Artistic Practice

Daniel Proietto is an internationally recognized artist whose practice spans dance, theatre, film, embodied research, education, and cultural innovation.

Born in Argentina and trained at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, he began his professional career at sixteen. After performing with Ballet de Santiago, Ballet del Teatro Argentino, and Ballet Contemporáneo del Teatro San Martín, he joined Carte Blanche, Norway’s National Company of Contemporary Dance, in 2003. In 2013, the Norwegian National Ballet created the position of Guest Artist for him—an exceptional distinction for a contemporary artist within a classical ballet company. He is also an Associate Artist at Maison de la Musique de Nanterre in Paris.

Since 2005, Proietto has pursued an independent international career, appearing at venues including New York City Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Sadler’s Wells, London Coliseum, and Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan.

As a choreographer, he received First Prize at the International Choreographers Competition in Hannover and has created for institutions including the Vienna State Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, and National Ballet of Cuba. His RASA, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of Ballet of Flanders, was selected by Dance Europe among the year’s best productions and nominated for the FEDORA–Van Cleef & Arpels Prize for Ballet.

His performance of Russell Maliphant’s AfterLight received the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award, Dance Europe’s Dancer of the Year distinction, and an Olivier Award nomination.

Original creation has been central to Proietto’s trajectory. For more than two decades, he has developed characters, movement, and original performance material alongside artists including Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Robyn Orlin, Johan Inger, and Alexander Ekman.

At the heart of this trajectory is his more than twenty-year collaboration with Alan Lucien Øyen. Together they have developed more than 40 works and projects, contributing to a distinctive language at the intersection of dance and theatre. Their collaborations range from choreographic works to fully theatrical productions, integrating acting, text, dramaturgy, and movement within a shared performance language. Their work has extended to major productions for the Paris Opera, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Gothenburg Opera, and Norwegian National Ballet.

For fifteen years, Proietto has studied and researched the performance traditions of Kabuki theatre and Nihon Buyo with Soke Fujima-ryu. Kanjuro Fujima VIII, one of the leading figures of contemporary Kabuki, created a work especially for him. This sustained encounter with Japanese theatrical traditions has become integral to Proietto’s investigation into presence, transformation, theatricality, and the transmission of knowledge through the body.

His practice also extends into film and visual culture. His creation Cygne appeared in Cathedrals of Culture, produced by Wim Wenders, and he has been filmed and photographed by Nick Knight for SHOWstudio. Proietto later moved behind the camera, writing and directing REALNESS.

An Expanding Practice

Over time, decades of creation, performance, embodied research, and pedagogy have expanded into a broader investigation: how can knowledge generated through artistic practice move beyond individual works and become something that can be preserved, transmitted, shared, and activated within society?

This research has led Proietto to develop methodologies, programs, editorial series, and interdisciplinary co-creations that move between artistic practice, education, human development, architecture, cultural heritage, and social transformation.

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MOVEMENT
Movement · Presence · Embodied Intelligence

EMBODIED PRACTICES
Body · Perception · Human Development

PRESENCE · LIFE · BELONGING
Programs

CREATING CULTURE · MEMORY SERIES · FUTURE IN MOTION · ARTIST SERIES
Series

SENSING SPACE · RETHINKING/REBUILDING
Interdisciplinary Co-Creations

Know Nation

These different strands converge in Know Nation, founded and artistically directed by Proietto as an evolving cultural practice connecting artistic creation, embodied knowledge, performing and visual arts, architecture, film, technology, education, and cultural diplomacy.

Rather than separating artistic creation from research, education, or social engagement, Know Nation explores what becomes possible when these territories are brought into dialogue—preserving the knowledge contained within artistic processes while generating new forms through which that knowledge can circulate and act in the world.

A pivotal expansion of this work emerged through Proietto’s participation in the closing of the annual United Nations Security and Peace meeting at the Oslo Opera House, within the main event organized by the Snøhetta Foundation. The encounter became a catalyst for the development of Sensing Space and Rethinking/Rebuilding, two large-scale interdisciplinary co-creations bringing artistic practice into dialogue with architecture, cultural heritage, education, social development, and international exchange.

Through these initiatives, Proietto’s practice increasingly operates across disciplines, institutions, and cultures, exploring art not only as a form of expression, but as a space for encounter, dialogue, cooperation, and the creation of new possibilities.

Across his work, one principle remains constant: the knowledge generated through artistic creation—and the intelligence carried by the body—can become a transformative force for individuals, culture, and society.