Meet OPD

Olive Prince Dance (OPD) is a project based dance company creating psychologically compelling, physically stimulating and thematically suggestive dance works. She creates productions that capture striking images while celebrating dancers’ movement histories to shape what transpires on stage.

Visual imagery is paramount to OPD’s working process and final product. Often starting with objects, set pieces, or costuming to create ways of constructing and deconstructing their meaning throughout the choreography. Specific images act as conceptual muses and are allowed to lead aspects of the process. Imagery mingles with divergent ideas in the conceptual constellation to develop choreography that mirrors the human experience. The process creates movement that combines technical virtuosity with energetic resonance, all while utilizing classical constructs in ways that further the work.

Artistic Statement

Olive Prince is a conceptual artist, invested in the collaborative process, and engaged in cutting edge artistic inquiry. She is interested in weaving the choreographic process in parallel with another artist. Bodies moving with daring, honesty is her principle instrument of expression. Visual imagery is a central force that motivates her work. She want to push the boundaries of contemporary practices to create dance that redefines her own making process.

What We've Achieved

Olive Prince is a veteran Philadelphia performer having worked with many independent artists as well as a company member with Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers (2007-2013), and Merian Soto (2005-present) for close to a decade. Prince received her MFA in dance and choreography from Temple University where her choreography was chosen for the American Colleges Dance Festival Association’s National Concert at the Kennedy Center. She has been commissioned to create dance for Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, Group Motion, and to create site-specific work for Hobart and William Smith College’s 40th anniversary of the women’s studies program. She was also commissioned by Drexel University to create an original piece for students to perform at the International Night of the Singapore Youth Festival – the only American company ever to receive this invitation.

Her company has been presented at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, the 2010 Live Arts Festival, the International Contemporary Dance Conference, New Dance Alliance’s Performance Mix Joyce Soho, the CEC Resident Artist Series, the nEW Festival and as part of the Susan Hess Choreographer’s Project where she was a resident artist. OPD’s most recent work was created in collaboration with visual artist, Carrie Powell while resident artist at the Iron Factory. As an educator, Prince has taught as a full-time and adjunct faculty member at Drexel University since 2008, focusing on modern dance, composition, and improvisation. Most recently, Prince was featured in an interview on her most recent work, on WHYY’s piece “Articulate with Jim Cotter”.