Omar Olivas
Instructor, Dance
MSK Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, 2015
oolivas@siue.edu
618-650-2773
Olivas was born and raised in Santa Ana, Calif. He began his training at Saint Joseph Ballet, now the Wooden Floor, under the artistic supervision of director Beth Burns. Olivas has a master's in Kinesiology from SIUE and earned with a BFA in Dance as a Haggerty and William Gillespie Scholar from the University of California, Irvine, where he was a member of Donald Mckayle’s student repertory dance company, Etudes. As a professional, Olivas has performed nationally and internationally with such distinguished groups as Diavolo Dance Theater, BackhausDance, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Santa Clarita Ballet, and Neglia Ballet. Olivas premiered Donald McKayle’s Minstrel Man at the Conservatoire in Paris, France and Tammy L. Wong’s About Last Night for the Esplanade’s Da:ns Festival Singapore in 2006. Aside from dancing, Olivas has been teaching and choreographing dance for over 10 years. He was invited by La Salle College of the Arts, in Singapore, to set a piece for The Esplanade's Da:ns Festival in 2008. In 2011, he paired with his wife, Jennifer Huffman Olivas, to co- teach master classes and set brand new works all over the world including at Brigham Young University, University of California Irvine, Webster University, Lehrer Dance, BackhausDance, LACDC, and Ballet Centrum in Fürth Germany. Olivas is currently on faculty for the department of theater and dance at SIUE and is a L1 certified crossfit trainer at a local gym.
