Nadia Adame

Artist, educator, & researcher

short Biography

Nadia has taught and presented workshops at institutions including UC Berkeley, Stanford University,  CalArts, Spelman College, Jacob's Pillow, and Lincoln Center in the USA, the University of Leeds, Luminous Soul, and Hoot in the UK, the Universidad Nacional in Costa Rica (with the generous support of a 2025 Fullbright Award), and the University of Cáceres, Conservatorio Superior de Danza de Alicante, Conservatorio Superior de Danza de Madrid, and the Royal Opera House / SaludArte in Spain, among others. She mentors students and professionals across the USA and Europe and is a continuous advocate for emerging artists and how disabled bodies challenge, reshape, and expand conventions of performance. Her research and writing have been published in How Does Disability Performance Travel? (Routledge, 2023) and may appear in the upcoming Oxford Handbook of Dance and Disability (Oxford UP, 2026 or 2027). 

Nadia's acting credits include theatre, commercials, and independent film projects in the UK, Spain, the US, and Canada. One of her roles, a lead in Filum, directed by Claudia Hernández Barragán, received the 2019 Audience Award at the ARFF-Berlin. Nadia is currently writing her second feature film and her first TV show. 

Nadia trained in flamenco and ballet at the Royal Conservatory of Dance and Drama in Madrid, Spain, and earned her BA in Theatre at the University of Colorado in the US. Most of her education and training were through professional projects, where she has performed, produced, and created work worldwide. 

When Nadia was 14, she was in a car accident that injured her spinal cord, which requires her to walk with a cane. She hasn't let this impede her career. Nadia has taken every opportunity to find ways to work in the performing and media arts and to challenge others’ notions of diversity and inclusion.

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Nadia is currently the Artistic Director of AXIS Dance Company, where she creates and produces new work that is seen worldwide. As a performer, Nadia has done many freelance projects and was a company member with CandoCo in the UK, AXIS Dance in the US, and Compañía Y in Spain. She has been featured in works by Stephen Petronio, Bill T. Jones, Arthur Pita, Rafael Bonachela, Davis Robertson, Sonya Delwaide, Chevi Muraday, and Asun Noales, among others. She performed at the Kennedy Centre (USA) with Mikhail Baryshnikov and has toured North America, Europe, and the Middle East. She received the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for best ensemble performance with Jacques Poulin-Denis. One of the many works Nadia has choreographed, Marionette, was selected for competition at the prestigious XVI Certamen Coreográfico in Spain.