PAST EVENT

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.

PAST EVENT

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 Morwenna Collett and will last approximately 45 minutes.

---

Event update: The performance of EXXY on 17 January has been cancelled due to technical issues. All ticket holders will receive a full refund and have been contacted by email. We apologise for any inconvenience.

“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.

Morwenna Collett

Morwenna runs a national consultancy, specialising in access, diversity, equity and inclusion. She helps arts, culture, screen and government organisations create positive change, through strategy, research, consultation and training. She brings her lived experience as a disabled musician to her work. Recent clients include Screen Australia, Questacon, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Perth Festival, Creative Australia and many more.

Morwenna is currently a Board Director of the Peggy Glanville Hicks Trust and Festivals Board of Create NSW. She chairs Accessibility and Equity Panels for Sydney Festival, Sydney Fringe and Performance Space, and is a Committee member of the Disability Council NSW and the Perth Festival’s Accessibility Panel. She has previously been the CEO of Accessible Arts and a Director at the Australia Council for the Arts (now Creative Australia). She completed a Churchill Fellowship, exploring inclusive music programs, venues and festivals which actively engage disabled people across the USA and UK.

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.

All Audio Description enquiries to be directed to accessibility@sydneyoperahouse.com

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