Dance

15 – 18 JAN

Add to wishlist Sydney Opera House, Drama Theatre

EXXY

Name: EXXY
Start: 2026-01-15 20:00:00+11:00
End: 2026-01-18 13:00:00+11:00
Location: Sydney Opera House

Dan Daw

UK & Australia

The cost of being true to yourself is always high.

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Description

Australian Exclusive Dan Daw Creative Projects & Sydney Opera House

Making a return to Sydney Festival for the first time since 2018’s powerful Beast, Dan Daw takes us back to where it all began: a working-class Aussie childhood and the start of his long journey towards becoming an internationally celebrated, proudly queer and disabled dance artist.  

With raw honesty and scorching stagecraft, Daw lays bare the pressure of success and the fragile balancing act of self-belief, asking what it costs to stay at the top of your game when you’ve always been made to feel on the outside.  

In EXXY (slang for “expensive”), Daw is joined by three extraordinary performers who move like him. Together, they echo, mirror and multiply his presence, conjuring the tantalising possibility of blending in after a lifetime of standing out.  

Visually provocative, emotionally fearless and threaded with humour, EXXY refuses to offer easy answers. Instead, it invites us into the contradictions Dan Daw embodies: bold yet insecure, triumphant yet uncertain, longing for community yet determined to be one of a kind.  

Stick around for a post-show talk following the 7.00pm show on 17 January. The post-show talk will be hosted by Jules Orcullo and will last approximately 45 minutes.

“Truly remarkable... life-affirming”

THE HERALD SCOTLAND

Dance

Dan Daw

UK & Australia

Dan is the Artistic Director of Dan Daw Creative Projects. Dan Daw Creative Projects is a disabled-led company which is leading the way in creating accessible international touring work that blurs the lines between theatre, dance and activism. Dan has presented his work at British Dance Edition (UK), Swedish Performing Arts Biennale (Sweden), Sydney Festival, Sydney World Pride, Rising Festival and APAM (Australia), Kampnagel, Sophiensaele and Radikal Jung (Germany), Trafo (Hungary), Auawirleben Theatre Festival (Switzerland), Teatro Municipal do Porto and Culturgest (Portugal), Onassis Stegi (Greece), Performance Space New York (USA).

Dan began working as a performer with Restless Dance Theatre (Australia) in 2002, and since then has gone on to work with some of the world’s best, including: Force Majeure, Queensland Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company (Australia), National Theatre Scotland (UK) and Skånes Dansteater (Sweden). Dan’s critically acclaimed live performance work has toured to over twenty venues around the World, been nominated for a UK National Dance Award in 2022 and more recently awarded a Green Room Award for Best Contemporary and Experimental Performance during his 2023 season of The Dan Daw Show at Rising Festival and APAM. A Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist and working as Auawirleben Theatre Festival Associate Curator (2024 – 2025), Fokus Tanz Co-curator (2024), Internationale Tanzmesse NRW Associate Curator (2021 – 2024), Associate Artistic Director of Candoco Dance Company (2021), Sadler’s Wells Summer University Artist (2015 – 2018) and Associate Director of Murmuration (2015 – 2022), Dan continues to work at the forefront of disability-led performance making and international performance programming.

Jules Orcullo

Jules Orcullo (she/they) is a writer, songwriter, and dramaturg. She currently works as Dramaturg at Sydney Theatre Company where she co-facilitates the Watershed Writers program and is Resident Dramaturg at Encounter Theatre. In 2024, Jules’ debut musical FORGETTING TIM MINCHIN had its premiere season at Belvoir 25A – and was nominated for an AWGIE Award and Time Out Award for Best Musical. Directly following this, Jules won the Griffin Award for her play MY DAD NEVER SAW THE BEATLES, which is now in development with Griffin Theatre Company. In 2024 Jules was selected as an inaugural member of the Invention Comedy Incubator, run by Nicky Weinstock’s company, Invention Studios. As a Dramaturg, she has worked with Black Swan State Theatre Company, ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, and Darlinghurst Theatre.

She mentors artists via ShopFront Arts Co-op, Curious Works, ATYP, and Australian Plays Transform, and through her development platform, The Joy Offensive. Jules has held education roles at NIDA, Belvoir, and ATYP, and producing roles at ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, Belvoir, Co-Curious, and Contemporary Asian Australian Performance. She delivers workshops on values transparency in writing for performance. She is an alumna of writing programs at APRA AMCOS, Hayes Theatre, Contemporary Asian Australian Performance, AFTRS, Playwriting Australia, ATYP, The Royal Court, Soho Theatre, and the Lyric Hammersmith. She has held creative residencies at Burwood Library and Community Hub and Brand X/The City of Sydney. Jules is a proud founding member of Kallective, developing works for the Filipinx diaspora.

Government Partners

Festival Sponsor

Credits

Important Information

Content advice: Contains haze/smoke effects.

Restricted to audiences aged 16+.

Every performance of EXXY includes Creative Captioning. Captions are projected onto the set at the rear of the stage.

Pre-Show Access drop-in sessions for EXXY

The Dan Daw Creative Projects (DDCP) team has developed Pre-Show Access as an added benefit for any audience members who come to EXXY who may need additional information to be comfortable in the space and enjoy the performance. This includes, but is not limited to audience members who are visually impaired, neurodivergent, d/Deaf or audiences who identify as physically disabled.

Pre-Show Access is an informal, drop-in session available before every performance for all ticket holders. It begins one hour prior to showtime and runs for 30 minutes. There’s no need to book – simply come along to the Drama Theatre at Sydney Opera House during this window (please note some elements of pre-show access are only available for the first 30 minutes as detailed below).

The session is run by the DDCP team and includes:

• Explanations of trigger content in as much or little detail as you need

• Demonstration of the lighting design of the show at their brightest*

• Demonstration of the sound design of the show at its loudest*

• An opportunity to find your seat and familiarise yourself with the space*

• Access to the stage and set*

• Priority entry to the theatre when the doors open

• Try out our environmental noise reduction equipment to see if it might help you during the show

• Try out our tactile equipment to see if it might help you during the show

• Tutorial on the use of our Audio Describing equipment, which comes with several options to tailor your experience of the show to your preference.

• Information on the set, props and costume

• Show credits