About Me:
Movement Artist and Dance Educator
Biography
Olivia Jenna Brown is a movement artist and dance educator based in Philadelphia. Her choreographic work explores Jewish rituals as embodied practice through a queer and anti-zionist Jewish lens. She received her MFA in Dance from Bennington College in 2026, where she presented her performance thesis Feldmesterins 5786 in both Pennsylvania and Vermont. Brown’s practice collages contemporary/modern/somatic forms, collaborative process, chance procedure, and improvisation to explore themes of grief, intimacy, and spirituality through movement. Her work is interdisciplinary, informed by creative writing, filmmaking, and archival research as well as a desire to uplift historically feminized craft practices such as baking, cleaning, and fiber arts.
Originally from NYC, Olivia received her BA in Dance from Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, from which she graduated summa cum laude in 2019. During her time at Hunter College, Olivia had the honor of dancing works by choreographers Doug Varone and Vicky Shick, and also as the captain of the Macaulay Dancers team and Vice President of the Dance Department Student Advisory Council. She was a recipient of the Meyer’s Scholarship, two Presidential Awards, and a grant from the CUNY Performing Arts Office. Her formative dance training prior to Hunter College took place primarily at the Ailey School as well as Peridance and LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. In 2019, she performed at New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival with Monica Bill Barnes & Co. Olivia also studied extensively with the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (2022), including functional anatomy, Laban movement analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals.
Olivia’s choreography has been featured in dance festivals including Philadelphia Fringe (2021, 2023), Flair Dance (2021), and Mascher Space Cooperative’s Fresh Juice (2021, 2022). Olivia is a studio administrator and children’s teaching artist with Cardell Dance Studio, and has taught children and adults across Philadelphia at various organizations including the Arts League, BalletX, ContactImprovPhilly, and Philly Dance Share. Her pedagogy focuses on cultivating integrated neuromotor patterning and empowering students of all ages to be creative. Olivia is passionate about movement as a means of radically imagining and embodying positive change in the world, and she loves to invite students and collaborators into the healing possibilities of dance.