Danielle Lydia Sheather, Canadian born dancer, choreographer, artist, and educator, considers herself a life-long learner and an arts advocate. Her professional training includes Bates Dance Festival, the Katherine Dunham Educators Workshop, Paul Taylor Winter Intensive, Limón Spring Studies Program, Horton Pedagogy Workshop, Centre National de la Danse, Off Jazz Stage d'été, and One Body One Career Countertechnique Intensive in Melbourne Australia. She has performed both nationally and internationally in various settings from commercial to concert dance on both television and stage including national commercials for Busch Gardens Williamsburg and the International Dance Festival at the Duke on Broadway.
Her choreographic works are an artistic expression of human consciousness through the medium of physical exploration and she has enjoyed successful collaborations with other artists including harpist Rachel Knight and visual artist Ruben Ramirez. Danielle's choreography has been showcased at various venues and festivals including Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC), WAXworks at Triskelion Arts (NYC), WHITE WAVE DUMBO Dance Festival at the Gelsey Kirkland ArtsCenter (NYC), Dixon Place (NYC), Stevie Eller Dance Theater (Tucson, AZ), McGinnis Theater (Greenville, NC), The Capitol Theatre (Salt Lake City, UT), and Le Regard du Cygne (Paris, France). She has also been commissioned to create works for Zodiaque Dance Company and Zodiaque Dance Ensemble as well as Flatlands Dance Theatre (Lubbock, TX). Danielle's work NEVER, the less was selected to participate in the 2022 Inaside Chicago Dance Choreography Competition. In February 2024, her work, I Knew a Man was showcases at WHITE WAVE presents the SoloDuo Dance Festival at Dixon Place in New York City.
As scholar, she is interested in exploring the neuromuscular/psychosomatic connections that exist between the mind and body in order to develop sound anatomical alignment, longevity, and injury prevention techniques and has presented at the Dance Science and Somatics Conference. Danielle along with Dr. James D. Walters co-hosts the podcast, The Dance UP! Shining the light on cultural competency between dance and healthcare for better communication and care. In addition to her passion for biomechanics, Danielle is a self proclaimed history buff. While on tour she was often asked to give brief synopses of the cities and towns she traveled to in Germany and Australia. With respect to Dance History, she is firmly interested in refuting the ahistorical narratives that have been utilized to uphold power dynamics within the field and help students identify dance as a cultural practice regardless of the genre they are studying.
She received her MFA from the University of Arizona as a University Fellow and was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant for the College of Fine Arts and the Creative Achievement Award. During her studies, she was invited to teach in Mexico and received funding, including the Medici Scholarship, to study in Nice, France. In 2003, Danielle received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Honors College with a BFA in Dance and BA in Psychology.
Danielle has previously served as Clinical Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo, Guest Artist and Instructor at East Carolina University and is an ABT® Certified Teacher in Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. She is also a certified Yoga Instructor (RYT 500hr, ERYT 200hr) and has taught for New York Yoga and Sonic Yoga in NYC. Additionally, she has completed the Progressing Ballet Technique Teacher Training and enjoys teaching master classes for Dance Masters of America's Teachers Training School and the Student Honors Intensive Program. Congruent with her desires to pursue life long learning, Danielle has also completed the Dance Education Lab Facilitator in Training Program and the Dane Education Lab Teacher Certificate Program. She has been invited to teach for the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program and has published her scholarship through NDEO's Behind the Curtain Blog.
She is currently serving as Assistant Professor at Southern Utah University. Most recently she developed and wrote the curriculum for the progressive jazz dance track in order to represent a more equitable education allowing jazz dance to now be on par with both ballet and modern dance training. It continues to be the first program of its kind in the state of Utah where the study of jazz dance at multiple levels is now a required technical component to earn an undergraduate BA or BS degree in both the Dance and Dance Education track. She also serves as the Development Manager for INTANGIBLE ROOTS owned by Professor Moncell E. Durden.