Danie’s academic dance training began at the University of Florida as an undergraduate where she recognized her interests in dance-film & choreography explored within the context of Black femininity. Continued technical training and choreographic experimentation proved useful in refining her artistic voice; leading her to utilize dance as a tool to inform, liberate, uplift and most importantly provide healing to the Black community, both locally and globally. Danie’s movement style fuses contemporary, and hip-hop dance forms to construct abstract narratives and familiar characters that reflect the stories of the Black community. As a Black woman devoted to breaking the pressures of body image and “acceptable” shapes in dance, Danie choreographs without a mirror to focus on intention rather than aesthetic.
Danie has had the great opportunity of studying improvisational, composition and contemporary techniques with award-winning dance artists Stephanie Batten Bland, Juel D. Lane, Jawole Zollar, Ron K. Brown and Davalois Fearon. She has also danced in the official dance company at the University of Florida, MOD (Modern Original Dance) under the direction of noted choreographer Trent D. Williams Jr. where she also worked with Dante Puleio who restaged Jose Limon’s historically all-male piece “Traitor” with a mixed gendered cast. In the summer of 2019, Danie worked alongside Miami-based artist-scholar A’Keitha Carey as her rehearsal director. A’Keitha Carey is known for her development of fusion dance technique, CaribFunk.
Education
Florida State University
M.F.A in Choreography & Performance