Birthplace
Florida Keys
Dance Training
Miami City Ballet School
San Francisco Ballet School
Boston Ballet II
Year Joined
2002
Promotions
First Soloist - 2018
Soloist- 2008
Demi Soloist - 2005
Favorite Role
The Jester in Cinderella
A Defining Moment
Dancing in Stanton Welch’s Sons de L’âme at the Théatre des Champs-Élysées in Paris where The Rite of Spring premiered, with the pianist Lang Lang was pretty cool.
BIO
Oliver grew up in South Florida. His parents immersed him in a strict regimen of jazz, tap, diving, gymnastics, karate, and piano lessons. He performed in Miami City Ballet's first Nutcracker at the age of 7, fell in love with both Tchaikovsky and ballet and was soon skipping the aforementioned activities for a strict diet of plies and tendues. At 14, Oliver went west to train with the San Francisco Ballet School. In 2001, he began his professional dance career back on the east coast with the Boston Ballet. A year later, he settled on middle ground in Texas. Oliver enjoys the heat, the smell of corn tortillas and the diverse repertoire that Houston and its ballet offer. He joined Houston Ballet as a Corps de Ballet member in 2002 and rose through the ranks of demi soloist in 2005 and soloist in 2008. He promoted to first soloist in 2018.
He has danced a variety of classical, contemporary and character roles: the socially awkward Alain in Sir Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal Gardee, the misunderstood stepsister in Stanton Welch's Cinderella, the jazzy couple in red in George Balanchine's Rubies and the bulldog sailor in Jerome Robbin's Fancy Free. His repertoire includes George Balanchine, Jiří Kylián, Stanton Welch AM, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Hans Van Manen, Christopher Bruce, Mark Morris, Ben Stevenson OBE, Justin Peck, Aszure Barton and Jerome Robbins, among others. And of course every December Oliver can still be found in The Nutcracker. No longer the White Rabbit, his new favorite roles are the zany Herr Drosselymeyer and the romantic Prince. Oliver still loves Tchaikovsky.
Oliver has choregraphed for Houston Ballet, Houston Ballet II, MET Dance, Mercury Ensemble, the Texas Contemporary Art Fair, the Blaffer Museum, Houston Cinema Arts Society and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Alongside his good friends and fellow dancers, Melody Mennite and Connor Walsh, he co-produces REACH, a platform for Houston dancers and choreographers to create new work while raising money for arts education. He co-choregraphed What we keep with Melody Mennite and Connor Walsh for Houston Ballet's performances at the George R. Brown Convention Center in 2018.
He debuted his first solo Houston Ballet commission Following for Houston Ballet’s 50th Anniversary season in 2019. Following is seven short vignettes set to the music of Moondog featuring eleven dancers.
Photos
Rylan Doty
Soo Youn Cho