Rosalind Crisp grew up on a sheep farm in East Gippsland, Victoria. She trained in classical and contemporary dance at the Victorian Ballet School, Melbourne, and in Contact Improvisation, release work and Body-mind centering® at the European Dance Development Centre, the Netherlands. In 1992 and 1993 she worked with different choreographers in Antwerp, Belgium (R. de Herdt, A. Baervoets, E. Raeves) and in Vancouver, Canada (P. Bingham, C. Fischer-Credo, H. Meller).
In 1995 she created and performed her first major solo work, The Cutting Room, with director Nigel Jamieson at The Performance Space, Sydney. In 1996 Rosalind established the Omeo Dance Studio in Sydney, a place of residence for her research and a site for the development of a community of dance artists in Sydney. There, she choreographed many works, including Accumulation 1-40, a work for 24 performers (1999). She also developed international artistic exchanges: BerlinXchange (2004) and Franco-Omeo-Exchange (2005), co-curated two editions of the international dance festival Antistatic (1997, 1999) and sat on the jury of the Zurich Theatre Spectakel (2003). Rosalind received a NSW Women and Arts Fellowship in 1996, a Mo award for Best Female Dancer of the Year in 1997, and a two-year choreographic fellowship from the Dance Fund of the Australia Council for the Arts (2000-2001).
Her works have been presented in galleries and theatres throughout Australia since 1987, and since 2000 her work has increasingly found its place in the European circuit. Invited to France in 2002 by Michel Caserta, director of the Biennale nationale de danse du Val-de-Marne, she worked between Australia and France from 2003 to 2005, establishing Rosalind Crisp/Association Omeo Dance in Paris in 2004. Since 2004, Rosalind has been a choreographic associate of the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson. There, she runs a regular informal performance event, les Crocodiles 2006-2008 and since 2009, les Courbatus, which invite the public into her ongoing research practice and exchange with visiting artists. In 2005 she launched d a n s e , a project of research and creation in collaboration with researcher Isabelle Ginot. This project has generated numerous works and events, some of which are covered in detail on this site. (Courtesy of the artist.)
rosalind crisp and nigel jamieson
eleanor brickhill, the performance space quarterly 6, winter 1995, 10-11
rosalind crisp: a european future pt 1
erin brannigan, realtime 48, april-may 2002
on the other side of dancing: the rosalind crisp interview part 2
erin brannigan, realtime 49, june-july 2002
rosalind crisp: an interview
paul roberts, proximity 5.1, february 17, 2002
thinking dance
rosalind crisp, what i think about when I think about dancing, exhibition catalogue, ed. lisa havilah, emma saunders and susan gibb, campbelltown: campbelltown arts centre, 2009, 103
realtime video interview: ros crisp
realtime@dancemassive, 2011
the cutting room, 1995
actual footage
virginia baxter, realtime 7, june-july, 1995
the cutting room
jeremy eccles, the australian, July 1996
speak to me sugar, 1997
the real material
eleanor brickhill, realtime 17, february-march, 1997
six variations on a lie, 1997
six variations on a lie, ros crisp
keith gallasch, realtime 18, april-may, 1997
outside outward display: tradition and the derivative
eleanor brickhill, realtime 19, june-july, 1997
omeo dance project, 1998
motives for movement
eleanor brickhill, realtime 24, april-may, 1998
proximity, 1999
hybrid yield
eleanor brickhil, realtime 31, june-july, 1999
accumulation (1-40), 2000
star turns: watching stella b
erin brannigan, realtime 35, february-march, 2000
the dance unfolds
virginia baxter, realtime 38, august-september, 2000
traffic, 2001
omeo: 5 years of dance traffic
erin brannigan, realtime 43, june-july, 2001
raft, 2002
maria-daniella strouthou, la terrasse, february 2003
tread, 2003
muriel steinmetz, l’humanité, march 2003
ducktalk, 2004
lee christofis, the australian, november 2004
no-one will tell us…, 2010-ongoing
dance like never before
keith gallasch, realtime@dancemassive, march 18, 2011
marie-laure rolland, luxemburger wort, 27/5/2010
moveme’s becoming & arriving
maggi phillips, realtime 125, february-march 2015
danse (3) sans spectacle
history never repeats
Caroline Wake, with Keith Gallasch and Virginia Baxter
Thumbnail: Rosalind Crisp, dance (1), photo Patrick Berger