Olivia  

                                                 

                                                        Slippery Rock's dance program gave me many                                                               opportunities and resources that I pull from today. I was                                                       able to work with company members from Attack                                                               Theatre's  Diavolo and Bill T. Jones to learn repertoire. I                                                       attended the American Collegiate Dance Association Conference my sophomore & junior year to perform and take classes from various university professors. I was the student director of the Afro-Colombian Dance Ensemble as well as captain of the dance team, Dance Express. I choreographed for dance department concerts as well as the music department’s Opera and was awarded the Outstanding Dance Choreographer of my graduating class for my choreographic successes. As a recipient of the Student Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Grant, I attended the American Dance Festival where I collected research on contact improvisation. This research was applied in "First Sense", an independent concert I created exploring the use of contact improvisation to create choreography. I presented, "Losing Touch with Touch", a lecture demonstration on the healing powers of contact improvisation in the Student Research Symposium at SRU.

           

         I continue to enjoy creating and performing work that explores contemporary partnering, floor work and prop use. The obstacle that the body, floor or object provides is an exhilarating creative and physical challenge that inspires collaboration and problem solving.