Olivia Shaffer is a choreographer, performing artist, and movement teacher. She performs with EDAM Dance, Vancouver’s long established company of dance improvisation and Contact Improvisation (CI). Olivia has also performed with dance companies and independent choreographers such as Helen Walkley, Co. ERASGA, MACHiNENOiSY, Donna Redlick Dance, Starr Muranko/Raven Spirit Dance, Vanessa Goodman/Action at a Distance, among others.

Olivia creates embodied and interdisciplinary performances rooted in structured improvisations. Her choreographic work has been presented by New Works, Small Stage, Shooting Gallery, and the 2019/2020 season of Made in BC’s Des Arts Dehors/Arts Outside; in 2022, her work is slated to be presented by the Vancouver International Dance Festival, and Acker Stadt Palast in Berlin, Germany.

Olivia holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance from Simon Fraser University. Her practice and teaching is shaped by an ongoing study of CI, Improvisation, Somatic Studies (Movement Patterning, LMA & Bartenieff Fundamentals, Feldenkrais), Physical Theatre, and Pilates. She regularly teaches dance and movement in Vancouver to professional and pre-professional performers, as well as to community members. She has taught abroad in Europe, the United States, and Asia.