Integrating Digital Media and Interdisciplinary Approaches with Movement with Ellen Oliver

Ellen Oliver (she/they) is an interdisciplinary dancer, digital media artist, and climbing route setter from Blackstone, MA. Her research explores the intersection of rock climbing and dance through technology, installation, sculpture, and performance. She studied dance at UNC School of the Arts, holds a BA from Hampshire College, and received an MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa. Ellen has collaborated frequently with artists such as Angela Cole, David Hurlin, Dayita Nereyeth, and Ramin Roshandel. Most recently, Ellen’s collaborative work has been performed in a live OptiTrack motion capture studio, a climbing piano, an empty grain silo, and a 50-foot climbing wall. Ellen’s video animations and live chroma-key installations often feature a green screen climbing wall as a way to hybridize a shared movement language between rock climbing, vertical dance, and live technology. Ellen’s solo and collaborative work have been shared at venues including Roger Williams University, Keene State College, Open Air Media Festival, Shoonya Centre for Arts and Somatic Practices, New Work Series NYC,  Iowa’s International Writers Program, Dixon Place, AS220 Providence, F-O-R-M, Urbanity’s neXt Residency, Bearnstow, Omi: Dance, and The White Mountain National Forest.