GET TO KNOW | Dan Canham
28 July 2026
My name is Bradley. I am a young person from the Fens who has a passion for the arts. I met Dan Canham through one of his projects, Four Portraits from an Edgeland where I spoke about my interest and some of my personal struggles. I also have a passion for young people and families struggling with neurodivergence. I believe everyone should be able to access the arts in some shape or form. Here is my interview with Dan…
What inspired you to become a choreographer?
I used to love musical theatre when I was a growing up. My mum would take me to the West End to see shows and I was always in performances at school or with my local community theatre or National Youth Theatre. Once I graduated, I worked for a long time as an actor in physical theatre shows where I would also sing and play instruments. As time passed, I became more drawn to the immediacy and directness of movement and dancing and I started to use dance as the primary register in my shows. I get especially inspired by dances people make up and dances that sit outside of the classical tradition. In that sense, social media is a goldmine for me! I still love making up dances myself and I love teaching and bringing people on a journey.
Growing up in the fens, were there any barriers you faced on route to dance and if so how did you overcome them?
I grew up in a village called Burwell on the edge of the fens and I had good access to Cambridge where I could take dance lessons/do youth and community theatre. I also had a school that believed in the performing arts. And most crucially I had a mum who would go out of her way to make sure my sister and I had access to the things we cared about most. So in that sense I felt very lucky and didn’t feel too many barriers. But I understand that the fens is quite atomised in terms of opportunity – with incredible people making great things happen, but sometimes spread out and having to do it alone.
Can you tell us about your latest projects and what inspired them?
The most recent project I worked on was the closing ceremony/event for Bradford City of Culture. Working as co-director and choreographer alongside my colleague, the brilliant director Emily Lim, we created an event called Brighter Still. It featured 200 performers on winter solstice, with fire and dancing, 5000 people in the audience, outdoors in a beautiful park in Bradford. It was a bonkers project and an incredible thing everyone pulled off. It carries the DNA of so many of the things I’m inspired by – performance as ritual, notions of “folk”, a community coming together to witness and be witnessed, dance as urgent and necessary.
“It carries the DNA of so many of the things I’m inspired by – performance as ritual, notions of “folk”, a community coming together to witness and be witnessed, dance as urgent and necessary.”
Based on your experience, what advice would you give to someone who is looking at pursuing a career in the arts?
Some random things that may or not be helpful…
- There are tonnes of different routes through a career in the arts and no one is “the right way”.
- Where you situate yourself is such an important choice. For me there is always a balance with access to community/peers and opportunity and inspiration vs the cost of being in that place.
- Keep investing in your art and your skills. Keep looking to be inspired, going to workshops, watching shows, talking to people.
- You will likely have to mix it up and get good at a few different things. You might have a main thing, but being able teach or lead workshops or have different strings to your bow will be really helpful.
- Back yourself. If you start thinking of yourself as an artist/performer/actor/director whatever you want to be, others will think of you that way too. You might have a bit of imposter syndrome but we all do! Keep practicing good self talk and putting yourself out there. You know enough to get going and everyone call always learn more.
- You’ll experience rejection. Everyone does. Try and resist comparison. You are enough!
What have been the most rewarding parts of your journey so far?
I feel incredibly lucky with the work I have managed to do over the years. I’ve had some real highlights – touring overseas with my own company, doing some really big and ambitious community shows, working with incredible collaborators. One of my absolute favourite parts of my job is taking people on a journey. I love coming into a space where people might not know me, might not know each other, might not think dance is for them and getting people having fun and dancing together in joy. That’s the best thing, whatever the context.
What projects are you currently working on or planning for the future?
I’m currently working on 3 main projects. One is Lowlands – the final film I’m making with young people in the fens as part of my multi-year residency here through Norfolk and Norwich Festival. As ever, I’m completely inspired by this landscape and by young people here. It’s been an utter joy to being together 45 young dancers form the area and to get out into the fields at sunset and have a good dance. I can’t imagine a more enjoyable project to be honest. I’m also co-directing and choreographing a work in New York with my colleague director Emily Lim called Public Record. That brings together 120 New Yorkers to make an album of their lives and was inspired by time we spent up in Sunderland last year when we first made a version of that show. The last project is an adaptation of a book called Lanny I’m movement directing for Bristol Old Vic, that is all about folklore and a connection to nature.
Images: Lily Monsey