Selected Work

Current Works

Age 10+

Don't Look, Spaceman

Spaceman struggles. Sometimes he is floating, sometimes he is crashing. He scrambles backwards. He has something irritating him. He pulls the shard of a mirror ball from his skin.

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Don't Look, Spaceman is an intergalactic dance-in-space made with, and for, young audiences aged 10+. Our hero is a queer Spaceman desperate to find the "final frontier" and a new place to call home. Drifting ever closer to a looming black hole, they are locked inside their malevolent spaceship "VENTON" as hope of a life beyond the "pale blue dot" of earth is beginning to fade. That is, until he begins his venture into deepest space…

Drawing on my experience as a young queer, working class person, Don't Look, Spaceman uses humour and pathos to explore themes of class, self-esteem, resilience and belonging, and questions the patriarchal constraints placed on young people just when they are trying to find their place in the world. Don't Look, Spaceman has been made with, and for young audiences through a series of workshops with young people in Primary and Secondary Schools.

Don't Look, Spaceman was developed through Imaginate's Launchpad bursary scheme in 2023 with development periods with young people in Tynecastle High School, Corstorphine Primary School and Beath High School.

Dan has written about his development of the work as part of a collection by Yvette Taylor called Queer in a Wee Place: Small Nations, Sexuality and Scotland published by Bloomsbury, where he unpacks the dialogic nature of his practice and the topic of queerness in classroom settings. You can find more information here.

Creative Team

  • Dan Brown — Choreographer & Performer
  • Lu Kemp — Director
  • Alison Brown — Costume Designer
  • Emma Lewis-Jones — Choreographer/Dance Dramaturg
  • Kate Bonney — Lighting Designer
  • Ben Fletcher — Sound Designer
  • Jamie Wardrop — Video Designer
  • Tanya McLaughlin — Producer
  • Isy Sharman — Producing Support
  • Holly Wright — Stage Manager
  • Jenny Booth — Set Designer
  • Sally Charlton — Workshop Facilitator

Images by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Poster Design by Thomas McKay

Development

Imaginate Launchpad Bursary 2023

Schools Involved

  • Tynecastle High School
  • Corstorphine Primary School
  • Beath High School

Themes

Class, self-esteem, resilience, belonging, queer identity

Pop-up Performance

WIG WALTZ

A pop-up dance performance featuring two flamboyant, regency-esque aristocrats preparing for a grand ball.

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WIG WALTZ is a pop-up dance performance featuring two flamboyant, regency-esque aristocrats preparing for a grand ball. Dressed in extravagant wigs and elaborate costumes, they move through rituals of etiquette, elegance and excess, only to unravel the social codes they're upholding. Combining humour, physical theatre and choreography, the work playfully challenges conventions of gender, class and identity, inviting young audiences to question who makes the rules about how we look, move and belong.

WIG WALTZ transforms familiar environments into temporary ballrooms, with school playgrounds offering an accessible space for all young people to imagine new possibilities. However, all is not as it seems in this grand ball, throughout the performance, costumes begin to change, an arm tears from a jacket or a hat tumbles to the ground, creating a playful sense of things going wrong.

WIG WALTZ was originally commissioned by Imaginate (Scotland's leading organisation for developing and presenting work for children) as part of Creative Encounters, where early research explored working directly with a class of P6's (9-10 year olds) on developing ideas about how costume, gesture and dance can spark curiosity and engagement around themes of identity, gender and class.

Co-created by Minnie Crook and Dan Brown, the piece draws on their shared interest in disrupting traditional hierarchies, whether social, political, gendered or artistic, and reimagining performance as a shared act of new possibilities. The creative team includes costume designer Cleo Rose McCabe and composer/sound designer Marie-Gabrielle Koumenda, who have developed a playful baroque-pop soundscape and highly-visual aesthetic to accompany the choreography.

WIG WALTZ is available for bookings for Family days or festivals.

Creative Team

  • Minnie Crook & Dan Brown — Co-creators & Performers
  • Cleo Rose McCabe — Costume Designer
  • Marie-Gabrielle Koumenda — Composer/Sound Designer

Images by Brian Hartley

Commission

Imaginate Creative Encounters

Format

Pop-up performance for school playgrounds, family days, and festivals

Themes

Gender, class, identity, social hierarchies

Bookings

Available for festivals and family days

Enquire →
The Bright and Wild Festival 2026

Meet Me On The Dance Floor

A party, a rave and a rejection - a choreographic exploration into the boxes and systems we find ourselves forced into.

Meet Me On The Dance Floor

Meet Me On The Dance Floor is a party, a rave and a rejection. The Outline invites you to join them on the dance floor for a choreographic exploration into the boxes and systems that we find ourselves forced into, and what possibilities open up for us when we step outside of the lines. Using electronic music as the soundtrack to the performance, Meet Me On The Dance Floor will show you how you can let go of the lines and edges and let yourself get lost in the music, finding your own rhythm along the way.

Created with The Outline at Lyra as part of The Bright and Wild Festival 2026.

Festival

The Bright and Wild Festival 2026

In collaboration with

The Outline at Lyra

Themes

Systems, liberation, collective movement, identity