We had the good fortune of connecting with Danielle Georgiou and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Danielle, what do you attribute your success to?
Since I started teaching thirteen years ago, I’ve noticed a blind spot in the education of dancers and performers—the ability to embrace their education while simultaneously abandoning the need to be technicians. I so often see concert dancers who are just regurgitating the steps given to them; there seems to be no real enthusiasm for their technique, no apparent performative relationship to their educational foundation. They are vessels for someone else’s language and the strength and specificity that comes from releasing technique into embodiment is lacking. A dancer should feel freedom in their relationship to their education, not duty. Technique is your foundation, not your identity. This is not to say technique should be cast aside when making personal work, instead, it should be a sounding board, a reliable source of inspiration and challenge. In terms of the “success” of my work, I look to my succeeding in being able to make the work that I want to make, while learning from my collaborators and my audiences. To me, this comes from my willingness to address my relationship to my education, training, and technique. This allows me to know where I am coming from aesthetically, and it frees up my mental space to imagine everything else. What does this look like? Making collaborative work, letting other minds into the writer’s room, taking classes, and giving myself permission to say “I don’t know” are all power tools for the creative mind.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
DGDG makes work centered on the conflict between culture and the individual. I’m interested in how we contend with the pressures to conform, to justify ourselves, and to hide own individual perspectives. In the performing arts, I feel that every artist is their own competition, although it is easy to fall in the trap of thinking that there is someone out there trying to do work that competes with you. I got where I am today by doing the boring stuff. Studying, Practicing. Studying more. Writing…a lot of emails. Demanding the best from myself, even when I know that my best won’t be enough. It seems romantic or over-simplified, but all the little accomplishments, habits, and relationships that you cultivate will add up to support your body of work. It’s never easy. Keep grindin’.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For this question, I will imagine that this is a week during which I will not be at work and there is no global pandemic. Otherwise, I would be at home with the cats, and loving it. Dallas recommendations: Food: Allgood Cafe, Hello Dumpling, Afrah, DaLat for late night. Jinya Ramen. Botolino Gelato, or going to new places with our friends. Shopping: Thrift Stores. Places to go: All the parks! Dallas has so much green space, and if it weren’t for my schedule and my allergies, I would be frolicking through all the Dallas parks, ev-er-y-DAY. Things to see: White Rock Lake at sunset, the skyline from the Belmont Hotel, all the plays and dances at Dallas theaters, and there are of LOT of theaters (and now, you can watch them online)!
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would have to shout out the village of performers with whom I’ve created work through DGDG. I’ve come across an absolute dream team of artists who want to make work, and who are committed to even our strangest of ideas. Some people for just a season, and some for years, I’ve met so many artists in Dallas and elsewhere who I absolutely adore, and without whom I could never have made the work of DGDG. They’ve rooted for me, and I’ve rooted for them, and they’ve jumped headfirst into creative challenges that I’ve set before them. If you’ve been a part of a DGDG show, I owe you a great deal of gratitude, and you have all my love.
Website: www.dgdgdancegroup.com
Instagram: @dgdgdancegroup
Twitter: @dgdgdancegroup
Facebook: www.facebook.com/daniellegeorgioudancegroup
Image Credits
Danielle Georgiou in Run of Show by DGDG as performed at the Houston Fringe Festival_2019_Photo by Pin Lim The cast of THE BIPPY BOBBY BOO SHOW by the Danielle Georgiou Dance Group_Premiere performance at Theatre Three_2019_Photo by Zane Pena The cast of WAR FLOWER by the Danielle Georgiou Dance Group_2017_Premiere production at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, TX_Photo by Alisa Eykilis Danielle Georgiou on set with DGDG_2020_Photo by Justin Locklear Elaina Alspach and William Acker in Without A Body_Photo by Anthony Lazon.jpg Colby Calhoun in Chatter, Choreography by Danielle Georgiou, DGDG, As performed at the Barnstorm Dance Festival in Houston, TX_2017_Photographer Lynn Lane Danielle Georgiou and Justin Locklear performing Pizzicato Porno at Ro2Art in 2013, Photo by Emily Loving