Olana Z Flynn

selected dance works

contact for full choreography and performance CV

ongoing performance work with LOCULUS (2019 - present)

visit www.loculuscollective.com/practice for full list of performances.

experiments with noise (2019)

between schematics (2019)

choreography and performance by Olana Z Flynn
production design by Olana Z Flynn
sound design by Olana Z Flynn including original music by Timed Egg (Billy Brett)
lighting design by Olana Z Flynn with Jason Dunk
costume design by Olana Z Flynn
schematic design by Olana Z Flynn including schematic drawing by Billy Brett
Photography by Olana Z Flynn

Integrating movement, sound, and light, between schematics is a one-person dance performance that uses the photographic technique or mishap (depending on how you look at it) of double exposure to explore femininity, liminality, memory, and the spaces in-between.

between schematics was presented by the University of California, Riverside, Department of Dance. Olana Z Flynn created this work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Experimental Choreography.

twinghostsister (2018)

Choreographed and performed by Olana Flynn and Madison Palffy (LOCULUS collective)

Sound design by Olana Flynn and Madison Palffy featuring Timed Egg, Danzig, Michael Wall, and Tammy Wynette.

Created during the summer of 2018 as a part of a residency at The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought in Northampton, MA. The pieced toured throughout New England—at The Root Cellar in Greenfield, MA / The Apohadian Theater in Portland, Maine / Mascher Space Co-op in Philadelphia, PA and The Glove in Brooklyn, NY. Olana and Madison have been collaborating for over 5 years and are interested in work that values memory, multiple intelligences, and the potential for many worlds to exist in one performance. Their collaborations span the material (sound, objects, video) and immaterial (dead artists, long distance friends, ghosts).

twinghostsister is:
an experiment in sharing two long-term solo practices
an ongoing practice of saying “yes” to whims, obsessions, and desires
a punk dance —whatever that means
haunted
interested in antagonisms and the amateur

dust.2 (2018)

Choreographed and performed by Olana Flynn (2018)
in collaboration with Mariam Dingilian and Molly McBride (2012)
Score by Jackie M (2012)

Performed June 4th, 2018 as part of ROUND 1 (16th Annual Graduate Student Dance Showing)

Logan county (2018)

Sound: 
Temporary Temple by Genesis P-Orridge & Psychic TV
Wayfaring Stranger (American Folk Song)
Wayfaring Pilgrim sung by Ola Belle Reed

Performed as part of TŪHONO on Wednesday, June 6, 2018, 10:00am - 12:30pm UCR campus, Athletics and Dance Building ATHD 159 along with solos by Josie Bettman, Cristina Leyva, and Magnolia Yang Sao Yia.

This solo was devised within the framework, principles and methodologies of Whakaahua Dance - an indigenous dance and somatic practice which arose out of Louise Potiki Bryant’s long-term collaboration with researcher and composer Professor Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal.
Whakaahua Dance is informed by Professor Royal’s research into the historical whare tapere - Māori community houses of storytelling, dance, music, games and more. Whakaahua means to acquire form or to transform, and Whakaahua Dance draws inspiration from a central concept of the haka (dance) of the whare tapere, whereby a quality from the natural world emerges from deep within a dancer to find it’s fullest expression in the performance of the dance. The Whakaahua Dance practice offers somatic exercises and techniques for creativity, healing, choreography and movement improvisation.

Here in the background between two figures

Fall 2017 MFA Showing 
UC Riverside
Sound by Timed Egg, Ryan Caruso, Anthony Pasquarosa

Dance Under Construction (April 6,2018)
UC Riverside
Sound by Timed Egg, Ryan Caruso, CD/File, Lazar Bozic

Dance Under Construction (DUC) is an interdisciplinary UC forum in which graduate-level scholars meet to discuss each other's work and to reflect on new developments in the field of Dance Studies. The conference will include paper panels, performances, workshops, films, and feedback from faculty. Participants are requested to be in attendance for the entirety of the conference in order to support each other.

Here in the Background Between Two Figures is a short solo by Olana Flynn performed in a corner, in the dark. The movement is a simple and repetitive improvisational score with one light focused straight up. Positioned at the feet of the dancer, her body is projected in diverging and overlapping shadows onto the ceiling and walls of the performance space. The score for the work includes multiple tracks, each of which play out of different sound sources throughout the room. In contrast to the physical movement that stays in place the sound moves throughout the room created the sense of multiple worlds within the performance space. Here in the Background Between Two Figures is an exploration of double exposures, a photographic mishap in which multiple images are exposed onto the same frame of film. In this choreographed work we see body exposed over shadow, shadow exposed over shadow, sound exposed over sound, body exposed over sound, sound exposed over shadow. 

they call these sea stacks (2016)

Choreographed by Olana Flynn in collaboration with dancers
Performed by Olana Flynn, Madison Palffy, and Jennifer Robers
Original Score performed live by Sean Duram
Developed while in residence May 2016 at The Denmark Arts Center in Denmark, ME
Performed in New York, NY. 
Video courtesy of Dixon Place.

if tangled bits fly loose (2013)

Choreographed by Olana Flynn in collaboration with dancers
Performed by Hayley-Jane Blackstone, Marilla Cubberley, Justin Norris, Madison Palffy, Ailey Picasso, and Sarazina Joy Stein
Original score by Jackie McDermott
Performed in Amherst, MA