I have worked as a freelance performer, choreographer and improvisor for over 15 years.
With anti-consumerist values, I build my work with elements directly in front of me, using this limitation to intuitively inspire the unexpected and intrinsic. I work to subvert the analytical mind in my creative practice so the preverbal intelligence can take the lead. I am inspired by the scope of our perceptual existence and I learn from the tensions between efficiency and play. I believe that our attention is what transcends the mundane to the phenomenal, and that dance and performance is a place to access this ineffable knowledge.
I dance to palpate space and time and morph my experiences and memories. I dance, create, and perform so as to be of service to humanity’s capacity to reflect, feel, and transform.
- Olivia (December 2024)
Past Projects
Past Work
Choreography and Improvisations
Papa’s Dance (improvisation)
Response to an impending loss, later layered with audio recording from a care home visit.
March 2019
Summer Session (improvisation)
in collaboration with sound artist Emmanuel Mailly (France)
June 2018
Senescence (work in-progress)
sound by Triola, Tigran Hamasyan and Olivia Shaffer.
informal showing
February 2018
Light in Shadow (improvisation)
sound by Tigran Hamasyan
in research for Senescence
February 2018
The Divine Invasion (excerpts)
choreography by Olivia Shaffer
concept and sound by Dave Biddle
cinematography by David Ehrenreich
August 2018
Feedback Loops (full)
choreography and sound by Olivia Shaffer
commissioned work for Shooting Gallery Performance Series
November 2016
EDAM Dance: interpretation and improvised performance
Pillars (excerpts)
improvisation score, directed by Peter Bingham/EDAM
performed by Delia Brett, Anne Cooper, Elissa Hanson, Arash Khakpour, Walter Kubanek, Diego Romero and Olivia Shaffer
EDAM Choreographic Series
May 2018
Engage the feeling arms (excerpts)
choreographed by Peter Bingham/EDAM
performed by Walter Kubanek, Diego Romero and Olivia Shaffer
Vancouver International Dance Festival
March 2018
Engage the feeling arms (excerpts)
choreography by Peter Bingham/EDAM
performed by Farley Johansson, Walter Kubanek and Olivia Shaffer
EDAM Choreographic Series
December 2016
Secret Life of Trees (excerpts)
improvised score, directed by Peter Bingham/EDAM
performed by Walter Kubanek, Chengxin Wei and Olivia Shaffer
Vancouver International Dance Festival
March 2016
Liminal spaces (excerpts)
improvised score, directed by Peter Bingham
EDAM Choreographic Series Nov 2014
air filled with promise (excerpt)
improvised score, directed by Helen Walkley
EDAM Choreographic Series May 2014
Past Collaborators: interpretations and directed improvisations
Untitled (full)
directed by Daisy Thompson
The Dance Centre
October 2014
Feast (trailer)
choreographed by Katie Devries
Firehall Arts Centre
July 2014
this hallow space has a corridor (excerpts)
improvised score, directed by Michael Kong
The Dance Centre
June 2014
Re-Marks on Source Material (excerpts)
choregraphed by Daisy Thompson
SFU Woodwards
July 2013
Research in Improvisation
open improvisation, facilitated by Helen Walkley
performed by Deanna Peters, Bevin Poole and Olivia Shaffer
The Dance Centre
2012
EXILE (excerpts)
by Hong Kong Exile
SFU Woodwards
October 2012