Daniel Phoenix Singh
President and Artistic Director
Daniel Phoenix Singh is the Artistic Director and President of Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company. Singh holds an MFA in Dance and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland. He also holds a Laban Movement Analyst Certificate from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York City. He received a baccalaureate degree in Dance and Computer Science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Singh trained in Bharata Natyam with Guru Meena Telikicherla of Nrityanjali, Maryland for several years.
Singh’s most recent explorations in dance include Cuban/Colombian variations of Salsa and Merengue with Javier Varela and Shawn Malone and he is currently training with Sharna Fabiano in Argentine Tango. He is currently on the faculty at Maryland Youth Ballet, and often guest teaches at schools and Universities. Singh is active in KhushDC, a Washington DC organization serving the South Asian LGBT community and its friends. His works have been the critic’s pick in Washington City Paper and The Washington Post, and Voice of America profiled his dance company in the fall of 2005. His piece, Songs of My Life, was a finalist in the Metro DC Dance Awards, and Singh was a finalist for the Mayor’s Emerging Artist award in 2006 and 2007. In 2007, he was nominated for the Creative Communities Artist Fellowship in 2007. The company received the Founder’s Award for Innovation in Dance in 2007 and received the Emerging Group and Excellence in Costume Design in 2008 from the Metro DC Dance Awards.
In 2009, Dakshina received a prestigious touring grant and performed Anna Sokolow’s work in India and also was the first US based dance company to visit Bangladesh since the country’s founding 40 years ago. In 2010, Artistic Director, Daniel Phoenix Singh became one of the youngest finalists for the DC Mayor’s Arts Awards in the Innovation in the Arts category. In 2011, Dakshina was one of only two US based dance companies to be invited to perform at the prestigious Maximum India Festival organized by Kennedy Center. In 2012, the company is completing a tour through 6 Mid-Atlantic states in 9 theaters funded by the Arts Connect program of the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.