Daniel Banks

Daniel Banks, Ph.D. (he/him), is a theatre director, choreographer, educator, and dialogue facilitator. He has worked extensively in the U.S. and abroad, having directed at such notable venues as the National Theatre of Uganda (Kampala), the Belarussian National Drama Theatre (Minsk), The Market Theatre (Johannesburg, South Africa), the Hip Hop Theatre Festival (New York and Washington, D.C.), the Oval House (London), and served as choreographer/movement director for productions at New York Shakespeare Festival/Shakespeare in the Park, Singapore Repertory Theatre, La Monnaie/De Munt (Brussels), Landestheater (Saltzburg), Aaron Davis Hall (Harlem), and for Maurice Sendak/The Night Kitchen. Daniel has served on the faculties of the Department of Undergraduate Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, the MFA in Contemporary Performance at Naropa University, the M.A. in Applied Theatre at the City University of NY, and most recently as Chair of Performing Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. He is the founder and director of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative which uses Hip-Hop Theatre to promote youth self-expression and leadership training. HHTI has worked on campuses and in communities across the U.S. and in Ghana, South Africa, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Israel, and Mexico. He is a long-time advisor in the Gallatin School for Individualized Studies and on the Founding Board of the Hip Hop Education Center in the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education in the Steinhardt School, both at NYU.

Image courtesy of Daniel Banks