"Roussève is one of the modern dance world's great stage personalities." —The Washington Post

Celebrated dance-theater artist David Roussève creates his first full-length solo performance in more than 20 years. Daddy AF is an intimate meditation on life’s purpose, created and performed by a queer African American acutely aware of the finite time he has left on the planet. 

Like strands of DNA, it connects elements encoded in his body, including 600 years of genealogy (from France, Portugal Germany, Mali, Senegal, Haiti, and Cuba), a roller coaster journey with HIV, and the shattering loss of a husband of 26 years — while revisiting movement from 35 years of dance-making to explore the meaning of virtuosity for a 65-year old body. Daddy AF is the portrait of a man defying death, though he is unable to fully embrace life.

Daddy AF is a National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, National Center for Choreography Akron, and MASS MoCA with Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, more information at www.npnweb.org. 

Daddy AF was created with support from Danspace Project, UCLA’s Chancellor’s Research Fund and The Chancellor’s Arts Initiative. Daddy AF is made possible with generous support from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, and a MAP Fund creation grant.

Daddy AF is made possible with generous support from the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, and a MAP Fund creation grant.