# Adam Darius

Adam Darius (10 May 1930 – 3 December 2017) was a Turkish origin American dancer, mime artist, writer and choreographer. As a performer, he appeared in over 86 countries across six continents. As a writer, he published 19 books and wrote 22 plays.
In a program devoted to his career, the BBC World Service described him as "one of the most exceptional talents of the 20th century".

## Biography

Adam Darius was born in Manhattan, New York City, into a family of Turkish and Russian ancestry.

### Ballet career

Adam Darius began his ballet and contemporary dance training in 1945, at the age of 14, and went on to study with, among others, Anatole Oboukhov, George Goncharov, Olga Preobrajenska and José Limón.
His professional career began in 1946 with appearances at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, and then with numerous ballet companies including Britain's International Ballet (1953), Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet (1954), and Denmark's Scandinavian Ballet (1962). He was also choreographer of the Israel National Opera (1963–1964), where he choreographed four operas for opera star Plácido Domingo; (Don Giovanni, Carmen, La Traviata and The Pearl Fishers, all of which premièred at the Israel National Opera in Tel-Aviv in 1963). From 1964–1966, Adam Darius was the director of his own company, the Israeli Ballet.
Principal ballets:
* Pierrot the Wanderer - Choreographed for American prima ballerina Melissa Hayden and premièred at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Toronto, Canada in 1955.
* Quartet - Choreographed for American prima ballerina Cynthia Gregory and premièred at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, California in 1958.
* The Anne Frank Ballet - Premièred in Long Beach, California in 1959. Produced for Italian Television in 1967. Released as a video in 1989, in which Mr Darius danced the role of Anne Frank's father, Otto Frank.
* Marilyn - A ballet based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, which ran for five weeks at the Arts Theatre in London's West End in February 1975.
* Firebird - Choreographed to Stravinsky's music. Presented by the Las Vegas Civic Ballet at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center, Las Vegas, in April 1986.

### Expressive mime

In 1967, Adam Darius broke away from the traditional world of ballet and premièred his own fusion of dance and mime, described as 'expressive mime', at the Spoleto Festival in Italy and at the Arts Lab in London.
In the years that followed he toured many countries, including: South Africa (1970); the Soviet Union (1971); the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Australia (1971); Syria, Iran and Afghanistan (1976); Japan (1984); and Greenland (1998).
Adam Darius' concept of physical theatre was also realized in the London productions of Yukio Mishima (1991), Rimbaud and Verlaine (1992) and Tower of Babel (1993), in collaboration with Kazimir Kolesnik. Among their further joint productions was A Snake in the Grass, presented in Amman, Jordan (2001) and acknowledged with the Noor Al Hussein Award.

### Teaching

In 1978, Adam Darius and Marita Crawley founded the Mime Centre in London. In Britain he taught, among others, mime artist, dancer and director, Kazimir Kolesnik, rock star Kate Bush, Hollywood film star Kate Beckinsale, and West End principal Warren Mitchell.

## Death

Darius died on 3 December 2017 in Espoo, Finland at the age of 87.

## Books by Adam Darius

| Author | # | Year | Title | Pages | Publisher | City | ISBN | Genre |
| Darius, Adam | 1 | 1973 | Dance Naked in the Sun | 325 | Latonia Publishers | London | ISBN 0-9502707-0-9 | Autobiography |
| Darius, Adam | 2 | 1978 | The Way to Timbuktu | 276 | Latonia Publishers | London | ISBN 0-9502707-1-7 | Autobiography |
| Darius, Adam | 3 | 1984 | The Adam Darius Method | 270 | Latonia Publishers | London | ISBN 0-9502707-2-5 | Theatre technique |
| Darius, Adam | 4 | 1988 | The Man Who Spat at Fate | 251 | Latonia Publishers | London | ISBN 0-9502707-3-3 | Novel |
| Darius, Adam | 5 | 1991 | The Guru | 115 | Latonia Publishers | London | ISBN 0-9502707-4-1 | Philosophy |
| Darius, Adam | 6 | 1996 | The Commedia Dell' Arte | 97 | Kolesnik Production OY | Helsinki | ISBN 952-90-7188-4 | Theatre technique |
| Darius, Adam | 7 | 1998 | Acting - A Psychological and Technical Approach | 208 | Kolesnik Production OY | Helsinki | ISBN 952-90-9146-X | Theatre technique |
| Darius, Adam | 8 | 2000 | Audition Monologues | 128 | Kolesnik Production OY | Helsinki | ISBN 951-98232-0-4 | Theatre technique |
| Darius, Adam | 9 | 2003 | Double Existence | 202 | Kolesnik Production OY | Helsinki | ISBN 951-98232-1-2 | Novel |
| Darius, Adam | 10 | 2004 | A Nomadic Life | 250 | Kolesnik Production OY | Helsinki | ISBN 951-98232-2-0 | Autobiography |
| Darius, Adam | 11 | 2005 | When Your Dog Dies | 63 | Kolesnik Production OY | Helsinki | ISBN 951-98232-3-9 | Animal Welfare |
| Darius, Adam | 12 | 2007 | Arabesques Through Time | 407 | Harlequinade Books | Helsinki | ISBN 951-98232-4-7 | Autobiography |
| Darius, Adam | 13 | 2009 | Death in Damascus | n/a | e-book | n/a | ISBN 978-952-92-5476-7 | Novel |
| Darius, Adam | 14 | 2011 | The Passion of Black Jesus | n/a | e-book | n/a | ISBN 978-952-92-6752-1 | Novel |
| Darius, Adam | 15 | 2012 | Dancing in the Himalayas | n/a | e-book | n/a | ISBN 978-952-93-0126-3 | Novel |
| Bocher, Barbara with Darius, Adam | 16 | 2012 | The Cage: Dancing for Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine, 1949-1954 | 288 | CreateSpace | n/a | ISBN 978-147-82-4658-9 | Autobiography |
| Darius, Adam | 17 | 2013 | La Belle Otero: The Last of the Great Courtesans | n/a | e-book | n/a | ISBN 978-952-93-0129-4 | Play |
| Darius, Adam | 18 | 2014 | Poems by Adam Darius | n/a | e-book | n/a | ISBN 978-952-68163-0-2 | Poetry |
| Darius, Adam | 19 | 2014 | Ballet Babylon | n/a | e-book | n/a | ISBN 978-952-93-2607-5 | History |

## Honours and awards

* 1976: Silver medallion of the Belgrade Monodrama Festival (Yugoslavia)
* 1976: Honorary membership of the North Sumatran Community (Indonesia)
* 1978: American Television Emmy (US)
* 1984: Premio Positano Léonide Massine Per L'arte Della Danza (Italy)
* 1987: Key to the City of Las Vegas (US)
* 1998: Shetland Dance and Mime Award (UK)
* 2001: Noor Al Hussein Foundation Award (Jordan)
* 2002: Beirut Festival du Rire Trophy (Lebanon)
* 2003: Noor Al Hussein Foundation Award (Jordan)
* 2009: Order of Luis Manuel Gutiérrez (Venezuela)
* 2012: Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Cultura Award (Venezuela)
* 2014: Gjakova Komedia Fest Appreciation Award (Republic of Kosovo)
* 2016: Simon Bolívar Award (Venezuela)

## International performances since January 2000

Unless marked as being a SOLO performance, all shows were given in partnership with Kazimir Kolesnik.
| Year | Month | Country | City | Venue | Repertoire | Notes |
| 2000 | April | Jordan | Amman | Royal Cultural Centre | Resurrection | |
| 2000 | July | Croatia | Dubrovnik | Dubrovnik Festival | Resurrection | |
| 2000 | August | Finland | Oulu | Oulu Music Festival Theatre | Pierrot in Exile | |
| 2000 | Nov. | Turkey | Istanbul | Atatürk Cultural Center | Selected solos | SOLO |
| 2001 | Jan/Feb | Jordan | Amman | Baccalaureate School Theatre | A Snake in the Grass | |
| 2001 | April | Turkey | Istanbul | Aksanat Cultural Centre | Resurrection | |
| 2001 | Sept. | Morocco | Casablanca | International Theatre Festival | Resurrection | |
| | | | Rabat | Salle Bahnini | Resurrection | |
| 2001 | Nov. | Finland | Helsinki | Q-Teatteri | James Dean | As director |
| 2002 | June | Slovakia | Bratislava | Pantomime Festival | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2002 | July | Lebanon | Beirut | Festival du Rire | Highlight repertoire | |
| 2003 | Feb. | Russia | St. Petersburg | Okryty Theatre | Highlight repertoire | |
| 2003 | May | Italy | Turin | Teatro Gobetti | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2003 | Sept. | Jordan | Amman | Royal Cultural Centre | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2004 | March | New Zealand | Christchurch | Hagley Community College | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2004 | April | Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | Malaysian National Theatre | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2004 | August | Malta | Valletta | Saint James Cavalier Centre | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2004 | Nov. | Syria | Damascus | Al-Kabbani Theatre | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2005 | Feb. | Syria | Damascus | Finnish/Jordanian Festival, Al-Assad Opera House | Fusion | With company |
| 2005 | August | Turkey | Istanbul | Sultan's Palace | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2006 | Feb. | Portugal | Porto | Serralves Foundation | Yukio Mishima | With company |
| | | | Ponte del Lima | Teatro Diogo Bernardes | Yukio Mishima | With company |
| 2006 | May | Ukraine | Kyiv | TYS Theatre; Suzirie Theatre | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2006 | Dec. | Argentina | Rosario | Teatro del Rayo; Centro Cultural Lavarden | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2007 | Oct. | Armenia | Yerevan | High Fest Theatre Festival | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2007 | Dec. | Macedonia | Skopje | Macedonian Academy of Science and Arts | Dance: A Bridge between Cultures | UNESCO sponsored lecture |
| 2008 | Feb. | Egypt | Alexandria | Bibliotheca Alexandrina | Tears of a Clown | |
| 2009 | Jan. | Finland | Espoo | Sellosali | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2009 | March | Macedonia | Skopje | Macedonian National Theatre | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2009 | Oct. | Venezuela | Isla de Margarita | Teatro Simon Bolivar | Selected solos | SOLO |
| 2009 | Nov. | Finland | Espoo | Sellosali | Tears of a Clown | |
| 2010 | May | Bosnia & Herzogovina | Sarajevo | Teaterfest Archived 24 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine | Death of a Scarecrow | |
| 2010 | Nov. | Nepal | Kathmandu | Kathmandu International Theatre Festival | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| 2012 | May | Venezuela | Caracas | Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| | | | Caracas | Sala Juana Sujo | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| | | | Caracas | Teatro Principal | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| 2013 | March | Kuwait | Kuwait City | Dar al Athar al-Islamiyyah | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| 2013 | Oct | Macedonia | Skopje | Macedonian National Theatre | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| 2014 | Sept | Republic of Kosovo | Gjakova | Gjakova Comedy Festival | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| 2015 | March | Kuwait | Kuwait City | Royal Palace | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| 2015 | Dec.7 | Russia | Krasnoyarsk | Palace of Culture | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| 2015 | Dec.8 | Russia | Novosibirsk | Philharmonic Chamber Hall | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |
| 2015 | Dec.10 | Russia | Chelyabinsk | Prokoviev Concert Hall | Basho - A Windswept Spirit | |