Writing & Creation
Daniel's enthusiasm for writing began at age ten. Although being a lyricist is at the core of his creative work, Daniel has also become increasingly involved in playwriting, poetry, and installation pieces over the past years. His projects as a lyricist have included collaborations with German artist, Xavier Naidoo (Single "Ich Trage Dich"), Burnt Friedmann (Album "First Night Forever", and Patrick Nuo. He has also penned songs for American singer, Daniel Hall in collaboration with H.il (The Hoodoo) and Franz Plasa of the well known German studio, Home Studios.
Daniel's collaborative work on theater and installation pieces includes Phoenix Fabrik with acclaimed director, Daniel Alexander Jones and Love and War with German composer Jakob Vinje and painter, Swen Kählert. In 2009, Daniel teamed up with Kählert again on the conception and music composition for Kählert's multimedia installation, The Mantis, in Berlin. His next piece, a song cycle, which will be yet another collaboration with Kählert and Vinje, will receive its first workshop performance in 2011 in the United States.
THe Mantis
This abstract performance installation set in Gallery Lucas Carieri in Berlin explores the complex physical and spiritual nature of modern women in juxtaposition to one of the most bizarre and revered insect species, the praying mantis. In a fantastical tropical world built by artist, Swen Kählert, Daniel Dodd-Ellis, Barbara Duchow, Minako Seki, and Jens Krassnig take viewers on a mystical journey, on which they become witness to a ritual of sacrifice, transformation, and rebirth.
Concept by Swen Kählert, Martin Sambauer, Barbara Duchow, & Daniel Dodd-Ellis Directed by Martin Sambauer & Barbara Duchow Visuals by Martin Sambauer & Ivo Vossen Music by Daniel Dodd-Ellis & Ivo Vossen Project funded by an artist grant from SISSIROSSI bags of Italy.
The Bridge Projekt at St. Nikolai
"The Bridge Project at Saint Nikolai" is a project conceived and developed by Daniel Dodd-Ellis and Swen Kählert. With the developments in immigration and mass media over the last century, people have increasingly found themselves in a struggle to find new language and understand new cultural norms. However, bridging these gaps involves first exploring our shared histories, as well as our misconceptions. With a group of international collaborators, Daniel Dodd-Ellis and Swen Kählert have conceived a project involving an architectural structure built on the ruins of the St. Nikolai War Memorial, a place of cultural significance in Hamburg. Dancers and musicians relive memories and prejudices, transforming this powerful abstract structure over the duration of the performance.
Love and War | A Thematic Song Installation
The central idea behind Love and War is based on the massive transportation of these two themes in film, television, and the media into our homes and living rooms, thereby shaping the way we think, feel, and see. In a sense, we are continuously “bombarded” with these issues on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. We are held captive by the strong images, by our curiosity of violence and strong desire to feel love. The high volume and frequency of these images makes us numb and hardened to their existence.
Love and War takes us directly into the living space of a young man who is experiencing self induced isolation, while locked on to his T.V. console. His thoughts, memories, wishes and internal debates are reflected in songs and lyric Monologues,
Love and War is meant to create a dialogue of awareness of our susceptibility. Once awakened, we regain objectivity, sensitivity, a sense of release out of our captivity.
Love and War is a multi-media installationa conceived and developed by: Daniel Dodd-Ellis (Singer, Performer) Jakob Vinje (Pianist, Music director) Swen Kählert (Painting/ Scene design) Patrick Debus & Teresa Wolff (Film) Maurizio Barucca and Ilaria Forte (Digital-Art) In cooperation with Mesaoo Wrede (Curator)
Phoenix Fabrik
How do you forgive a violence so great it has defined your experience? How do you remember without forgetting to breathe? How do you make something beautiful rise from the ashes? PHOENIX FABRIK shouts these questions in the rhythm of a ring play, and seeks its answers in the revelations of four characters.
PHOENIX FABRIK is a project of the Creative Capital Foundation. It was developed through New Dramatists’ Play Time Program. PHOENIX FABRIK is written and directed by Daniel Alexander Jones, and currently features actors Robbie McCauley, Barbara Duchow, Namir Smallwood and Sonja Perryman. Rhonda Ross Kendrick, Vinie Burrows, Helga Davis, Daniel Dodd Ellis, Aimee Bryant and William Sturdivant are all part of the project’s family.
- Daniel Alexander Jones
