Artistic Services
PERFORMER, CHOREOGRAPHER, EDUCATOR
"Danielle Marie Fusco is an all around virtuoso. Her ability to move from Dzul a somewhat heavy piece to the fun and fluff of Jazz at Luigi’s memorial truly shows off her versatility...This woman is so impressive and does so much it truly makes one reflect on their own usefulness." ~Stage Biz
ABOUT ME
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Danielle Marie Fusco is an award-winning Italian-American dancer, choreographer, aerialist, and shamanic healer with a multifaceted career in commercial theatre, concert dance, and arts-in-education.
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Danielle's off-Broadway and Equity credits include "Tink," "The Anthem," and "The Vanity." She has graced prestigious venues like the NY Innovative Theatre Awards opening ceremony and the NY Musical Festival. In concert dance, she has collaborated with renowned artists and companies including Dzul Dance in New York and Mexico, Noemi LeFrance, Nejla Yatkin, Miriam Barbosa, Jazz Roots, Edgar Cortes, Graham 2, and the 2008 season of Sam Pott’s "Episode of American Document" at the Joyce Theatre with Graham Co, Jazz Dance Legacy, and Luigi Jazz Center Memorial Shows.
Danielle has been recognized as a #1 Critic’s Pick in Time Out Magazine for "Night of 1000 Stevies," a PEACE Grant Participant with the Patchogue Arts Council, and a recipient of the Hupstate Circus Residency for Circus Culture. As an artist for FINI Dance Italy and New York, she continues to shape and inspire the global dance community. Celebrated for her performance and choreography, she received the 2022 Italian Dance Award for "Best Dancer" with Fini Dance Festivals and Awards. Danielle has taught at prestigious institutions such as the Martha Graham School, Nazareth College, Kean University, PACE Commercial Dance, and NYU.
She has studied the ritual Italian pizzica dance with Lucia Scarabino of Notte Della Taranta in Italy, has danced with Alessandra Belloni and I Giullari di Piazza and has showcased her solo works at events such as the Columbus Citizen’s Foundation for the Women’s Auxiliary, Festa Della Donna with Vanessa Racci, and the Dance Astoria annual Festival in Queens. Her solo il Rituale was selected to be presented in Calabria, and restaged with 20 local young dancers. She was as a guest artist with Allegro Dance Company and performed her solo at the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival along with making an appearance with the company performing regional Italian Folk Dances. Her artistry shines in every facet of her career, leaving an indelible mark on the world of dance and community outreach.
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Repertory Projects
Danielle Marie Fusco's new repertory work Il Rituale is an autobiographical, physical narrative that explores her journey of ancestral healing and veneration of Pre-Pagan Italian culture through a series of shamanic initiation rites, channelings, lineage healing, and research. Utilizing elements of dance and physical theatre, circus and sacred ritual, Danielle’s work carves out the stories of one of history’s most intriguing and mystical European civilizations.
Her work visually and physically transforms a performance space, captivating the audience and immersing them into a genuine demonstration of the shamanic practices prevalent among southern Italian healers. Inspired by folk tales of secret socieities of Southern Italian women, Danielle sheds light on their teachings of the mysteries of the universe and our natural connection to spirit and magic.
Guided by this inspiration, Danielle's Il Rituale encourages deeper introspection into our most fundamental principles of life, urging us to recognize our shared heritage and contemplate our collective aspirations for the future. Dance and ritual are deeply intertwined in Italian culture, inseparable when one embarks on a journey to manifest magic and ponder the mystical nature of our connection to the cosmos.
This performance delves into the magical realm where unity with the universe allows for perceptions beyond verbal expression.Through this evolving piece, Danielle Marie Fusco's Il Rituale aims to bridge the cosmic connection between the audience and the performers, using the powerful mediums of dance, ritual, incense, prayer candles, fabric, aerial arts and interdisciplinary art modalities to communicate age-old legends and traditions.
Da Donna A Strega
From Woman to Witch
Da Donna a Strega is an evocative contemporary dance work that reimagines the story of the witch through a deeply female perspective, blending modern and spiritual movement with the rich cultural mysticism of Southern Italian traditions. The piece is a visceral exploration of repression, resilience, and transformation, weaving the broom—a powerful yet unassuming symbol—into a narrative of captivity and liberation.
At its core, Da Donna a Strega tells the story of a Calabrian woman whose identity is fractured by patriarchal fear and control. The term "witch," historically assigned by men to ostracize and diminish women, is reclaimed in this work as a metaphor for divine, untamed power. This piece reflects how a woman's essence, her uniqueness, and her connection to her mystical nature were severed through imposed labels.
The broom, central to the performance, embodies the duality of repression and escape. It represents the domestic burden—a tool of enforced labor, confinement, and servitude within the home. At the same time, it is her key to freedom, a literal and metaphorical vehicle for transcendence. According to folklore, witches used brooms to fly, breaking the chains of their confinement. In Da Donna a Strega, the broom becomes both a symbol of her anchored captivity and her ultimate liberation, alchemized through the woman’s inherent magic.
La Madre/The Mother
Danielle Marie Fusco's La Madre is a recent work commissioned by Vanessa Racci for her 6th Annual Festa Della Donna at the Columbus Citizens Foundation.
Drawing inspiration from the expressive physicality of modern dance, my reverence for ancient cultures, and my deep curiosity about the mystic and esoteric world, La Madre explores the timeless essence of the female archetype—the one who births, nurtures, laments, and ultimately harnesses power through life force energy.
Rooted in the mystical traditions of Southern Italy, this solo is a sacred embodiment of creation, love, and renewal. It honors the eternal presence of the Divine Mother—Mother Mary, the Great Goddess (Grand Dea), the Madonna, and Mother Earth herself. The piece moves through the space as both an invocation and an offering, bridging the celestial and the earthly, the ancient and the contemporary.
Adorned in beige to reflect her universality beyond any single faith, La Madre is a prayer to the sacred feminine in all her forms—healer, protector, creator, and eternal source of life. Through movement, this work serves as a lamentation, a hymn, and a celebration of resilience, faith, and the transformative power of the feminine spirit.
We all embody La Madre.
Flight of the Tarantata
Flight of the Tarantata, an aerial, folk, and contemporary dance work that weaves together myth, movement, and memory. This piece is a deep exploration of Tarantism, the ancient Southern Italian dance ritual of healing and trance, reimagined through the lens of aerial artistry and modern storytelling.
From the first whisper of ancestral calling to the wild, ecstatic unraveling of the tarantata. This work is not just about dance; it is about remembrance. It is a reclamation of a forgotten ritual, a reconnection to the women who danced for survival, for healing, for transcendence.
Each work captures a moment of this evolution: the call of ancestry, the first steps into the unknown, the bite that awakens, the trance that liberates, and the ultimate flight—suspended between sky and earth, where movement becomes medicine. The silk of the aerial apparatus becomes the thread linking past and present, weaving a story of resilience and rebirth.
Stay tuned as Flight of the Tarantata continues to take shape. More photos, videos, and behind-the-scenes glimpses will be shared as this work unfolds.
Photographers: Jeff Mondlock, Wendy Wild, Eric Bandiero, Rob Klein, Antonella Cordaro