T E A C H I N G . . . A T S C H O O L , I N T H E S T U D I O , I N T H E C O M M U N I T Y
Danielle is uniquely a professor of both dance practice and dance and performance studies, alike.
Currently, Russo is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. Previously, she was on faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase, CUNY Queens College, Hollins University, and The Joffrey Ballet School’s BFA and Professional Divisions. She teaches a range of studio, practicum, lecture, seminar, and hybrid courses for both undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. Her course load includes choreography, choreography for site-specific to immersive dance theater, critical theories, dance as social practice, decolonizing dance history, history of art and performance-based activism, improvisation, movement techniques (intermediate to advanced ballet, postmodern, and contemporary), and somatic research. In 2022, she was recruited by the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase to teach on behalf of the Departmental Chair, Professor Darrah Carr, while on sabbatical. Also in 2021 - 2022, she was selected by the Dean and the Office of the Provost to create and teach a brand-new course, entitled Performance as Protest, in the progressive Big Ideas Course Series at New York University. At the time, she was the only Adjunct Professor selected out of New York University’s global faculty for the Big Ideas Course Series, for which she worked with 68 international students and led 7 guest faculty members.
Outside of her work in universities and collegiate programs, she has taught numerous workshops at esteemed professional studios, and international institutions and festivals across Europe, and North and Central Americas. For course descriptions and/or to request a CV, please email danielle@drpp.nyc.
Participants in SOAK, 2015. Photograph by Em Watson.
P R O F E S S S I O N A L C L A S S E S & W O R K S H O P S
intermediate/advanced … CONTEMPORARY TECHNIQUE
tracing the now … IMPROVISATIONAL STRATEGIES
the body devoted … PERFORMING EXHAUSTION & ITS REVEAL
inhabit lab … REIMAGINING THE STAGE: EXTERIOR SPACES & PLACES
object play … DEVICES FOR INTERACTIVE DANCE THEATER & GAMING
soak lab … ON PREPARING TO ABANDON THE PROSCENIUM
For class descriptions, please email danielle@drpp.nyc.
Left to Right: tracing the now at Performatica Festival in Puebla, Mexico in 2012 (photograph by Danielle Russo); soak at the Barcelona Dance Exchange in Barcelona, Spain in 2013 (photograph by Tristán Pérez-Martín); Contemporary Technique at 100 Grand in 2015 (photograph by Steven Schreiber).
C O M M U N I T Y C O L L A B O R A T O R I E S
Currently: Digital Archaeology & Dancing for Social Change
DRPP began its partnerships with Red Hook Initiative and El Puente in 2019, where we built and implemented a brand-new S.T.E.A.M. curriculum with each center’s youth leadership and career exploration programs. By 2020, DRPP launched the first prototype of this S.T.E.A.M. program, called Digital Archaeology, with Red Hook Initiative, a community center working to combat institutional racism and inequity by empowering local youth. Through The Freedom School of the Children’s Defense Fund, DRPP led a virtual collaboratory with its Youth Leaders (ages 11 – 22). Together, we gathered past and living histories, public documents, and growing scientific data to create an interactive portrait of Red Hook, revealing the serious effects of climate change and local policy on the neighborhood. In addition to its in-house artists and technologists, DRPP mobilized a faculty of local environmentalists, conservationists, historians, activists, and community organizers actively working in the neighborhood, to broaden our exploration and encourage community alliance. Together, we worked with the Youth Leaders to gather, process, and organize research and data content. In doing so, we prioritized their self-authorship and reclaiming narratives — particularly championing the Youth Leaders, many of whom are Black and Brown adolescents whose lived experiences have been directly impacted by the systemic racism investigated in our collective research.
Simultaneously, we collaboratively designed the blueprint for the culminating mobile app experience, exploring different technological models and debating how our findings could be effectively arranged and shared with a public audience. What icons best symbolize our research topics? What colors most accurately reflect these topics and their urgencies? What app features or buttons are most engaging? Most intuitive?
In Summer 2021, DRPP shifted to in-person programming at both Red Hook Initiative and El Puente, and introduced a new Dancing for Social Change collaboratory in the S.T.E.A.M. program. DRPP teaching artists and the Youth Leaders created site-specific dances inspired by our collective research and response. DRPP teaching artists consisted of all performers and members of the production and app development teams.
All Youth Leaders were paid for their participation through their community center’s youth development and employment training program for career exploration in the arts, health, social justice, and environmental advocacy. As mentioned, all DRPP artists involved in the production of Final Notice served as Teaching Artists.
During Summer 2021, Youth Leaders self-archived their research and creative processes as seen here, with consent for publication and sharing. This documentation was a part of their daily practice of rewriting and reclaiming the archive. Images feature Abdul Keshinro, Arianna Villafone, Ashly Tavarez, Billy Jean, Cheng Bao, Jady Woo, Kia Glean, Kimberly Lucas, Leslie Gomez-Rodriguez, Monae Minter, Neveah Middleton, Reniia Sealey, Sonia Iglesias, Yacetie Santas, Yuneicy Ramirez, and Zaniya McDay. For more information, click here.