Artist Biography
Olivia Fasino is a modern based dancer with a Bachelors of Arts in dance from Salem State University where she trained under Betsy Miller and Meghan McLyman. She has trained in many styles including ballet, jazz, hip hop, tap, lyrical, and contemporary at Dance Emporium with the Starz Performing Company in Spokane, WA before moving to Mansfield, MA, where she continued training at Art in Motion Academy of Dance.
Olivia received the Spirit Award from Art in Motion Academy of Dance for her positive attitude and energetic spirit that reached not only her fellow dancers, but her instructors as well. In addition, she won the Salem State #ArtMakesaDifference scholarship. She has worked as a studio teacher’s assistant, and a dance program liaison for the Salem State dance department. She feels that sharing her knowledge, experience, and artistry to younger dancers in addition to wider audiences is incredibly rewarding work.
Mission Statement
Dance has been the most influential thing in my life. It has taught me how to express my emotions as well as others’, be comfortable and confident with my body, connect to people in ways others could never imagine, and use it as a tool to bring many different things to the forefront of people’s minds. I strongly believe in the power of movement as an art form because I have personally experienced it directly and indirectly since I started walking. Dance can spark feelings in a person that they may not feel on a daily basis, or perhaps ever. This gives a choreographer, as well as their dancers, a strong responsibility to use this power to its limit, and make statements through their movement.
With a social work minor, I have a passion for advocation, and the arts need a lot of support. They are essential to our way of life as human beings, yet we often place other things such as the sciences above art. This is problematic for us as a society. Just as science can change the world, so can the arts. Change starts with each individual’s heart. That must always be the first step, and the arts are the most capable of accomplishing this. While arts can push people to be more compassionate and empathetic in general, it can also be used as a direct means of awareness for various issues that the world faces. I find these specific pieces that focus on racism, climate change, exclusion in all forms, etc. to be our most powerful weapon as artists.
When it comes to teaching dance, I take a lot of pride in sharing my knowledge and experience with others who are along the same rode that I took. I love helping people in any way, and teaching is a wonderful outlet for that. I know how dance shaped who I am and how it got me through many difficult times, and I want others to share in that experience and understand how dance can benefit them mentally.
My goal is to use dance as to greatly impact people’s lives in the many ways that it has done for me.
