Interview with Mary Oslund (2016)
Files
Description
Mary Oslund bases her performance and teaching work in Portland, Oregon, where she has served on the faculties of Reed College, Lewis & Clark College, and Portland State University. She founded and directed Dance Works Studio in Eugene, Oregon and now co-directs the Conduit studio in Portland.
Recorded for the documentary Moving History: Portland Contemporary Dance Past and Present.
Interview Date
2015
Disciplines
Dance
Rights
This interview is made available through the Portland State University Library Special Collections and University Archives with the generous permission of Eric Nordstrom, Portland Performing Arts Video and is for educational and non-commercial use only. It cannot be reproduced in any form, distributed or played for commercial purposes. For more information, please contact Special Collections at Portland State University Library at: specialcollections@pdx.edu or (503) 725-9883
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18805
Recommended Citation
Oslund, Mary and Nordstrom, Eric, "Interview with Mary Oslund (2016)" (2015). Interviews. 4.
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18805
Biographical
"I make dances from a keen interest in the body and movement, the richness of work with artists in other forms, the breadth of possibility within choreographic design and statement. I want to create work that is at once complex, captivating and mysterious."
A native Oregonian, Oslund left the region to study as an undergraduate and graduate at The Ohio State University, where she received a BFA and a MA and toured the Midwest and East with original work. Since 1984, she has lived in Portland, where she bases her performance and teaching work.
Dialogue and partnerships with other artists and forms have been influential in Oslund’s career and creative process. Her choreography often draws from literature, film, and the visual arts, and is often accompanied by original music. Her study and collaboration with artists and companies nationwide, particularly her association with Merce Cunningham’s original dance company, are reflected in her work.
Oslund has served on the faculties of Reed College, Lewis & Clark College, the University of Oregon, and Portland State University. She founded and directed Dance Works Studio in Eugene, Oregon and co-founded and now co-directs Conduit studio in Portland, where her company Oslund+Company/Dance is based.
Oslund's teaching career has included serving on the faculties of Reed College, Lewis & Clark College, the University of Oregon, and Portland State University. She founded and directed Dance Works Studio in Eugene, Oregon and co-founded and now co-directs Conduit studio in Portland, both of which have provided a home base for Oslund+Company/Dance.
Interviewer Eric Nordstrom is a dance performer, filmmaker and professor. As a director and editor, his interests focus on the intersection of dance, improvisation, documentary, and film. His past and current film work features such prominent dancers and scholars as Ann Cooper Albright and Simone Forti. In Seattle, he has performed with Karen Nelson, and in Portland, Oregon, was a core company member with Oslund+Company. Eric has taught contemporary technique, contact improvisation, and dance film courses in colleges and festivals throughout the U.S., including Macalester College, Kenyon College, Reed College, Portland State University, Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, Conduit Dance, and The Ohio State University, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts. He is on faculty at Lewis and Clark College.