gülgeç, where Dan takes back the power by being dominated on his own terms. Nominated for the 2021 National Dance Awards, the 2022 UK Theatre Achievement in Dance Award and directed by Mark Maughan (The Claim, Petrification), The Dan Daw Show is a peep into the shiny and sweaty push pull of living with shame while bursting with pride. This is a show about care, intimacy and resilience, about letting go and reclaiming yourself.

The Dan Daw Show offers Pre-Show Access Drop-In for anyone with access requirements who would benefit from being in the space and finding out more about the show before the performance commences. These Pre-Show Access sessions are free and open to all ticket holders of The Dan Daw Show and will start one hour prior to each scheduled performance start time. Each Pre-Show Access session will be facilitated by The Dan Daw Show team, who you will be able to find outside the auditorium wearing high-visibility clothing. The aim of these Pre-Show Access Sessions is to offer a flexible, individually tailored response to anyone who needs support in order to access the show.

People who may benefit from this drop-in include: 

• People with physical access needs. 
• Neurodivergent people. 
• Anyone who is anxious about the content of the show or visiting a performance space.
  
  

 Resources and opportunities available in each Pre-Show Access session are:  

• Access to members of The Dan Daw Show team if you want to ask any questions about the show
• Access to the space, stage and props if you need to  for access reasons
• Speak to the team to get an explanation of any of the triggers from our Trigger Menu.  
• Images of the performers and their costumes. 
• Experiencing the brightest lighting of the show.* 
• Experiencing the loudest sound within the show*.  
• Arrange priority entry to the auditorium - if you would benefit from taking your seat before other audience members enter the auditorium we can arrange this during pre-show access.

*only available for the first 30 minutes of the pre-show access session

Depictions of kink experiences, suffocation, humiliation, dominant behavior, sexually explicit depictions and language, descriptions of feeling othered, loud noises, flashing lights and sexy disabled people. The Dan Daw Show is recommended for audience members 18 years and older. A full list of show triggers can be found on the Dan Daw Creative Projects website here. Please note some of this information may include spoilers regarding show content.

Duration: 80 minutes.

“Daw’s show is unlike anything else you are likely to see” - The Guardian

“Unapologetic, vulnerable, brilliant” - The Stage

“A miraculous piece of theater” - The Irish Times

Dan Daw 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) 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. 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.

Performer - Dan Daw and Thomasin Gülgeç
Originally performed by - Dan Daw and Christopher Owen
Artistic Director - Dan Daw
Director - Mark Maughan
Movement and Rehearsal Director - Sarah Blanc
Designer - Emma Bailey
Lighting Designer - Nao Nagai
Composition and Sound Design - Guy Connelly
Dramaturg - Brian Lobel
Artistic Peer Support - Dr. Kate Marsh
Assistant Director - Thyrza Abrahams
Production management - Froud
Production Management Cover - Dean Sudron
Executive Director for Dan Daw Creative Projects - Liz Counsell

Presented by UNDER THE RADAR at Performance Space New York, supported by Factory International, Manchester, and Arts Council England.
Also supported using public funding from Arts Council England through project grants. Co-commissioned in 2019/20 by Sadler’s Wells, Arts House Melbourne, DanceHub Birmingham, The Lowry, Déda, Cambridge Junction, DanceXchange and Dance4. Supported by Shoreditch Town Hall, Candoco Dance Company and I’m Here, Where Are You? Festival. Research supported by Jerwood Choreographic Research Project II.

Photo by Shannyn Higgins.