Reclaiming power through physical performance
Dan Daw on the beauty and power of kink, and the inspiration behind his new show
Content warning: This piece contains coarse language and sexual references.
The founder and Artistic Director of Dan Daw Creative Projects, Dan Daw is an Australian-born, Queer, disabled artist living and working in the UK.
His latest production, The Dan Daw Show, was named one of the five best dance shows of 2022 by The Guardian UK, and will make its highly anticipated Australian premiere this February at Seymour Centre, playing as part of Sydney WorldPride.
Shining an artistic light on the beauty and power of kink, The Dan Daw Show features ‘dominant’ and ‘submissive’ BDSM play, performed live on stage by Dan and his collaborator, Christopher Owen.
The originality and intensity of the show lies in the illumination of this intimate dynamic, with Dan and Christopher sharing a vulnerable, powerful display of physical, sexual expression whilst also challenging us to reflect on our own biases.
At the core of the show is an exploration of what it means for Dan’s body to unapologetically occupy non-disabled spaces. In a recent interview with Mr B Wings, Dan said, ‘We started on The Dan Daw Show journey five years ago by looking at the idea of inspiration porn (a term coined by Australian disability activist, Stella Young) and why non-disabled people are inspired by the disabled body.
‘In the past, I’d come off stage and be called things like brave and be cried on by audience members. The motivation for The Dan Daw Show was to gently unpick and unravel the motives behind the inspiration and what that is… When we see the disabled body doing something a normative body can do, why do we make a big deal out of it?’
The Dan Daw Show also represents Dan dipping his toes back into the kink scene after taking some time away--he had lost sight of who he was, and was struggling with owning his body in club spaces. As a result, this new show is incredibly significant to Dan’s personal kink journey, acting as a vehicle to create the ideal submissive/ dominant relationship he has always wanted for himself.
Talking with Mister B Wings, Dan said, ‘In making this show, we’ve realised that my Cripness and my experiences of kink are very closely linked. Whenever I’m engaging in kink practices and when I’m performing, I’m unapologetic in the way I navigate space and inhabit my body.
‘However, outside of these worlds, finding this freedom is much harder, because I’m living in a world that isn’t designed with my disabled body in mind. This is essentially what this piece examines, the question, “What if I could feel this free all of the time?”
‘The Dan Daw Show is… about me finally finding the strength of self to overcome the burden of shame to step into my power. We use the holding device of kink to allow us to talk about the nuances of care, internalised ableism, and interdependence at the same time as celebrating my “messy body” in a way that nothing else can.
‘It is a work about me no longer being apologetic to take up space. It is a work that acknowledges that mess needs to be celebrated. In the work, I celebrate my newfound sense of self by being dominated on my own terms throughout a play session. By doing this publicly, I’m finally able to own my body in a way I never have before.
‘I’ve spent most of my life feeling shame about my body and feeling shame about what I’m into when it comes to f*cking and playing. So we needed to make a piece that acknowledges the never-ending work of what it means to achieve, through interdependence, the feeling of freedom in a world that places no value on Queer, Crip bodies.’
15 February 2023
The Dan Daw Show plays 21 - 24 February. Buy tickets now.
Image credit: Hugo Glendinning
From 21 to 24 February, experience The Dan Daw Show, named one of the five best dance shows of 2022 by The Guardian UK, and making its highly anticipated Australian premiere this February at Seymour Centre, playing as part of Sydney WorldPride.
WorldPride 2023: The Dan Daw ShowContent warning: This piece contains coarse language and sexual references.
The founder and Artistic Director of Dan Daw Creative Projects, Dan Daw is an Australian-born, Queer, disabled artist living and working in the UK.
His latest production, The Dan Daw Show, was named one of the five best dance shows of 2022 by The Guardian UK, and will make its highly anticipated Australian premiere this February at Seymour Centre, playing as part of Sydney WorldPride.
Shining an artistic light on the beauty and power of kink, The Dan Daw Show features ‘dominant’ and ‘submissive’ BDSM play, performed live on stage by Dan and his collaborator, Christopher Owen.
The originality and intensity of the show lies in the illumination of this intimate dynamic, with Dan and Christopher sharing a vulnerable, powerful display of physical, sexual expression whilst also challenging us to reflect on our own biases.
At the core of the show is an exploration of what it means for Dan’s body to unapologetically occupy non-disabled spaces. In a recent interview with Mr B Wings, Dan said, ‘We started on The Dan Daw Show journey five years ago by looking at the idea of inspiration porn (a term coined by Australian disability activist, Stella Young) and why non-disabled people are inspired by the disabled body.
‘In the past, I’d come off stage and be called things like brave and be cried on by audience members. The motivation for The Dan Daw Show was to gently unpick and unravel the motives behind the inspiration and what that is… When we see the disabled body doing something a normative body can do, why do we make a big deal out of it?’
The Dan Daw Show also represents Dan dipping his toes back into the kink scene after taking some time away--he had lost sight of who he was, and was struggling with owning his body in club spaces. As a result, this new show is incredibly significant to Dan’s personal kink journey, acting as a vehicle to create the ideal submissive/ dominant relationship he has always wanted for himself.
Talking with Mister B Wings, Dan said, ‘In making this show, we’ve realised that my Cripness and my experiences of kink are very closely linked. Whenever I’m engaging in kink practices and when I’m performing, I’m unapologetic in the way I navigate space and inhabit my body.
‘However, outside of these worlds, finding this freedom is much harder, because I’m living in a world that isn’t designed with my disabled body in mind. This is essentially what this piece examines, the question, “What if I could feel this free all of the time?”
‘The Dan Daw Show is… about me finally finding the strength of self to overcome the burden of shame to step into my power. We use the holding device of kink to allow us to talk about the nuances of care, internalised ableism, and interdependence at the same time as celebrating my “messy body” in a way that nothing else can.
‘It is a work about me no longer being apologetic to take up space. It is a work that acknowledges that mess needs to be celebrated. In the work, I celebrate my newfound sense of self by being dominated on my own terms throughout a play session. By doing this publicly, I’m finally able to own my body in a way I never have before.
‘I’ve spent most of my life feeling shame about my body and feeling shame about what I’m into when it comes to f*cking and playing. So we needed to make a piece that acknowledges the never-ending work of what it means to achieve, through interdependence, the feeling of freedom in a world that places no value on Queer, Crip bodies.’
15 February 2023
The Dan Daw Show plays 21 - 24 February. Buy tickets now.
Image credit: Hugo Glendinning
From 21 to 24 February, experience The Dan Daw Show, named one of the five best dance shows of 2022 by The Guardian UK, and making its highly anticipated Australian premiere this February at Seymour Centre, playing as part of Sydney WorldPride.
WorldPride 2023: The Dan Daw Show
