Born in Paris, Danielle Gabou moved to Côte d'Ivoire at the age of eighteen, and entered Marie-Rose Guiro's dance school in Abidjan. Returning to France in 1997, she enrolled in a drama course at Nancy University. In 2001, she co-founded the Sans Sommeil company in Nancy. She then devoted herself to theatrical and choreographic performance forms. She directs, acts and dances in her shows. In 2009, she paid tribute to the sculptor Ousman Sow at the Musée de la Ville du Luxembourg. In 2010 and 2013, she collaborated with choreographer Julien Ficely on Transe, a stage adaptation of Jean Rouch's film Mammy Water (first performed at the Théâtre National de Chaillot). In 2018, she received the UNESCO “Slave Route” label for her stage adaptation of the novel Moi Tituba sorcière... noire de Salem by Maryse Condé, winner of the 2018 Alternative Nobel Prize.In 2019, she directs Au nom de toutes, a performance with nine female actors, at the Théâtre du Châtelet (France Télévisions recording). In 2021, she is commissioned by the Opéra national de Lorraine to create Mon amour, mon un jour for six female inmates at the Centre pénitentiaire de Nancy. In 2022, she again received the UNESCO “Slave Route” label for her stage adaptation of the novel Le Racisme expliqué à ma fille by Tahar Ben Jelloun, winner of the 1987 Goncourt Prize.In 2024, she directed patients from IRR de Nancy in Où allez-vous comme ça? based on a text by Chloé Kobuta at the Opéra national de Lorraine. After working for two years with a group of 15 homeless people, in 2024 and 2025 she presents the Pour l'amour de soi project, including a CD and an exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy. Alongside her work as a director, dancer and actress, she appears as an extra in many of Krzysztof Warlikowski's productions at the Opéra national de Paris.At the Opéra national de Paris: Manon (Joséphine), 2022