Performer + Choreographer | New York City
"Dance is in my blood - nothing feels better than physically representing music."
— Dani Berman
Regional theater productions across the US, with experience in commercial and jazz dance. Bringing authentic, emotive storytelling to every role — from high-energy ensemble work to character-driven solos.
View PerformancesCreating movement that connects deeply with music and narrative. Specializing in theatrical choreography that blends technical precision with emotional authenticity.
View ChoreographyI am a dance artist who creates work on the basis of how the body naturally moves. I like to incorporate everyday gestures into my work, exhibiting aspects of strength and emotionality. My work tends to live in a space of human emotion at its core, coming from personal experience meshed with theatrical features. Being a creative who struggles with emotional regulation, I have unique experiences surrounding the intensity of how I feel, which I incorporate into my work. More mundane feelings become physicalized and exaggerated in an attempt to make the audience feel more, and potentially make them uncomfortable. I use movement to explore and attempt to understand topics of trauma, abuse, mental illness, sexuality, joy, and peace.
I am interested in how our experiences – no matter how insignificant they may seem – help to shape our whole being. The human experience is so complex, and presently, it is becoming harder and harder to feel stable all the time. We are consuming so much negativity whether it's competition for employment, global death, or even coping with the decisions of the government, so much is unfair and tragic in the world. This ties into the way we process information and how we feel, which is something I am interested in itself.
My work explores emotional distress and how to cope with it. In creative processes, I utilize floorwork and trance like stares to depict moments of panic or depression. I also like to combat these elements with the idea of strength, inner peace and acceptance.
I have questions about how to implement complex aspects of human existence into movement. I want to discover ways to abstract these ideas in movement that I tend to create from story, and it can become literal. Although this isn't a bad way to create, I want to stretch my creative muscles and work on conceptual ways to move.
My work is driven by music. If the movement is not connected to sound, I cannot be happy with it, as the music is my drive to create. I like to utilize different accents in the body, with tensing up and locking out limbs, small ticks and sudden level changes. Being of a small stature, I really love lower to the ground movement, especially a fast, consecutive floor sequence. I also like to see pictures and spatial relationships through the large taking of space.
My work exists on the basis of disagreement. This is disagreement of personalities, concepts, countries or anything else that exists where two entities or beings oppose each other. Without disagreement, uncomfortable feelings would be infrequent, and emotional struggle would feel less overwhelming. This is embedded in our world; disagreement exists everywhere, and I think that it is necessary to begin a movement of growth.