
About
Danai’s work can include dance, dance theatre, videodance and site-specific performances. The material she uses is dance, pedestrian movement and spatial relationships. Her works are rarely story-based; instead, she prefers to put together fragments of images related to the theme.
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Danai recognizes many forms of human behaviour to be performative. That is why she uses everyday movement or she performs to and with the audience by focusing on the playful exploration of different realms of the performance process. She commits to the moment with unwavering passion. Her work is essentialist, shaved of pretension and astonishingly direct in its impact.
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She is inspired by everything around her. She observes, formulates questions and creates while she tries to satisfy, and at the same time stimulate, her curiosity. She considers the body as a vessel with not only physical, but also social, political and cultural dimensions. She wants her choreographic work to be open to multiple interpretations and governed by universality.

photo Maria Andrews
Ariel Ariel
2018
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Ariel Ariel is a duet based on the use of two sculptural handmade instruments (spheres). The piece is a comment on personal space, disturbance and the disruption of human connections and uses electromagnetic interference.
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In collaboration with Neal Spowage, musician and creator of the instrument.
3 Sided Man
2014
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Solo work performed and choreographed by Danai Pappa
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He said to me to go around the bed
I load my gun and wait
The pain won’t break a man

photo Maria Andrews

Cold Papaya
2013
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The piece uses a Speaker Bra and Shovel instruments and investigates Gender Dynamics in Live Electronic Music Performance.
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In collaboration with Neal Spowage, musician and creator of the instrument.

Frozen Venus
2012
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Hovering 
between 
intimacy 
and 
opposition,
 this duet 
explores 
a 
series
 of 
states 
that
 have 
to
 do
with 
grouping 
power, 
leadership, 
control 
and
support.
 Not 
necessarily
 political, 
but
 rather
social
 and
 humanistic, 
the 
piece
 demonstrates
six
plungerphone 
instruments
 in
 a
 dark
symmetry
 where
 every 
dynamic 
scheme 
is
shadowed 
by 
gloomy 
alienation.
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In collaboration with Neal Spowage, musician and creator of the instrument.
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sib Conduit
2012
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Sib Conduit has been composed to give a voice to the Electronic Dumbell.
In collaboration with Neal Spowage, musician and creator of the instrument.

Five and a half
2011
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A piece about emotional states. A group of females go through different moods and alternate physical patterns.
Choreography: Danai Pappa
Music: Reynaldo Young
Dancers: Clare Brzezicki, Jessica Hothersall, Rebecca Duschl, Sarah Jackaman, Sian Myers
Vocals: the dancers
Rehearsal assistant: Natasha Avra
Photo Gabriela Restelli

Photo Antonis Tsipropoulos
Press es es
2010
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A solo about achieving freedom through limitation.
Choreography/performance: Danai Pappa
Music: Erik Nyström
Vocals: Elena Koukoli / Rebecca Duschl
Other assistants: Dimitra Kofti, Olena Fedyuk

The Dying Small
2010
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Considering death as a deep intellectual sleep, two females struggle for mental survival through movement and dance.
Choreography: Danai Pappa
Music: Erik Nyström
Dancers: Tonia Dakou, Danai Pappa
Other assistants: Dimitra Kofti, Olena Fedyuk, Dimitri Saran
Photo Zoe Troughton