"Take Care."
(2019)
RT: 14 minutes
Dancers: 11
Music: “Apparition” by Wesley DeSouza, “Uni Version” by Alva Noto, and “Wings
in the Grass” by Aaron Martin
Costume Design: Pilar Rivas
Premiere: June 2019 (Comissioned at New Jersey Performing Arts Center)
he/him/his
(2019)
RT: 5 minutes
Dancers: 3
Music: “To Be” by The Irrepressibles
Premiere: July 2019 (Commissioned at Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts)
he/him/his choreographed by Daniel Padierna responds to societal norms dictating the types of behavior that are considered acceptable of men. Using a score by The Irrepressibles, his three dancers unveil the social constructs of men with various group and solo movements, pushing society’s boundaries of the male identity through physical and emotional fearlessness.
​
Photograph by SJR Photography
masc4masc
(2018)
RT: 8 minutes
Dancers: 2
Music: “Xerrox 2Ndevol2nd” by Alva Noto and “Hetkonen” by Vladislav Delay
Premiere: November 2018 (Tisch School of the Arts, New York University)
“masc4masc” is a contemporary work which reflects on society’s perception of men through a hyper- masculine lens and calls attention to the denial of femininity in the gay community. “masc,” an acronym for the word masculine, is a term in which fetishizes and exaggerates the idea of what it means to be manly, often times forcing men to falsify their true identity by becoming fixated behind a mainstream idea. While utilizing different sources of light as well as the grittiness of electronic sound scores by Alva Noto and Vladislav Delay, a male-identifying group aims to address the construction of their identities and the idea of masculinity in queer digital spaces (i.e. social media, dating applications, text messaging, etc.)
​
Photograph by SJR Photography
AMERICA
(2017)
RT: 7 minutes
Dancers: 14
Music: “Rip It Cookie Muenster” by Mistake & Someone Else
Premiere: December 2017 (Commissioned at Passaic County Technical
Institute – Wayne, NJ)
AMERICA choreographed by Daniel Padierna responds to today’s
overwhelmingly relentless political and social climates throughout
many aspects of the country. Using the electronic sounds of Mistake &
Someone Else, his fourteen dancers react to society’s constant chaos by
continuously interweaving through various formations, including
conversation through intricate partner work, and utilizing the ensemble
sections to advocate for a sense of community.
​
Photograph by Anthony Johnson
ECHO
(2016)
Choreography: Daniel Padierna and Eric Parra
RT: 6:30 minutes
Dancers: 2
Music: Sine Wave by Wesley DeSouza
Premiere: April 2017 (Montclair, NJ)
​
"ECHO" represents the patterned intricacies of an echo through music visualization. With an original sound score by Wesley DeSouza, Padierna and Parra use solo and partnering moments to create a balanced culmination of qualitative and textural movement.
​
Photograph by Robert M. Cooper
BANG BANG
(2016)
RT: 6:30 minutes
Dancers: 1
Music: Samples of the speech “The 2nd Amendment” spoken by Mokwala
Premiere: April 2016 (Montclair, NJ)
​
Inspired by the multiple shootings that occurred in the United States within the past decade, "BANG BANG" spotlights the content and effectiveness of the dated 2nd Amendment within our current society. Creating a sound score with samples of the speech “The 2nd Amendment” spoken by Mokwala, Padierna uses tap dance to produce percussive sounds that physicalize the feeling of pulling a trigger.
​​
Photograph by Robert M. Cooper