Dani Abulhawa

I am an artist working across dance, performance, live art, theatre, and expanded sculptural practice. I often work in collaboration with other artists and with communities, and I’m based in Manchester, UK. I often write about my work and the work of others. My writing spans academic and public-facing contexts, from scholarly publications to magazines, websites, and other cultural platforms.

I draw on my European and Arab heritage to inform a practice that bridges a culturally layered embodiment, political consciousness, and creative experimentation.

My training is focused around movement and improvisation; I typically use the Creative Articulations Process, and Overlie's Six Viewpoints across my work. My approach to directing, choreography and dramaturgy is rooted in the feeling body, and in critical engagement with texts. My approach to producing is collaborative and socially-engaged.

I am a trained skateboard coach, and community facilitator, and I’m an ambassador for skateboarding charity, SkatePal.

I am a co-founder of Accumulations - a collective of dance/movement artists and a supportive network for the development of experimental movement, dance, and performance.

I am a lecturer in Performance at the University of Leeds with a PhD focused around play, improvisation and the city as a site of performance.

My community-based work focuses on projects that are engaged with social justice, that democratise access to playful public realm and support people’s creative interaction within their environments.