After training at Milwaukee Ballet School and graduating with a BFA in Dance from Univ. of WI - Stevens Point, Nicole L Olson worked with Kirby Reed (Chicago), Bauer Contemporary Ballet (Milwaukee), and Emergence Dance Theatre (Chicago).
In AZ, she has danced with the Phoenix Opera, Liliana Gomez, Diane McNeal Hunt, and Dulce Dance, and was Guest Artist/ Soloist with Center Dance Ensemble for 8 years. Currently, she is the Assistant Director of Scorpius Dance Theatre and Artistic Director of NicoleOlson|MovementChaos.
Olson has presented her own work nationally in such venues as the Kennedy Center (DC), Ruth Page Performing Arts Center (Chicago), the TBA Festival at PICA (Portland, OR), the Dance in the Desert Festival (Las Vegas), NV), and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West (Scottsdale, AZ). Her choreography has also been seen in the Phoenix Theatre Company’s “Evita” and “Once”, and Stray Cat Theatre’s “Heathers” and “Silence! The Musical”.
Nicole has been presenting site-specific work in alternative performance spaces since 2015; creating dance for Phoenix Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMOCA), and {9}The Gallery. She has produced eight evening-length pieces for the internationally-awarded Canal Convergence in 2018-‘22, presented by Scottsdale Public Art.
Olson was awarded the 2016 Phoenix Mayor’s Arts Award for Dance, and was selected as Phoenix New Times’ “Best Dancer, 2016” for their annual “Best Of Phoenix” and their “100 Creatives” for 2016. In 2018, she was recognized by Phoenix New Times’ “Best Of 2018” for her work with Patricia Sannit (Best Collaboration).
More recently, Nicole was awarded 2nd Place for Artlink Phoenix’s 20th Annual Juried Exhibition in 2020, received the InFlux 9 commission from the City of Phoenix Arts and Culture for 2021, and was the recipient of the Arizona Commission on the Arts’ Research and Development Grant ‘21. She is currently creating more work for alternative venues throughout the Valley and is looking forward to all of the new adventures that lie ahead.
