Ronja Ver is a dancer and dance maker, a teacher, a mother, an activist, and a lifetime student of performance as meaning-making. Her choreographic work addresses current issues through movement, sound, and awkward audience participation; technical but unpolished, often working with extreme physical states to invite a visceral, nonverbal place of relating. A native of Finland, she has worked and performed extensively throughout Europe and in the United States, most recently with Nancy Stark Smith and Mike Vargas in Seattle and New York City, Sara Shelton Mann, Risa Jaroslow & Dancers, Scott Wells and Dancers and Avy K Productions in the Bay Area. Previous posts include the National Theater of Finland and in Riitta Vainio Dance Company, and she was proud to perform in Steve Paxton’s DVD Material For The Spine. Her choreography has been presented in the U.S. at Movement Research at the Judson Church (NYC), Danspace Project (NYC), the American Dance Festival (NC). This year, she is excited to begin her 3-year artist residency at SAFEhouse for the Arts, San Francisco in 2016, with a new work in progress called DOOR.

Ronja Ver is continually inspired by the art and practice of Contact Improvisation, which provides a place for play and magic in her life. She is a co-organizer of the West Coast Contact Improvisation Jam and a co-founder of the Finnish CI festival Skiing On Skin. She holds an MFA in Dance from Hollins University.