Daniel Riley | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1985 or 1986 (age 38–39) |
| Occupation(s) | Dancer, choreographer of contemporary dance |
| Years active | 2005– present |
| Known for | Artistic director ofAustralian Dance Theatre |
Daniel Riley (born 1985 or 1986) is an Australian dancer andchoreographer. After a long career withBangarra Dance Theatre inSydney, since January 2022 he has been the artistic director of thecontemporary dance companyAustralian Dance Theatre, based inAdelaide,South Australia.
Daniel Riley was born in 1985 or 1986.[1] He is ofWiradjuri descent, from westernNew South Wales.[2] He developed his love of dance at a young age, after watching his sister at her dance studio when he was around nine years told, and was also influenced by the popular musical showTap Dogs. He started out doingtap dance, and was bullied at school about it. However, he began to realise the cultural significance of dance forAboriginal Australians, including men.[3]
When he was 13, Riley's family moved toCanberra when his father got a job atQueanbeyan South Public School. His father met and introduced Riley toElizabeth Cameron Dalman, who recommended the new youth dance studio Quantum Leap[3] (nowQL2[4]). Riley spent most of his weekends thereafter at Quantum Leap. He did not realise at the time that Dalman was the founder of Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), until some years later when they toured to Canberra and he was greatly impressed by the style of their contemporary dance. Around that time, he also saw a performance byBangarra Dance Theatre, and decided that that was where he needed to be.[3]
He graduated fromQueensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2006.[5]
Riley has danced and choreographed extensively in Australia and around the world. As of 2022 he had choreographed more than 15 works, for various organisations and festivals.[2]
Riley first danced withLeigh Warren & Dancers in South Australia, from 2005 to 2006.[5]
Riley spent 12 years with Bangarra,[2] from 2007 to 2018,[5] apart from a year off in 2014–15.[1]
While at Bangarra, he was the youngest male dancer in the company to choreograph a work, creating a work calledRiley, which paid tribute to the work ofAboriginal artistMichael Riley (to whom he discovered he was related). He got the idea that he wanted to do this work after seeing an exhibition of his photographs at theNational Gallery of Australia inCanberra, while on tour with Bangarra in 2007. After talking toStephen Page about it, who encouraged him to think about it further, two years later his work premiered as a double bill with a work byFrances Rings at theSydney Opera House. The work was a huge success.[1]
After dancing with Bangarra for seven years, Riley requested a year off as he felt exhausted and needed time to recharge, and he and his wife headed overseas. During this time, he choreographed shows for theThird Row Dance Company, a student-led group at theUniversity of Roehampton in southLondon.[1] In 2014 he danced with the New Movement Collective and Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre in the UK.[5]
He spent two weeks choreographing atLouisville Ballet, which was run by formerAustralian Ballet principal dancer and Bangarra rehearsal director,Robert Curran. He found that challenging, as the dancers were pure ballet dancers, without exposure to contemporary dance. The work,Sacred Shifts premiered in March 2015.[1]
Also during his break from Bangarra, in 2015 Riley was invited in byRafael Bonachela, choreographer of theSydney Dance Company, to choreograph a piece for only the female dancers of SDC, as part of the company's three-year "New Breed" initiative for emerging choreographers.[1]
He returned to dance full-time at Bangarra in September 2015.[1] In 2016, along with his cousin Beau Dean Riley Smith, Riley choreographed a piece calledMiyagan, which explores their family and cultural heritage. The piece was performed, along with two others, inBrisbane.[6][7]
In June 2021, Riley was appointed as artistic director ofAustralian Dance Theatre (ADT), Australia's oldest contemporary dance company,[7] based at theOdeon Theatre inKaurna country in the eastern Adelaide suburb ofNorwood.[3] He took over from long-serving directorGarry Stewart,[2] assuming the role at the end of 2021. He is the firstIndigenous person to become an artistic director of a non-Indigenous dance company in Australia.[7] This responsibility weighs heavily on him, but he was inspired by playwrightWesley Enoch, the first Indigenous artistic director of a major theatre company, atQueensland Theatre.[3] He has remained friends with founder Elizabeth Dalman and they talk often.[3]
The first ADT work under his direction was performed in May 2022, atriptych of dances calledOutside Within.[2] In September 2022 Riley presented his first major work, at theDunstan Playhouse in theAdelaide Festival Centre, calledSAVAGE. The performance included nine dance students fromFlinders University/AC Arts along with the ADT dancers, and Riley dances in the piece as well.[8][3]
Riley believes in an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach, and is dedicated to creating shows that "can only be made here [on Kaurna country], not making work that looks like it's been made by a European company".[3]
Riley worked as associate producer and then creative associate forILBIJERRI Theatre Company from between 2019 and 2021.[5]
In 2020 he was appointed lecturer in contemporary dance at theVictorian College of the Arts (part of theUniversity of Melbourne) inMelbourne.[2] There he launchedKummarge, a mentoring program for Indigenous dance students.[5] In 2021 he choreographed a piece calledWAX, one of three inAtlas | gadhaba kurrawan - weaving and bringing together at the university, performed in November 2021.[9][10]
He was a board member atChunky Move (2019–2022), and a board associate at the cultural think tank A New Approach.[5] In 2021 he was a mentor atMoogahlin Performing Arts atCarriageworks inSydney.[5]
He also has film credits:[5] performing in themusic video ofDan Sultan's 2014 song "Under Your Skin",[11] and for Bangarra'sSpear (2015), in which he acted and worked as director's attachment.[12]
As of September 2024[update] Riley is on the board ofTandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute.[5]
In September 2024, Riley was appointed a member ofFirst Nations Arts, a newly established division of the government arts funding bodyAustralia Council focused onAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts, for a term of four years.[13][14][15]
Riley was nominated at theAustralian Dance Awards (2010, 2013), and forDeadly Awards in 2010, 2012, and 2013).[5]
HE is anhonorary fellow at the Faculty of Fine Arts (Dance) atUniversity of Melbourne.[5]
Riley is married to Chrissy,[1] and they have children.[2] He is the second cousin of artistMichael Riley.[1]