Darion Adams

Darion Adams is a South African performance-maker - dancer, choreographer, educator, curator, and cultural producer - born and raised in Manenberg, Cape Town. Their multi-hyphenate practice spans live performance, screen dance, public art, education, and cultural production. Grounded in memory, lived experience, and collective embodiment, Darion approaches the body as an archive where histories of colonialism, displacement, Queer identity, and intergenerational trauma are held and reimagined through movement.

A graduate of the UCT Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies and Jazzart Dance Theatre, Darion has worked across performance, facilitation, curation, and community arts initiatives in South Africa and internationally. In 2025 they were awarded the prestigious Pina Bausch Fellowship, developing research with the Manenberg community that explores lived realities through movement and the embodied impact of colonial trauma, alongside mentorship with Moya Michael. Darion is also the founder of The AIM Society and creator of Art in Manenberg.

Darion Adams participates in the ImpulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival residency through the FOCUS INTERNATIONAL South Africa 2026 program, an initiative of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport supporting cultural exchange between South Africa and Austria. The two-month residency in Vienna (1 July to 31 August 2026) brings together emerging cultural practitioners to share knowledge, build international networks, and explore new artistic perspectives.

During the residency, Darion engages with the festival’s artistic and organisational environment while expanding their multidisciplinary practice across performance, cultural production, and community-based methodologies. The opportunity supports the development of international dialogue and collaboration, while allowing Darion to deepen research into movement, memory, and embodied storytelling informed by their work with the Manenberg community in Cape Town.