Olive Bieringa works at the intersection of creative practice and pedagogy in dance, performance, somatics and media. Born in Aotearoa, she is a first-generation New Zealander of European descent based in Oslo. She holds a BA in Dance from European Dance Development Center in the Netherlands and an MFA in Performance and New Media at Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY. She is a doctoral candidate at Uniarts, Helsinki. She is Certified Movement Therapist (ISMETA) and Body-Mind Centering® Teacher and Program Director of Somatic Education Australasia. She is also a Certified Shiatsu practitioner and DanceAbility® teacher, working with performers of all abilities. She collaborates with Otto Ramstad as BodyCartography Project since 1998. Their artistic work cultivates tools with somatics, dance, and choreography to support our collective evolution in this moment of planetary crisis. Together they engage with the vital materiality of bodies, minds, and the more than human world, to co-create live experiences to generate re-enchantment, relationship, and presence. Through workshops, choreographies and performances, films, installations and festivals they create participatory spaces for collective imaginings for diverse publics, often beyond the usual institutional frameworks and spaces of dance production. Her work has been profoundly influenced by teachers and collaborators including Lisa Nelson, Margit Galanter, Steve Paxton, Eva Karczag, and founder of Body-Mind Centering® Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. Olive teaches in dance programs and festivals and Body-Mind Centering® trainings internationally. Since 2018 she works on the board of PRAXIS Oslo where she curates and produces local dance events. Past curatorial projects include art, and science collaborations such as St Paul’s City Art Collaboratory and SEEDS Festival at Earthdance, dance and dance film festivals. Her writings appear in numerous online publications such as Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternate Spaces from University of Florida Press.
