“…Olafson is a pioneer in our country’s dance community”
Philip Szporer, The Dance Current
Freya Björg Olafson is an interdisciplinary / dance artist who works with video, audio, painting and performance. Her creations have been presented and exhibited nationally as well as internationally at festivals and galleries such as SECCA ~ SouthEastern Center for Contemporary Art (North Carolina), OchoYmedio / Alas de la Danza (Quito, Guayaquil and Manta / Ecuador), The Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art (Winnipeg), InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Center (Toronto), dance: made in canada biennial (Toronto), Winnipeg Art Gallery, núna (now) Festival (Winnipeg, Toronto, Iceland), Tangente (Montreal), O.K. Centrum / Transart Institute (Linz, Austria), Summerworks Theater Festival (Toronto), Sequences Real Time Media Arts Festival (Iceland) and MONA ~ Museum of New Art (Detroit).
As performer and creator, Freya blends 6 years classical training in the Professional Program of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet with the contemporary facility achieved through her completion of the Bachelor of Arts Honors degree in dance from Winnipeg’s School of Contemporary Dancers in affiliation with the University of Winnipeg. She combines her finesse in movement with the directness of her performance art, video and theory studies from the University of Manitoba School of Art and her subsequent completion of a Master of Fine Arts Degree in New Media from the Transart Institute / Donau Universitat in Krems, Austria.
As an independent performer Freya has worked with Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Trip Dance Company, Adhere & Deny Theatre Company, Gearshifting Performance Works as well as independent choreographers Stephanie Ballard, D-Anne Kuby, Natasha Torres-Garner and Jennifer Essex. Last May as part of núna (now) Freya performed in “The Island”, a collaborative work with Arne MacPherson (Winnipeg), Ingibjörg Magnadóttir and Friðgeir Einarsson (Reykjavík, Iceland). This May 2013 Freya is an Associate Artist at Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida) in a mentored residency with Coco Fusco. Subsequently in June she will be attending the International Society for Performing Arts 27th Congress (Wrocław, Poland) as one of the five new members to the Canada Council Legacy Program. In July she will be back in Winnipeg to engage in Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art’s ‘Summer Institute’ with Roy Ascott, Eduardo Kac, Ken Gregory, and Oliver Botar.
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