About the Event

Local dance performer and choreographer Nicole L Olson returns for Canal Convergence 2021 to present Aura, a 20-minute dance piece inspired by the art at Canal Convergence. This unique performance will occur on both Saturday nights of Canal Convergence, November 6 and 13, on the Marshall Way Bridge. 

Artist Biography for Nicole L Olson, Artistic Director 

Olson has presented her choreography in such venues as the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), TBA Festival/Ten Tiny Dances (Portland, Oregon) , MixMatch Festival (Los Angeles), Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival (Chicago), Dance in the Desert Festival (Las Vegas), Dance for Life (Palm Springs), Sling Dance Project (Austin, Texas), Breaking Ground Dance and Film Festival (Tempe), Tiny Works|Tiny Dances (Phoenix), and Herberger Theater and Orpheum Theatre (Phoenix). She has choreographed for Evita and Once (The Phoenix Theatre Company), Heathers and Silence! The Musical (Stray Cat Theatre), and Hair (Desert Stages Theatre). She was awarded an ariZoni Award in Choreography for Nearly Naked Theatre’s production of The Who’s Tommy in 2006. 

Over the last few years, Olson has been presenting more of her work in alternative performance spaces, creating and performing dance for Phoenix Art Museum, Grand ArtHaus, {9} The Gallery in downtown Phoenix, and Taliesin West. In the spring and fall of 2018 and fall of 2019, Olson produced five evening-length, site-specific pieces for Canal Convergence. These works were viewed by hundreds of people in this internationally awarded annual event. With her company, NicoleOlson|MovementChaos, she and her artists will continue creating and producing works for stage and alternative spaces. 

Olson was awarded the 2016 Phoenix Mayor’s Arts Award for Dance (Cliff Keuter Award) and was selected as Phoenix New Times’ Best Dancer 2016 for its annual Best Of Phoenix and one of its 100 Creatives for 2016. She and artist Patricia Sannit received Best Art Collaboration in the Best of Phoenix 2018 through the Phoenix New Times for their work together in 2017–18. Olson was honored to be awarded the 1st Runner Up Prize at the Artlink’s 20th Annual Juried Exhibition (2020).