Danielle Russo is a choreographer, performer, and artivist based in New York City. Her choreography has been presented nationally at the American Dance Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, Governors Island, Jacob's Pillow, Lincoln Center, The Oculus at the World Trade Center, and The Yard; and internationally in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Mexico, Panama, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Choreographic commissions range from the proscenium stage to both public and private installations. However, her independent work concentrates on performance and interactive technology for unconventional formats and environments. This includes immersive and site-specific models of engaging new audiences in architectural, historical, and politically charged spaces, frequently in the public realm.

She has been awarded fellowships and residencies with C.N.N. - Ballet de Lorraine (France), Danscentrum Jette (Belgium), Independent Arts Initiative WUK (Austria), Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation (U.S.), LEIMAY (U.S.), Mana Contemporary (U.S.), Nadine Laboratory for the Contemporary Arts (Belgium), Performing Arts Forum (France), and Springboard Danse Montréal (Canada), among others. She is a multi-year grant recipient of the Department of Cultural Affairs through the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAF, LAS), as well as the Andrew Carnegie Corporation of New York, Dance/NYC, Harkness Foundation for Dance, One Brooklyn Fund, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. In 2022, she was a national semifinalist and grantee of the Expensify Community Justice Youth Advocacy Award.

Internationally, she has been curated and presented by the Anita Villalaz Teatro Nacional (Panama City, Panama), CGC skyltfönster (Karlstad, Sweden), C.N.N. - Ballet de Lorraine (Nancy, France), Danscentrum Jette PLATFORM (Brussels, Belgium), El Graner (Barcelona, Spain), Stockholm Kulturhuset (Stockholm, Sweden), Performática (Puebla, Mexico), Quartier des Spectacles (Montréal, Canada), Scotiabank Dance Centre (Vancouver, Canada), Studio 516 (Seoul, South Korea), Usine C (Montréal, Canada), and Werkstatten und Kulturhaus Im_flieger (Vienna, Austria).

Previous national engagements include the American Dance Festival (Durham, NC), Detroit Institute of Arts, International Writing Program (Iowa City, IA), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Becket, MA), Los Angeles Design Festival, The Forge (Los Angeles, CA), PARISH (Los Angeles, CA), and The Yard (Chilmark, MA). In 2012, Russo was a grant recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts to present at the 80th Anniversary Season of Jacob's Pillow and selected to represent the United States alongside John Jasperse at the inaugural PRISMA Festival de Danza Contemporánea in Panama. Also in 2012, she was selected as one of five international emerging choreographers for the Springboard Danse Montréal Professional Project, creating two new large-scale site-specific performances during its three-week engagement at the prestigious Place des Arts. In 2013, she was invited to present her multimedia solo work with artist Jin-Wen Yu at the World Dance Alliance Assembly in Canada. In 2016, her commission for the Los Angeles-based No)one. Art House caught the attention of Solange Knowles, who commissioned a reprisal of the evening-length production with her affiliate arts organization, Saint Heron.

Local highlights include Armory Arts Week (c/o SPRING/BREAK Art Show, (un)Scene Art Show), Brooklyn Historical Society, Julian Schnabel’s Casa del Popolo, CPR - Center for Performance Research, Domino Park, Governors Island, Gowanus Art + Production, HERE Arts Center, The High Line Nine, La MaMa, Lincoln Center for Performing Arts at Damrosch Park, Moynihan Station, and The Oculus, to name a few. She and her work have been featured in The Creators Project by VICE, as well as in Cultured Magazine, Dance Magazine, Refinery29, and The Village Voice, where acclaimed dance critic Deborah Jowitt commended Russo for her “dramatically eloquent athleticism.” Most recently, she was commissioned by The Metropolitan Opera’s Dancers, Chorus, and Orchestra for Open Culture NYC; New York Choral Society; Climate Week NYC; and LMCC's esteemed River to River Festival for Amy and Jennifer Khoshbin's THE SUN SEEKERS.

She is uniquely a professor of both dance practice and dance and performance studies, alike.

Currently, she is Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University, where she specializes in intermedia and interdisciplinary dance. Previously, she was faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, University of Iowa, 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 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. This includes choreography, choreography for site-specific to immersive dance theater, dance criticism and critical theories, dance as social practice, decolonizing dance history, history of art and performance-based activism, improvisation, movement modalities, 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. In 2021, 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 global 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 international institutions and festivals across Europe, and North and Central America.

Russo holds a BFA in Dance and a BA in Anthropology from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA in Dance from Hollins University/American Dance Festival where she attended on fellowship. Outside of her own work, she performed for several seasons with The Metropolitan Opera.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

American Guild of Musical Arts   •   Society of Dance History Scholars   •  American Dance Guild   •   World Dance Alliance - Americas   •   Fractured Atlas