Darrel Toulon

Darrel Toulon was born in Dominica (Caribbean) in 1964 and moved to Europe at age 17. Upon receiving his International Baccalaureate from the United World College of the Atlantic (Wales), he began dance studies first at Thamesdown Community Dance Centre (Swindon), then at Central School of Ballet (London). He is a graduate of the Cultural Management course at the Institute for Cultural Concepts, Vienna.

From 1987, he worked radially from his base in Cologne, Germany, as dancer, teacher, choreographer, actor and singer. He has since remained internationally active with professional and non-professional dancers and actors of all ages, working also in community and educational settings.

As Ballet Director of Opera Graz (2001-2015), he engaged dancers and choreographers from 29 countries thereby championing cultural diversity, regularly collaborated with protagonists of the free scene, was Jury member for several international choreographic competitions, and is on the Advisory Board of Graz Culture Year 2020.

Darrel Toulon is Founder and Artistic Director of the alpha group, and currently teaches Dance Arts at Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. His Docu-Dance-Theatre project IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER is being developed with Children Born of War in Bosnia, and Children Born in Captivity in Northern Uganda. He is regularly invited to Lecture on his work with vulnerable populations, and his research using Docu-Dance-Theatre as a tool for creating socially and politically relevant performance art.

Darrel Toulon was awarded the First Austrian Dance Production Special Prize (2002) for successfully modernizing the dance company of Opera Graz. His Community Dance Project THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR (2015), created with young refugee migrants was nominated as “Place of Respect 2016”. He was awarded the Styrian Golden Cross of Honour in 2016. U IME OCA (2019) was invited to the Osijek Peace Awards 2020 in Croatia.

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