Daniel Alexander Belton (born 1970) is a New Zealand dancer, choreographer and film-maker based in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

. He is the co-founder and artistic director of Good Company Arts (GCA). He is an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate. His works have been shown in America, Europe, South America, Asia and the Pacific.

Early life and education

Belton was born in

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

in 1970. He was educated at

Nelson College Nelson College is the oldest state secondary school in New Zealand, a feat achieved in part thanks to its original inception as a private school. It is an all-boys school in the City of Nelson that teaches from years 9 to 13. In addition, it r ...

from 1983 to 1987, and was a

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

in his final year there. Belton graduated from the

New Zealand School of Dance The New Zealand School of Dance was established in 1967 and is a tertiary educational institute in New Zealand that teaches Contemporary dance, contemporary dance and ballet. It started as the National School of Ballet, and after contemporary da ...

in 1990. He then toured overseas as a dancer with the Douglas Wright Dance Company, with his wife and artistic partner, dancer Donnine Harrison. They remained in Europe for seven years, working with a number of prestigious companies, including Arc Dance Company and the

Royal Opera House Covent Garden The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

. They returned to New Zealand in 1997.

Work

Belton has choreographed a number of acclaimed dance works, including ''Leaf'' (1998), ''Concertina'' (1999) and ''Soundings'' (2000). He has also created a number of experimental filmed dance works, such as ''Axis: Anatomy of Space'' (2017), which featured dancers from the

Royal New Zealand Ballet The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a ballet company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was originally known as The New Zealand Ballet Company. History New Zealand Ballet was established in 1953 as an independent charitable trust by Royal Danis ...

, and had its world premiere in the

Planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

of the

Otago Museum Otago (, ; ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government region. Its po ...

(Dunedin). Belton's 2014 work ''Satellite'' was commissioned by the

; dancers performed while holding round discs related to kinetic sculptures by sonic artist Jim Murphy. The ideas from ''Satellite'' were developed further in ''Axis'', performed in the planetarium at the

in 2017 as part of the

Matariki In Māori culture, Matariki is the Pleiades star cluster and a celebration of its first rising in late June or early July. The rising marks the beginning of the new year in the Māori lunar calendar. Historically, Matariki was usually celebr ...

Festival. Reviewer Hahna Briggs wrote "The film shows the infiniteness of the universe through the simultaneous imploding and exploding of bodies in space and time. In addition, the interconnectedness of everything is demonstrated in the dance through showing similar and repeating patterns that occur in space, sound, water and bodies." ''Axis'' has subsequently been screened (as an Official Selection) in Festivals in Singapore, Colombia, Korea, Hong Kong, Auckland and San Francisco. Belton's first major collaborative work was ''Soundings'', produced for the Otago Festival in 2000, and employing 30 people, including actors

Simon O'Connor Simon David O'Connor (born 25 February 1976) is a New Zealand politician and a former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the New Zealand National Party, National Party. He represented the Tāmaki (New Zealand electorate), T� ...

and Richard Huber, dancers Donnine Harrison, Tom Ward, Simon Ellis, Bronwyn Judge, Melanie Hamilton, Kristian Larsen, Kelly Nash, designers and technicians. Costumes were by leading NZ fashion designer

Tanya Carlson Tanya may refer to: People * Tanya (name), a feminine given name Film * ''Tanya'' (1940 film), a Soviet musical comedy by Grigori Aleksandrov * ''Tanya'' (1976 film), a low-budget American comedy Music * "Tanya", a composition by Donald Byrd, ...

. Belton directed, choreographed and danced in the piece. ''OneOne'' is a 35-minute video piece with video mapping by Belton. Belton reworks the piece for each setting. A performance at the 2016 Light Nelson event featured music recorded by

Richard Nunns Richard Anthony Nunns (7 December 1945 – 7 June 2021) was a Māori traditional instrumentalist of Pākehā heritage. He was particularly known for playing taonga pūoro and his collaboration with fellow Māori instrumentalist Hirini Melbourn ...

using

taonga pūoro Taonga pūoro are the traditional musical instruments of the Māori people of New Zealand. The instruments previously fulfilled many functions within Māori society including a call to arms, dawning of the new day, communications with the gods ...

(traditional Māori musical instruments), sound effects recorded from the

Waitaki Waitaki District is a territorial authority district that is located in the Canterbury and Otago regions of the South Island of New Zealand. It straddles the traditional border between the two regions, the Waitaki River, and its seat is Oamaru. ...

region and dance by Janessa Duffy of the Sydney Dance Company. His most recent collaborative work, still in progress, is ''Ad Parnassum - purapurawhetū,'' made with composer Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead, along with the

New Zealand String Quartet The New Zealand String Quartet (established 1987) is New Zealand's only full-time string quartet. The New Zealand String Quartet are resident artists at the biennial Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson, New Zealand, and have been the quartet ...

and the use of

Taonga Pūoro Taonga pūoro are the traditional musical instruments of the Māori people of New Zealand. The instruments previously fulfilled many functions within Māori society including a call to arms, dawning of the new day, communications with the gods ...

. It is scheduled to have its digital premiere in December 2021. As a film maker, Belton has created a number of short films which have been premiered in sundry film festivals, under the Good Company Arts banner. These include ''Matchbox'' (2008), ''Ato-Mick'' (2010) and ''Ato-Miss'' (2012), amongst others. ''Ato-Mick'', for example, was selected for Official Competition in: Linoleum 2010 International Festival of Contemporary Animation and Media Art, Moscow, Russia. It was a finalist in the Roma Independent Film Festival Awards 2011, Rome, Italy.

Awards and honours

In 2004 Belton was based at the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

as the Creative New Zealand choreographic research resident, and in 2008 the media artist in residence at

Massey University Massey University () is a Public university, public research university in New Zealand that provides internal and distance education. The university has campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Data from Universities New Zealand ...

. Also in 2008, Belton received the prize for "most innovative work" for ''After Durer'' at the XV Festival Internazionale di Videodanza, at the Museo Madre, in Naples. In 2009, Belton received the largest choreographic award available in New Zealand, the

Creative New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government established in 1963. It invests in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes a ...

Choreographic Fellowship, worth $65,000. Making the award, the chair of the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand, Alan Sorrell, said "Daniel Belton is one of New Zealand’s leading dance film choreographers whose work is characterised by innovation and a multi-disciplinary approach...he is internationally renowned in the dance film genre." Belton was choreographic fellow of the Arts Council of New Zealand in 2010. Belton was a New Zealand Arts Foundation laureate in 2015. In 2017, at the World Stage Design Awards, Taipei, Taiwan, he received a professional designer/projection and multi-media design bronze award, for ''OneOne''. In 2019 Daniel and Good Company Arts were awarded first place in the Sino x Niio Illumination Art Prize, Hong Kong, also for ''OneOne''. In her review of Belton's work, Catherine Pattison describes him as one of only two New Zealand dance film-makers to make it on the international stage (the other being

Shona McCullagh Shona Margaret McCullagh is a New Zealand choreographer, dancer, filmmaker and artistic director. McCullagh was the founding director of the New Zealand Dance Company and was appointed artistic director of the Auckland Festival in 2019. Bio ...

References

External links

2009 interview with Daniel Belton
on

Radio New Zealand Radio New Zealand (), commonly known as RNZ or Radio NZ, is a New Zealand public service broadcaster and Crown entity. Established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995, it operates news and current affairs station, RNZ National, and a classi ...

"Cultural Ambassador Daniel Belton"
including video of ''AXIS (Eclipse)'' and ''Figure(s) of Speech'', via Radio New Zealand Arts {{DEFAULTSORT:Belton, Daniel 1970 births Living people People from Nelson, New Zealand People educated at Nelson College New Zealand dancers New Zealand choreographers New Zealand film directors