Linehan first studied dance in Seattle and then moved to New York in 2004. As a performer, Linehan worked with Miguel Gutierrez and Big Art Group, among other artists. His own choreographic work first came to public attention in 2004 with the solo Digested Noise, presented in Fresh Tracks at Dance Theater Workshop. In 2005 and 2006, he worked with a team of four other dancers to create The Sun Came and Human Content Pile. Linehan was a 2007-2008 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence. In 2007, he premiered the solo Not About Everything, which has since been presented in over 75 venues internationally.

In 2008, Linehan moved to Brussels where he completed the Research Cycle at P.A.R.T.S. in 2010.
His works created in Belgium include Montage for Three (2009), Being Together without any Voice (2010), Zombie Aporia (2011), Gaze is a Gap is a Ghost (2012), Doing While Doing (2012), The Karaoke Dialogues (2014), Un Sacre du Printemps (2015), dbddbb (2015), Flood (2017), Third Space (2018), Body of Work (2019) and sspeciess (2020).

Linehan also developed Vita Activa (2013), a participatory project for 40 unemployed people culminating in a final public performance, co-directed with Michael Helland; the book A No Can Make Space (2013) which gathers and organizes the traces of Linehan’s ten years of choreographic practice, created in collaboration with graphic designer Gerard Leysen (Afreux); and untitled duet (2013), a work streamed live as part of the Performance Room Series at Tate Modern in London.

Linehan is regularly invited as a guest teacher and mentor at dance institutions worldwide.

Linehan was Associated Artist at deSingel International Arts Campus (Antwerp, BE) and New Wave Associate at Sadler’s Wells (London, UK) from 2012-2014. From 2013-2016 he was Artist-in-Residence at the Opéra de Lille (FR).

Daniel Linehan is Creative Associate at deSingel International Arts Campus 2017-2021.