Associate Artist with Avant Garde Dance, Dani Harris-Walters is a performer, choreographer, director and innovator immersed in hip-hop culture and theatre. An experienced figure in the industry, he first came to prominence as a finalist in Sky 1’s Got to Dance in 2014, and has worked with Botis Seva | Far From The Norm, Ivan Blackstock, Joseph Toonga and Boy Blue Entertainment, as well as touring extensively with Avant Garde. He loves to experiment, reform and restructure movement from many dance styles to create a unique and distinctive dance language.
Beginning in 2019, Dani has created a double bill of reflective, humorous hip-hop dance theatre, Nanny! and Happy Father’s Day which will tour in 2024. As part of Dani’s Associate Artist package, the tour will receive marketing support from Avant Garde.
Nanny! is a theatrical portrait of the Jamaican national heroine Nanny who, according to legend, led a community of formerly enslaved Africans called the Windward Maroons in a guerrilla war against British authorities in the Colony of Jamaica in the early 1700s. Through a fusion of African, Caribbean & hip-hop movement, the piece imagines Nanny and her three brothers as they encounter other runaway slaves, and reveals the conflict that divides the family.
Dani’s solo Happy Father’s Day is a heart-stirring, funny coming-of-age piece which provides the unconventional puberty lesson you’ll wish you’d had at school. With spot-on comedic timing, Dani uses movement, rap, animation and spoken word to focus on sexual coupling from an unexpected point of view.
“The material is so good that it doesn’t need to be crude. He doesn’t resort to jokes. It all just flows like he’s chatting to his best friend.” David Meed, SeeingDance.com
Trailers: Nanny! Happy Father’s Day