Olivia Shaffer www.oliviashaffer.ca

Performer, choreographer, and movement teacher based in Vancouver, Canada.

-Associate Artistic Director at EDAM Dance, professional dance company rooted in Contact Improvisation and Ensemble-based improvised performances. Resident CI teacher at EDAM.

-Studied CI under Peter Bingham since 2011, who teaches CI classes 5 days per week at EDAM.

-Certified practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education. Certified Pilates Mat Instructor.

-BFA in contemporary dance and a Liberal Arts Certificate from the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.

Olivia is an accomplished practitioner in the field of dance and somatic movement. She has collaborated with a wide range of artists and her passion lies in the creation of embodied, evocative performance by way of crafted improvisations, aiming to highlight tensions between the tangible and the ephemeral. She has taught and performed in Europe, the US, and Asia. 

Olivia teaches CI regularly at EDAM Dance in Vancouver. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia, where she teaches embodied movement to students in the BFA Theatre Program. Additionally, Olivia has taught CI at Freiburg Contact Fest, CI50:Critical Mass, Leviathan Studios, SFU, Douglas College, Modus Operandi, Polymer Dance, Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, the Berkeley Jam, and the University of the Philippines. 

Significant teachers

Olivia has trained daily in CI since 2011 under master teacher Peter Bingham, and has been performing with his company, EDAM Dance, since 2014. She has also studied CI with Alicia Grayson, Karen Nelson, Sara Shelton Mann, Andrew Harwood, Ray Chung, Chris Aiken, Frey Faust, Leilani Weis, Ruslan Baranov, John Faichney, Martin Keogh, Angelika Doniy, Delia Brett, Daelik, and Anne Cooper.