DANIELLE GEORGIOU
DANIELLE GEORGIOU is a multi-hyphenate artist and educator who works in dance, theatre, and performance and video art. Her stage and video work deal with puzzles found in femininity—vulnerability, deformity, and beauty. Her work has shown nationally across Texas, New York (Horton Gallery), California (Rogue Fringe Festival), Florida (Bosch Film Festival), Oregon (Portland’s Experimental Film Festival), and internationally in Germany (2nd Berlin Becher Triennial) and Scotland (Edinburg Arts Festival). In 2013, her dance theatre work, Pizzicato Porno, was selected for exhibition at the 2013 Texas Biennial. In 2014, Women and Their Work (Austin, TX) chose her for a solo show. The work in that show explored the effect of social media on beauty standards.
In 2011, Georgiou created the Danielle Georgiou Dance Group (DGDG). Under DGDG, she has created a series of collaborative, devised dance theatre productions with a team of artists and dancers based in Dallas, TX. DGDG has performed across Texas, Oklahoma, and California. Georgiou completed a year-long residency with the Dallas Public Libraries, where she staged Things Missing Missed, a collaboration between DGDG and Houston playwrights Melissa Flower and Philip Hays. DGDG has been a part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Elevator Project twice, the first time with NICE in 2014, and the second with Donkey Beach in 2017. DGDG was the first dance company ever invited to be a part of this prestigious project, and the only company asked back twice. DGDG was selected as Best Dance Troupe for 2020, 2017, and 2015 by the Dallas Observer and as Best Dance Company for 2016 by the Readers of D Magazine. The Show About Men (2015) was named Best New Play or Musical and cited for Outstanding Creative Contribution for Choreography by the Dallas Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum Awards. NICE (2014), which premiered at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre for the first AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Elevator Project, also won for Choreography. Since 2012, publications in North Texas, including The Dallas Morning News, TheaterJones, and Art&Seek, have listed DGDG’s performances as the top highlights in dance. Georgiou was named Outstanding Female Director of 2012 by Critical Rant and one of TheaterJones’ Forward Thinkers for 2015.
She works actively as a freelance choreographer and professional dancer in North Texas and has performed with Contemporary Ballet Dallas, Dallas Neo-Classical Ballet, DekaDance, Big Rig Dance Collective, and Muscle Memory Dance Theatre. She has acted professionally in productions at Dallas theatre companies, the Ochre House Theater and the Dead White Zombies. She has worked as a choreographer, movement coach, and fight choreographer at Theatre Three, Undermain Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater, and Echo Theatre. She also has worked as an arts writer for The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Observer, Glasstire, KERA’s Art&Seek, and currently writes a monthly column, The Sixth Position, for TheaterJones. She published her first book in 2008, The Politics of State Public Arts Funding.
She received her Bachelor’s Degree in International Business and French from the University of Texas in Arlington in 2006, and her Master’s Degree in Political Science from UT Arlington in 2008. She began her studies at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2008 and was a graduate student resident at CentralTrak—UT Dallas’ Artist Residency Program. She served as the Director of the UT Arlington Dance Ensemble and taught dance classes at the UT Arlington from 2017-2015. She served as the Interim Associate Dean of Arts and Communications at Eastfield College from 2017-2018. She is currently the Program Coordinator for Dance and Chair of The Arts Collective and Eastfield College.
She received her Ph.D. in Humanities-Aesthetic Studies in 2018 from the University of Texas at Dallas. Her dissertation focused on redefining contemporary dance theatre and exploring the interdisciplinary nature of dance and avant-garde, experimental theatre practices.