GET TO KNOW DANIELLE
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PRESS
"Danielle Georgiou is one of North Texas' most interesting choreographers, the only one dabbling in experimental dance-theater, [and] plans to keep it quirky."
- Margaret Putnam // Dance Critic // TheaterJones
Dallas Review: Theatre Too Presents “The Bippy Bobby Boo Show”
On Stage Blog reviews The Bippy Bobby Boo Show: "...these creatures of the night haunted the Theatre Too stage and treated audiences to a surreal, bizarre, and exceptionally entertaining performance of “The Bippy Bobby Boo Show.”
Written by Danielle Georgiou and Justin Locklear, this quirky, rapid-fire theatrical fever dream felt like a late-night variety show conjured straight out of an alternate dimension."
Dallas' best choreographers strike out in bold new directions this fall
"Probably even Georgiou couldn't have predicted her career path. A dancer, choreographer, dance program coordinator at Eastfield College and now theater director, Georgiou is interested in the way that society has historically dictated gender roles. To that end, she looks for hidden meanings in pop-culture tropes we take for granted or turns them inside-out."
Review of Fending at Dallas Dances
"Danielle Georgiou Dance Group’s Fending placed two performers face-to-face in matching orange biketards and short blonde wigs. Pushing, poking, and grabbing, the two started to explore one another’s personal space with increasingly awkward results. The irony of their perfectly serious faces paired with giggle-worthy missteps and drops fostered competitive and clever interactions." -Emily Sese
Review of Just Girly Things by the Sharp Critic
"Danielle Georgiou has a gift for placing dance in a context that feels organic, less artificial...Just Girly Things [is a] witty, intelligent, insightful piece that shows how women are conditioned to be self-effacing, self-sabotaging, and self-deprecating." -Christopher Soden
FIT Review: Just Girly Things
" The campy, candy-coated acting and musical numbers shine a light on the main issue at hand: the pressures and expectations that women heap on each other...The cast works beautifully as a cohesive unit, each fully embodying their characters...The issues and observations regarding how maturing girls in that generation found information on navigating that stage of life and their identity are painfully accurate. Not once did an assertion feel exaggerated, overstated, or just flat-out wrong." -Cheryl Callon
Dancing with drones, and much more: Danielle Georgiou Dance Group's 'War Flower'
"War Flower juxtaposed the cooperative democracies of animal societies, such as bees that sacrifice themselves for the greater good, with the human tendency to override what's instinctual for individual gain....[it] is that kind of piece, provoking questions about what it means that no doubt would benefit from another viewing." -Manuel Mendoza
"Try not to tear up watching this Tegan & Sarah lip-dub Pride month proposal"
In June 2016, we had the extreme honor of performing in the most epic of all epic proposals for our friends DeAndré Upshaw and Stuart Hausmann! Choreographing and dancing in this flash mob has been our most important performance to date because #LOVEWINS💍❤️
Entertainment Weekly said the work was ""...impeccably choreographed...," People Magazine ran an special piece on it, as did Brides Magazine, Queerty, Revelist, the Dallas Voice, D Magazine, and The Dallas Morning News. The video went viral and was picked by the UK's The Mirror and The Sun. Currently, the video has been viewed over 98,000 times.
"It's Okay to Miss Much of What's Being Shown in things missing/missed"
In May 2016, DGDG Producer and Conceptual Artist Justin Locklear devised and directed a new play in Houston, "Things missing/missed." The Houston Press called performers Melissa Flower Gladney and Philip Hays "immensely intriguing" and said that the show had "moments of real beauty in idea and execution...[and] never lost [the reviewer's] attention." A show that critic Jessica Goldman was "very glad...I didn't miss."
Review: "Pizzicato" at the 17th International Theater Festival
"'Pizzicato'...speaks from the universal, yet intimate (autobiographical) experiences of the performers about the disintegration of personal relationships...Georgiou’s admiration for Pina Bausch’s work is evident not as a replica of style (as one often sees in “techniques” such as that of Martha Graham) but in spirit. I sensed an iconoclastically independent creative energy, and an uncompromising engagement with the physicality of her work. Locklear’s comic relief and his creation of a sound space were his forté." - Teresa Marrero
Best on the Boards: DFW Theatre Critics Forum 2015
DGDG was recognized by the Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum in two categories for our work in 2014-2015! Outstanding New Play or Musical for "The Show About Men" and Outstanding Design or Creative Contribution for "NICE" and "The Show About Men."
Review: "The Show About Men" from the Dallas Observer
The Show about Men "has everything you want in a festival production: a strong and attractive cast, witty script...and an original score...that falls pleasantly on the ear...Choreography by Georgiou blends Twyla Tharp-y bursts of loose spins and gymnastic lifts...The surprises and quick shifts in focus from one actor to another, with constant movement around them, make it interesting." - Elaine Liner
"A Question of Manliness: DGDG at FIT 2015"
"The Show About Men" explores "identity, fear, weakness, coming of age, and learning to take first steps toward self-actualization, all universal subjects. The performance makes an exquisite piece of theatre...— beautiful, engaging, skillful and moving." - R. Andrew Aguilar
"Loop Review: NICE"
"NICE...is a full emersion into a world that pokes fun at Emily Post and society’s addiction to false niceties especially in regards to women. A touchy subject indeed, but Georgiou’s satirical approach brings a lightheartedness to some of the more controversial themes present in the show." -Katie Dravenstott
"The Danielle Georgiou Dance Group Is Twice As NICE at Out of the Loop"
"The movements Georgiou has her dancers enact, and the lines of Locklear’s script that they speak, add a layer of menace which is furthered by misogynistic, early 20th-century tunes (“Too Fat Polka” and “Slap ‘er Down Again, Paw”). It’s chilling when you realize that these ancient-sounding songs still carry with them a nugget of truth about our culture." - Lindsey Wilson
"Dance review: Ideas a-popping at Out of the Loop Fringe Festival"
NICE is "a look at the hypocrisy behind societal rules of behavior...Led by Tamara McCarty as the most mean-spirited of the schoolmarms...[and] new cast member Justin Locklear, who also wrote the script, brought fresh clarity to his performance of the text, which is built around Emily Post’s 1920s writings on proper manners." - Manual Mendoza
Dirty Filthy Diamonds and NICE named one of the top events of 2014 in D Magazine
Musician George Quartz was asked by D Magazine to list his favorite musical performance and/or events of 2014 and he selected Dirty Filthy Diamonds and NICE as two of his top choices. Read an excerpt below:
"...I just can’t express enough the remarkable and unique experience to be present during these events. They are like no other form, even conventional dance. Everything is broken down and reassembled in such a strange and beautiful way that allows for pure escapism and socio-political reflection almost simultaneously. The dancers are disciplined and wild; controlled and unhinged. The perfectly insane music by Jermy Johnson and Paul Slavens is the sweet air you breathe on Planet DGDG."
"Transition marked North Texas dance in 2014"
"No one else in Dallas is even attempting to do what Georgiou does so well. Inspired by performance art and European dance theater, the conceptually minded choreographer created two multimedia works, Dirty Filthy Diamonds and Nice, that commented on societal rules of behavior and the resulting hypocrisy." - Manuel Mendoza
"Critic's Choice: A Big Loss, New Choreographers Kept Dance Writer Manny Mendoza On His Toes In 2014"
DGDG and Danielle Georgiou were named one of dance critic's Manuel Mendoza's highlights from 2014 during an interview with KERA's Ann Bothwell for Art&Seek that aired on NPR.
"...Danielle is a really interesting choreographer in town...there’s really nobody else doing this kind of performance art, European-style dance in town. A lot of people don’t know what to make of her, but I think that’s a great thing."
"Sugar & Spice: Scenes from Danielle Georgiou Dance Group's Closing Performance of Nice"
"...for as often as the performers made this audience laugh, so too did they leave the crowd speechless once more."
Central Track came to review and photograph the closing performance of NICE at the Wyly Theatre. Click below to read the review and view photographs from the show.
"DGDG's New Dance Work, NICE, Has Spice"
Theatre critic Elaine Liner reviewes NICE and says that "the performers...all exhibit triple-threat talent. These are dancers who aren't just going through the motions. In the sequences referencing abuse and sexual assault, their acting matches their well-trained physical expression."
"Thought-provoking show ‘NICE’ aggressively examines social conventions"
"NICE deftly surveys the evolution of politeness as a front for repression, hypocrisy and truly bad behavior...as it moves from Emily Post's 'simpler' time to the more complex present, the show suggests that we've at least become aware of the contradictiosn inherent in society's attempts at social control. Isn't that nice?" - Manuel Mendoza
"Playing Nice"
"The work is divided into various situations (i.e. the wild girl scene, mob scene and debutante ball) depicting what society deems nice behavior with respect to women. Georgiou cleverly blends traditions and stereotypes such as coming out parties and 1950s’ housewives etiquette with today’s more loose manners to produce an effect that is both disturbing and amusing." - Katie Dravenstott
"Emily Post’s advice echoes throughout DGDG production ‘NICE’"
From an interview and preview of NICE with Manuel Mendoza of the Dallas Morning News: "'Why were we so afraid of women with power? Why are we still afraid of that now? There is something really beautiful about exploring the ugly that exists within us, and the writers and directors of those films did that. By asking questions, by talking to my dancers, to the artists that I work with, to my friends and family, I guess I’m trying to find answers.'" - Manuel Mendoza
"Waltz of the Undead: Teatro Dallas’ Jorge Diaz Premiere with DGDG"
"The Danielle Georgiou Dance Group (DGDG) opens the Teatro Dallas Days of the Dead performance with “The Elegant Ghost”, a modern dance macabre “waltz” for three dancers...They almost defy gravity as they lunge, lurch and glide in zombie-like trance to an original William Duckworth composition. UTDallas PhD student Danielle Georgiou directs and choreographs this whimsical collaboration in sound and movement that left this theatre critic pining for more. Together, these works offer a stimulating, intriguing evening’s worth of unique performance art." - Alexandra Bonifield