Danielle Levsky

is a Post-Soviet, Jewish, and Queer multi-disciplinary storyteller who seeks to infuse the world with discovery, wonder, joy, and truth.

Danielle’s experiences in teaching, performing, and writing connect through their use of humor, physicality, and interactivity. They love all of these manifestations of storytelling for how they connect them to all the souls in a room, to all the souls in the world.

A toast! To discovery, to wonder, to truth.

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Their original work includes "War and Play," a clown piece about a queer couple navigating Russia's invasion of Ukraine, commissioned by National Queer Theater at Lincoln Center; "The Crone Chronicles," an audience-interactive exploration of Baba Yaga and Slavic folklore; "The Waiting Room," an absurdist, immersive clown piece about migration and bureaucratic purgatory, and most recently, “Sappho’s Salon”, an immersive, multi-floor theater piece that explores the lives and legacies of sapphic women in the late 19th and early 20th century, specifically honing in on Natalie Barney’s famous lesbian literary salon in Paris in the 1920s. Recent presentations include Philadelphia Fringe, PhysFestNYC, Cannonball Festival, FringeArts Scratch Nights, and Philly Theatre Week.

Danielle has also performed clown in variety shows around Philly and NYC, including Hat on a Hat, Freak Mic, Couch Gag, and more.

As a community curator and producer, Danielle hosts monthly events like Studio 45 Live and Full Moon on Fire, and co-produces Philly Clown Slam, connecting performance to community healing and social transformation. They've also organized events at Dyke+ Art Haus, including the Fragments of Sappho Reading Circle, After Sappho Book Club, the Andrea Gibson Poetry Night, and the upcoming production of Sappho's Salon. Other recent productions include Candy Land Variety Show + Dance Party at National Mechanics and the upcoming Twitterpated Variety Show + Dance Party.

Danielle's teaching and facilitation approach centers accessibility, authentic self-expression, and the belief that play is both sacred and healing.

A pioneer in exploring Jewish clowning traditions, Danielle has developed courses examining the intersection of humor, spirituality, and Jewish cultural expression, from the first laugh of Sarah in the Torah to contemporary Jewish comedy. In 2025, they taught at the international Clown Congress, leading workshops on identity and clown creation. They've also facilitated workshops for Clownvergence, Philly Fringe 2024, Fringe Arts, Clown Gym, Ecstatic Dance Philly, and more.

Their signature program, The Fool's Yoga, is an original embodied practice combining vinyasa yoga, meditation, and clown training to create a playspace for self-expression, healing, and joyful failure. Danielle teaches this frequently at Studio 34 Yoga Healing Arts and has offered it at places in Philly, Chicago, San Diego, and online.

As a teaching artist with BuildaBridge International, Danielle implements arts-based programming for diverse populations including queer youth, refugees, and trauma survivors, drawing on extensive training in the Safe Spaces Model and Hope Theory. They also organize Philadelphia's monthly Clown Jam and co-produce Philly Clown Slam, nurturing local clown community and creating welcoming spaces for discovery at all experience levels.

Danielle holds a clown teaching certification from The Clown School in Los Angeles and a 200-hour Yoga Alliance certification in Vinyasa Flow. Their training includes study with renowned artists Avner Eisenberg, Aretha Sills, Antonio Fava, and Eric Davis, as well as teachers from Cirque du Soleil, Neo-Futurists, and Theater Unspeakable. 

Danielle has experience as an arts and culture journalist, poet, and stage writer. Their work across genres examines themes of diaspora, tradition, and identity.

As an essayist and journalist, Danielle has contributed coverage of community news, lifestyle editorials, and arts/culture events to various publications, such as Newcity Magazine, Pittsburgh City Paper, Thrillist, MentalFloss, and more. Danielle also served as the Theater Editor for Scapi Magazine, managing coverage of Chicago's DIY art scene. There they pioneered "Expressions," a form of creative responses to each show that was reviewed. Danielle also worked on a fellowship where she published "Identity Diaspora", a collection of lyric, nonfiction essays exploring facets of her Jewish, Soviet, and immigrant background.

Danielle's poetry and essays have been published in The Future Fire, Last Girls Club, Fractured Literary Magazine, Collide Literary Magazine, Sand Hills Literary Magazine, Sappho's Salon, Poetry for Ukraine, Silence is Different Now, Quarantimes, LOCUS: IV, and other publications.

Danielle dreams of more inclusive and accessible spaces centering queer joy, experimental forms, and stories that remind us of our shared humanity.

View their artistic CV here