Ella Mahler

Ella Mahler is a choreographer working at the intersections of experimental dance and visual performance. Her dance training began in college, after shifting from her background in drawing/design and her path to study anthropology. She received a BFA in dance from Western Washington University, and has since performed for companies including Bellingham Repertory Dance, Kuntz & Company, and Catherine Cabeen – Hyphen.

Approaching dance as critical inquiry, Ella explores the ways we perceive and experience in the world through capacities of movement and juxtaposition. Living between pedestrian gesture and hyper physicality, her process is highly investigative, placing heavy value in research practices that lead to the work.

Ella’s choreography has been presented locally and nationally, with recent commissions from Relay Dance Collective, Bellingham Repertory Dance, and Seattle Art Museum. She received the SeattleDances DanceCrush Award and Velocity’s Audience Choice Award, and is selected as Velocity’s 2019 Made in Seattle Artist.

Ella received 2018 GAP Award funding to support her first evening-length work, Here. – a duet riddled with constant change, loads of endurance, and all aspects of togetherness. Ella will premiere this new work at Velocity Dance Center on March 7–10, 2019.