Choreographer
PRESS
'Baroque Encounters' - New English Ballet Theatre. Photography by Ash
"Packed full of tightly knit combinations, it reaches its zenith in a complex-looking trio, excellently performed by Genevieve Haron, Dan Corthorn and Noah Benzie-Drayton. April Dalton’s done a nice job on the costumes, too, especially the burgundy corseted dresses worn by both men and women in the first section, the hint of historicity capturing the tone of the choreography perfectly.”
by Gerard Davies, Dance Europe magazine, Dec 2023
"Daniela Cardim’s Baroque Encounters did exactly what it said on the tin, being the most distinctive and memorable piece on the programme. Cardim (now the NEBT assistant director) chose beautiful harpsichord music by Bach and her choreography for seven dancers was rich in imagery and musicality and elegantly layered with exquisite transitions. April Dalton’s long red skirts for both men and women enhanced the movement's slick flow"
by Graham Watts, Bachtrack, Nov 2023
"It's rare nowadays that titles actually mean anything, but Baroque Encounters is exactly that. Seven dancers interweave and have moments and meetings that feel like court dances, and could easily be taking place in a castle during some distant century (...) Cardim has developed an interestingly stylised port de bras that suggests historical referencing, and the choreographic language comes even more alive in the duos and trios. A particular trio for two men and a woman has pace, original patterning and undulating motifs that stay with you once they've gone"
by Matthew Paluch, BroadwayWorld, Nov 2023
"The title is perfect. An ensemble opening with men and women alike in designer April Dalton’s red tops and long red skirts focuses on patterns and swooping arms with those skirts often held and wafted. It has an almost quasi-religious feel. But then, with the long skirts swapped for shorter ones, it becomes a dance of many sections, each some sort of meeting. Among them, there’s a pas de deux, a slower all-female duet and, best of all, a more pacy, lighter trio for two men and a woman. It’s multi-layered and very neatly structured around the two scores, Cardim’s choreography picking up on the detail of the music"
by David Mead, SeeingDance, Nov 2023
'Stabat Mater' - Poznan Opera Ballet
This neoclassical interpretation delighted with its symmetry, synchronicities, consistency, and the choreographer's understanding of music, which was her starting point for interpretation"
Kultura Poznan, Nov 2022
"The delicacy of the dancers does not conflict with the strong, sometimes aggressive movement. On the contrary, it emphasizes the fact that under this human strength lies fragility and sensitivity, beautifully expressed in dance and music. The artists are perfectly harmonious"
by Anna Czajkowska - Teatr Dla Wszystkich.
“The subtle, calming finale simply takes your breath away with its beauty.”
by Katarzyna Gardzina - Ruch Muzyczny
The choreographer, remaining faithful to Szymanowski's simplicity, expanded it and made it even more universal.”
by Stefan Drajewski - Kultura u podstaw
'Reset' - West Australian Ballet
"Platinum opened spectacularly with the world premiere of Cardim’s Reset, inspired by composer Gabriel Prokofiev’s composition – a fusion of classical and electronic music – and Matej Preunicic’s exciting soundscape. Reset is a mainly abstract look at human interaction in this modern frenetic life, which was established from the start by five women and five men who strode onto the stage and criss-crossed it, as if oblivious of each other. It reminded me of the quality of loneliness exhibited in L.S. Lowry’s paintings of stick figures set in the mill towns of Lancashire. With a riveting exactitude of movement and strength that rarely abated, the group split into powerful duets, danced in oblongs of light and against colourful ever changing vertical strobe lighting (Matthew Marshall). Then, in a wonderful shift of gear and clothing, the tempo slowed whilst they mimicked beachgoers swimming against a backdrop of wind and voices and a seemingly wet floor. Chihiro Nomura and Julio Blanes as leads crystalised the splendid duets of the others. Cardim’s lucid and uncluttered choreography was thrilling; her improvisations not just echoes of work already played out, and able to completely absorb the audience."
by Rita Clarke for Limelight, Feb 2022
"Brazilian-British choreographer Daniela Cardim’s Reset begins the show, created in close collaboration with the dancers. Composer Gabriel Prokofiev’s classical-electronic alchemy infuses the air with an atmosphere of quirky fun and competitive powerplay, as Matthew Marshall’s edgy and colourful lighting design pierces through the space. Clean and minimal, Cardim’s choreography was executed by standout dancer Alexis Tuzil with sharp athleticism. A spicy highlight was the women’s sassy struts en pointe that traverse the stage; a satisfying image that effortlessly reaches the epitome of cool."
by Isabelle Leclezio, Dance Australia, Feb 2022
"The first of the evening’s works, Reset, by Brazilian-British choreographer Daniela Cardim, engages with various human interactions embedded within the increasing intensity of modern life. Couples, trios and ensembles shape and form abstract depictions of mundane life and precarious human relationships, the dancers’ bodies wringing out every last drop of raw human emotion.
Accented by the striking clean lines of dynamic strip lighting – an elegant design by Matthew Marshall – there is constant dynamic tension between the lilting, weaving, bouncing mass of human bodies, until a reprieve, a reset.
The dancers remove their sporty red and grey jerseys to reveal their sunset palette unitards, designed by Bruce McKinven, as they shift gear and create a vast undulating body of water.
The tensions between the dancers and their environment are mirrored in Gabriel Prokofiev’s vibrant classical and electronic music score. On opening night, leads Chihiro Nomura and Julio Blanes excelled in style, technique and artistry, and the ballet as a whole was beautiful to watch."
by Kim Balfou, SeeSaw, Feb 2022
"Broken up into four bite-sized pieces, the night began with the critically acclaimed Brazilian-British choreographer, Daniela Cardim’s Reset, a work inspired by the composer Gabriel Prokofiev. This contemporary piece was fused with Cardim’s abstract choreography and Prokofiev’s classically electronic music, which created a unique experience to start the evening. A technicolour summer nights dream, the performance was full of physical staccato movements and chaotic romance – and yet, was all interconnected. The story held a dystopian element, that went from Suspiria cello, to Blade Runner electronica – proving once again that the WA Ballet plays to the classical and avant-garde seamlessly with each new Australian Premiere."
by Leigh Andrew Hill, Out in Perth, Feb 2022
'What Got You Here' - Dutch National Ballet Junior Company
“Daniela Cardim, a former dancer with Dutch National Ballet, has made a wonderfully intriguing, witty piece entitled What Got You Here, looking at the huge unlikelihood of a human species, indeed of life in any shape or form, evolving on planet Earth, and including implicit criticism of our collective failure to live up to our custodial responsibilities. The dancers pointed fingers at each other as a voiceover elucidated these ideas, and the audience was included in the finger-pointing, as if to say, “You’re older than we are: you should know better!” But this was all done with smiles and goodwill. Dressed in sporty whites with flashes of bright turquoise or yellow, the dancers sail through the often-challenging work, which includes plenty of interesting step sequences and challenging double work. If this is representative of Cardim’s capabilities, we shall have much to enjoy from her in the future.”
by Amanda Jennings, Dance Europe Magazine, Aug 2019
"Daniela Cardim took to Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything for inspiration for her opus. What Got You Here cleverly uses a voiceover (which explains just how unlikely a conglomeration of atoms it took for all of us simply to exist) to power the movement and does so in a way that’s both funny and thought-provoking. It even manages to leave us with a strong message warning of the environmental dangers facing the planet. Excellently put together and a great watch"
by Gerard Davis, Dancing Review, Jul 2019
“The first new work - and also the most interesting of the program - is What Got You Here by the Brazilian Daniela Cardim. On each of the beautiful miniatures by composer Nico Muhly, three men and three women answer the amazement that sounds in Bill Bryson's texts, as quoted from his equally witty and masterly A Short History or Nearly Everything. The dance is frieze and airy, but with enough interesting movement material. I would like to see it three times in a row.”
by Het Parool
"Choreographer Daniela Cardim uses spoken fragments from the book A Short History of nearly Everything by Bill Bryson as a basis for What Got You Here. The dancers regularly literally and meaningfully try and put the responsibility for our planet on the shoulders of the public, but ultimately everyone is responsible for his own actions. The different qualities of the dancers are outstanding during this current, fresh and funny ballet.” Dag van het Noorden
by Cilla Geurtsen 2018
'Uirapuru' - Ballet do Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Julia Ronai
"The neo-classic dance is guided by the musical score in a well-resolved harmony. Karen Mesquita and Alef Albert show excellent technique while sets, lights and projections frame the elegance of the piece.” - by Adriana Pavlova about 'Uirapuru'
by Jornal O Globo 2016
'Nocturne' - New English Ballet Theatre. Photo by Deborah Jaffe
"Daniela Cardim’s Nocturne was a deeply expressive pas de deux to Chopin’s Nocturne No.13 in C Minor. Camino Llonch and Daniel Corthorn absolutely captured the underlying current of experiencing grief and the choreography echoed the music in all its light and shade in a series of beautifully crafted passages"
by Deborah Weiss, Dance for You, Jun 2022
"Camino Llonch and Daniel Corthorn made the most of NEBT assistant director Daniela Cardim’s Chopin-inspired Nocturne. This duet of sober but sometimes surging and always handsome grievous passions achieves a good balance between form and feeling"
By Donald Hutera - The Times
"I liked a beautifully lyrical duet by Daniela Cardim, Nocturne, well crafted and beautifully danced by Daniela Corthorn and Camino Lhonch”
by Amanda Jennings - Dance Europe
"(Nocturne) is an intense pas de deux in dark blue silk to the music of Chopin. Strong, well-matched, expressive, its two dancers work through their emotional crisis"
by John O'Dwyer, Seen ad Heard, Jun 2022
"Set to Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne No.13 in C minor, it’s a beautiful, intense and very intimate pas de deux, and a highlight of the evening. Camino Llonch and Daniel Corthorn are the couple working their way through sorrow and loss. Surrounded by darkness, perhaps the darkness of their feelings, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who recalled Jerome Robbins’ In the Night. Llonch throws herself at Corthorn. She clings to him. But all the time there is a bond, a closeness and togetherness that you feel will see them through. I will be amazed if Nocturne doesn’t stay in the repertory for a long time"
by David Mead, Seeing Dance, Jun 2022
'Imminent' - Birmingham Royal Ballet
"Taking a more classical approach, Daniela Cardim’s Imminent has a strong focus on the environment and specifically global warming and the uncertainty of what the future holds. There is a real delicacy about the choreography that makes it easy to engage with and react to – through every movement the dancers all give a real sense of urgency and fear about the situation, while Peter Teigan’s lighting design enhances that feeling of drama and tension perfectly towards the end.“ - Emma Clarendon, Love London Love Culture, Nov 2021
“Daniela Cardim's premiere 'Imminent' is also very much of the moment as the piece was inspired by tipping points within world politics and the environment. Again, there is an uneasiness in Paul Englishby's score as the dancers teeter on the edge of some kind of disaster. The peaked white background could be an iceberg, a glacier or even snow-covered mountains and it also reminds us of the idea that we are seeing just the tip of the problems and below so much more is happening that we can't envision. And yet the work isn't dark but is full of optimism as light enters the stage, a door opens and dancers move into this new dawn. Imminent is the latest work in BRB's ongoing Ballet Now project which commissions new work to develop up and coming choreographers, composers, set designers and other professionals and from this production, there is little doubt Cardim, a former dancer, has a wonderful sense of the potential of the human body for movement.” - Weekend Notes, June 2021
“Cardim's movement has a calm serenity, beautifully danced by the company (Imminent, Birmingham Royal Ballet," - The Stage, Nov 2021
"(Imminent) is packed with sprinting runs and whirling turns as it luxuriates in the sheer delight of movement,
by Jarlath O'Connell - The American Nov 2021
"Sleek, joyful dancing... Cardim and her dancers bring out the sheer pleasure of moment... Cardim's story-telling is fresh and direct."
by Zoe Anderson, the Independent, Nov 2021
"Daniela Cardim’s Imminent also had a strong visual appeal with April Dalton’s designs including a vast backdrop suggestive of some geological formation, aligning with the declared relevance of the work to the climate change emergency. As the performance progressed, a doorway opened up in the backdrop and it concluded with the dancers progressing through the fissure – was it to a better world, to a better understanding of the climate crisis or to oblivion? The sixteen-strong cast was led by a magnetising performance by Eilis Small in a role that seemed to have some resonance with the concept of “a chosen one (...) Cardim hails from Brazil where both climate emergency (the destruction of the Amazon forests) and extreme politics are clearly to the fore and this was a brave attempt to sum it all up in a short ballet."
by Graham Watts - Bachtrack, June 2021
"Cardim’s title refers to an unstoppable sense of change (the climate crisis is the obvious one: the set looks like a jagged ice sheet). The score by film and TV composer Paul Englishby immediately unleashes this feeling in ever rising swells that ride the crest, never quite peaking (...) They begin with blithe pleasure on smiling faces, but this bliss is an ignorant one. The onstage world takes a turn into fire and turmoil, yet, when the ice cracks, it’s a door, an opportunity. Cardim has hope, after all."
by Lyndsey Winship - The Guardian, June 2021
'The Message' - Elmhurst Ballet Company. Photo by Andy Ross
"The Message, choreographed by Daniela Cardim, a smart piece of neo-classical choreography built on a clever idea used pointes and partnering to good effect and was given a strong performance by the dancers of the school’s touring Company. Cardim has been named as the fifth choreographer on Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Ballet Now programme of new works, and will present on the company in summer 2020." - by Maggie Foyer, SeeingDance, Jul 2019
'Vertex' - New English Ballet Theatre. Photo by John Ross
“The most accomplished work on the programme was Daniela Cardim’s Vertex, with aesthetic designs by April Dalton. This looked like a full-blooded, pure dance work with clear lines, lovely duets and a sense of symmetry.”
by Deborah Weiss, Dance Europe, Dec 2016
“Top honours in an ambitious but underwhelming evening go to Cardim for Vertex, a highly attractive, inventively dynamic ensemble dance inspired by a lively, tender string quartet by Camargo Guarnieri and British sculptor Ann Christopher’s abstract drawings.”
by Donald Hutera, The Times, Nov 2016
'Wundarra' - New English Ballet Theatre
“Cardim’s enchainment’s had a screensaver-ish flow but her real gift is for the tricky business of getting dancers on and off. Lesser dancemakers play about with lights or resort to a po-mo slouch into the wings but Cardim’s ensembles melt away to solos like magic.“
by Louise Leven, Financial Times 2016
"...strong arms and gestures were fused with clean formations and use of space. The cast interpreted this with precision and skill: more than once, the perfect placement of a foot or head, or a fleeting moment of eye to eye communication between dancers gave me chills.”
by Christopher Curtis, Bachtrack, Nov 2016
"Wundarra, although with no story to speak of, showcases some great talent with a pas de deux. An on pointe prima with attitude and some beautifully choreographed lifts and leaps intertwining themselves with Latin-American undertones reignites confidence in this new ‘neo-classical’ company."
by Nicole Evans - The Reviews Hub, 2016
"Wundarra was a different piece entirely, a fluid, loose-limbed expression belying the jaunty, steely control of its dancers. Confident, relaxed and appealing, its prima leading with humour and generous attitude, it was a fascinating exploration of classical movement against the thrumming Aboriginal sound."
by Hannah Marsh - A Young Theatre, 2016
"Another enjoyable but brief highlight was Wundarra, a unique duet featuring classical choreography to aboriginal music. Alexandra Cameron-Martin has an infectious grin throughout and the music is so rhythmical the choreography seems to fit in effortlessly it would have been nice to see this Piece extended and developed a little more. This was the kind of duet that makes dance accessible and exciting for all."
by Vikki Jane Vile - London Theatre 1, 2015
"Another success was Wundarra, also created by Fonteyne, which opened the second half. The neo- classical pas de deux, set to aboriginal music was danced confidently and with joyful vigour and perfect unison by Alexandra Cameron-Martin and Gyõrgy Baán."
by Margaret Willis - Bachtrack 2015
"The choreography stresses the classic vocabulary, building graceful, harmonious sequences that are dynamically combined in a rich variety of formations. The work was well performed with clear, fast and clean movements"
by Cristina de Lucas - Bachtrack 2014
"She handed her ten dancers in skilful and interesting designs, making innovative use of balletic form"
by Dance Europe, 2009
"Daniela Cardim built her growing choreographic reputation with 'Summa' , a neo-classical duet danced by Ji-Young Kim and Peter Leung. The movements were clearly etched, following the simple violin line, and beautifully interpreted"
by Dance Europe, 2008
'Tangents' - New English Ballet Theatre
"Tangents, by company manager and choreographer of growing repute Daniela Cardim Fonteyne to Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was an abstract, lyrical journey centred around the changes in relationships, the differences in how people interact with each other. It was sensitively shaped, with a number of eye-catching sequences. I liked the moment when two of the girls came on stage huddled on the backs of their partners like infant monkeys clinging desperately to their parents."
by Deborah Weiss - Dance Europe August 2015
"Tangents’ sees three couples, each interacting in sometimes distinct ways, and sometimes in concert. In terms of plot, the piece allows the audience to see how each relationship is unique, as well as highlighting the common humanity we share. Choreographically, it allows each dancer to have their moment in the spotlight, as well as the beauty and majesty of an ensemble performance. Interestingly, the six dancers in this piece seemed to dance better apart than together. I am not sure whether this is because they genuinely enjoy flying solo on the stage, or a deliberate demonstration of the uneasy tension that exists between people who are attracted to one another because opposites attract, while still remaining opposites."
by Chris Omaweng - London Theatre 1, 2015
"Daniela Cardim's 'Inertia' to Michael Nyman music was a confident, sophisticated work in neo-classical style." - Dance Europe 2011
'Baticum' -- Dutch National Ballet
"An interesting choice of music in a finely constructed piece in the neo-classical style, it made wonderful use of movement in double work, solos and ensemble. Following a powerful men's section, it just got better and better."
by Dance Europe, 2007
"Daniela Cardim a remporté tous les suffrages. Le public enchanté a réservé de très longs applaudissements à cette oeuvre imaginée avec un savoir faire étonnant qui annonce un brillant avenir."
by Danse magazine 2005
"Daniela Cardim's 'Encuentro' was a sassy opening, the dancers looking super toned and athletic in a Brazilian take on ballet. Strong on form, it kept the dynamics recharged by well timed entrances and subtle choreographic shifts."
by Dance Europe 2004
© 2023 Daniela Cardim