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Daniela Zambrano
Award-winning Colombian-born Australian choreographer and performer Daniela Zambrano is based in Sydney, Australia. In 2026, she received the Judges’ Choice Award at the OUTSET Choreography Dance Awards, presented by DUTI STUDIOS and ProFound and co-presented by Carriageworks, recognising her choreographic practice and artistic vision. In 2025, she was awarded First Place at DUELS, presented by FORM Dance Projects, for her duet Form & Flow: Dueto—a work exploring migration as a human, emotional, and embodied experience.
Daniela’s artistic practice brings together contemporary, urban, Afro, and Latin dance styles, using rhythm, physical storytelling, improvisation, and theatricality to explore themes of identity, migration, culture, and connection. Her work is grounded in strong physicality and a desire to create meaningful connections between movement, story, culture, and audience.
Daniela’s artistic journey began at age 21 in her hometown of Tunja, Colombia, when she joined the National Ballet of Colombia. There, she combined Colombian folkloric traditions with modern dance and became a company performer. Driven by curiosity and a desire to expand her movement practice, she went on to study a broad range of forms, including contemporary dance, improvisation, and urban dance. In 2014, she earned a Bachelor of Choreography and Contemporary Dance from the Superior Academy of Arts in Bogotá.
Since relocating to Sydney, Daniela’s choreographic practice has continued to evolve through an expanding body of work presented across Australia and internationally. Her projects include Borderlines, presented at the Hong Kong International Choreography Festival, and Shapes & Shadows, presented at ARA Darling Quarter Theatre in Sydney. During the pandemic, she expanded her practice into dance film, creating works that were presented at festivals across Australia, Italy, and Colombia. Her 2022 film Displaced, created in collaboration with the UNHCR, used movement and visual storytelling to bring attention to the lived experiences of refugees and displacement.
Daniela’s artistic development has also been shaped by international training and creative exchange. In 2023, she was selected as one of 31 participants for Puzzle Work with internationally renowned choreographer Anton Lachky in Belgium, from more than 180 applicants. The experience further developed her approach to improvisation, composition, and choreographic storytelling.
In 2024, Daniela premiered Pulse, a work incorporating live percussion, at the Adelaide Fringe Festival as part of Lewis Major’s Rich Mix showcase. In 2025, she continued the development of Form & Flow, supported through creative development opportunities before presenting a full season at Adelaide Fringe. The work reflects her ongoing exploration of movement as a language for truth, identity, migration, and connection.
Daniela is also a member of Dancing with the Roots, a creative collective exploring ancestry, identity, migration, and belonging through dance, spoken word, music, and personal testimony. Presented through PYT@FRINGE at Sydney Fringe, Daniela was credited within the work as choreographic director, performer, and dramaturg, contributing to its movement language, creative development, and storytelling.
Daniela continues to develop work that brings together cultures, stories, movement, and lived experience. Her practice is driven by rhythm, authenticity, and a deep belief in dance as a powerful form of communication—one capable of connecting people, revealing stories, and expressing what words sometimes cannot.
