Danial Shapiro, accomplished choreographer

The visionary cofounder of Shapiro & Smith Dance "lived and danced every possible moment.''

By Camille Lefevre, Special to the Star Tribune

Last update: October 4, 2006 - 9:52 PM

Minneapolis dancer and choreographer Danial Shapiro, 48, died Tuesday in Atlantic City, where he was being treated for prostate cancer. Shapiro and his wife, Joanie Smith, were cofounders of Shapiro & Smith Dance, a modern dance company they started in New York City in 1987. They moved the company to Minneapolis in 1995 when Smith was named to the Barbara Barker Endowed Chair in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota.

Given the diagnosis in 2002, Shapiro "waged a courageous fight against cancer," one that's been inspirational to other people, said Smith. While undergoing chemotherapy, Shapiro continued as an affiliate faculty member in the U's dance program, where "he was a pioneer, visionary and advocate for finding applications of new technologies to dance education and art making," said Carl Flink, dance program director.

While battling cancer, Shapiro also completed, with Smith, the work "Anytown," set to music by Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell. The work premiered at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis in 2004, then toured the country; Shapiro performed in both the premiere and tour. In conjunction with the tour, Shapiro & Smith organized a "PSA in the USA" campaign to encourage early-detection PSA blood testing, a screening for prostate cancer. "It was heroic how Danny lived and danced every possible moment," said Flink.

Smith was born in New York City and raised in Southern California. He moved back to New York and joined the Murray Louis Dance Company when he was 20. There he met Smith, also a dancer. In 1985, they left the Nikolais Dance Theatre/Murray Louis Dance Company to spend a year in Helsinki, Finland, on a Fulbright grant. After returning to New York, they started their dance company.

As a choreographer, Flink explained, Shapiro "contributed to the national dance scene an extremely intelligent and thoughtful voice that pushed the boundaries of the form, not only in terms of ideas behind his pieces, but also in their manifestation through physical virtuosity."

Shapiro and Smith's choreographic collaboration resulted in work "with its finger on the pulse of middle America," said John Tomlinson, general manager of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, who met the couple in 1982. From early works such as "To Have and to Hold" and "Family" to "Anytown," the couple has had "an amazing ability to tap into the commonalities we share as human beings -- the structure of family, our relationships, our struggles -- and bring them to the stage in ways that are intense, humorous, provocative and accessible."

Shapiro was also a renaissance man who spoke five languages, could troubleshoot computer problems, and finished the New York Times crossword puzzles, Smith said. Said Flink, "I've rarely met a person as playful as Danial. ... He always maintained his connection with his inner boy. That's one reason there was always a wonderful light and wit to the choreography he and Joanie made."

A memorial service is pending.

Camille LeFevre is a Minneapolis writer.