Danny Grossman – 1942-2023

Remembering danny

On July 29, our community lost a giant of the dance world and we at DCD lost a friend. Danny Grossman was a passionate believer in the importance of preserving dance. He was one of few in the dance world who made a point of restaging works, not just his but those that he felt had made a mark on the choreographic canon. He was also passionate about the messages dance could relay. Whether using humour, satire, or deeply poignant movement phrases, Danny created a repertoire that commented on sexuality, politics, poverty, and the great challenges facing humanity. In my student years at York University, Danny’s name was surrounded by a mythic quality. He had created Higher within the very walls in which we danced.

Before I graduated, the main dance studio at York was dedicated to Canada’s great statesman of dance, Grant Strate, who had also hired Danny to teach in the early 1970s. There was a concert held in York’s cavernous Burton Auditorium to celebrate and there, I saw Higher for the first time — the very dance performed with two chairs and a ladder that had been created by Danny at York 20 years earlier. I had just spent my summer working at DCD and seeing this historic work restaged sealed my desire to work in dance history and to make sure the stories, dances, and people of Canada’s dancing past would be known to future generations. Over the years, I had the privilege of spending time with Danny. I enjoyed listening to his stories and his take on the world — and Danny was a good talker!