About
Orla Collier
Orla Collier is a freelance dance artist, physical theatre practitioner, and life model. She is from Cumbria and based in Leeds.
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"I perform and create to feel something, express it, and share this with others. I'm endlessly inspired by the capacity that dance and theatre has for emotional expression and how it allows me to explore personal experiences in real and absurd ways."
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She graduated with a first-class degree from Rambert School and then trained at Northern School of Contemporary Dance where she completed a MA with distinction as part of the post-graduate company Verve. During her training, she worked with choreographers such as Botis Seva, Christopher Bruce, Arielle Smith, Caroline Finn, and Matthew Bourne as part of his production of ‘Rome and Juliet’.
Since graduating in 2021, Orla has performed in a wide variety of productions, including Displace Yourself Theatre’s ‘A World Without Death’, which involved theatre, dance, and aerial hoop; Wiebke Acton’s ‘Phobia’, a physical theatre work; various site specific dance works for Daisy May Kemp and Joshua Bilton; Interplay Theatre’s ‘My Life with the Wave’, a sensory dance theatre work; and ‘Looking Back, Moving Forward’ for the Ludus@50 Anniversary performance, to which she also contributed as part of the creative team. And finally, she has done R&D for Kennedy Muntanga Dance Theatre's 'Napalm' and Jack Philp Dance's 'Into The Novacene'.
Orla has made three solo works: the physical theatre piece ‘Are you Local?’ commissioned by Great Place: Lakes & Dales and The Dukes Theatre; an outdoor dance performance work ‘Sometimes I hate going for walks in nice places that look nice’, commissioned by The Knotted Project for Forge Festival 2025; and an untitled improvised solo for '5OLOS' and 'Gutter Sprung' dance performance events. She has also co-created two duets, ‘You’re Here (Hooray!)’ with Magdalena Górnikiewicz, commissioned by Word of Warning for Haphazard 2023, and ‘Twenty-First Century Love’ with Nigel Stewart, commissioned by Ludus Dance for the Ludus@50 Anniversary intergenerational performance piece ‘Looking Back, Moving Forward’.
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Orla also began life and portrait modelling in 2021. She has since worked with a number of artists and life drawing groups across the Northwest and West Yorkshire, including Brewery Arts in Kendal, The Storey in Lancaster, Ilkley Arts, Leeds Drawing Club, Bare Canvas in Leeds, Redbrick Artists Life Drawing in Dewsbury, Leeds Central Library, See You Naked in Leeds, Otley Life Drawing, Adel Life Drawing and Horsforth Arts Society. Orla has also worked on 1:1 projects with local artists.
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For full Performance CV, click HERE.
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