Jason Ohlberg

Associate Professor and associate chair

Office: Dance Center 227
Telephone: 518-580-8378
Email: johlberg@skidmore.edu

Originally from Fresno, California, Jason attended the State University of New York at Purchase in the early 1990s. Following an eighteen-year professional dance career, he graduated summa cum laude with his B.F.A. in dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. In 2015 he earned his M.F.A. from the University of Washington where he was awarded the Dean’s Graduate Medal from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Professionally, Jason has danced with numerous companies, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Dance Kaleidoscope, Jan Erkert and Dancers, and the University of Washington’s Chamber Dance Company. In 1997, Jason founded Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre in Chicago where he acted as artistic director and head choreographer. For over twenty years, he has created works for companies and festivals throughout the country, including Arc Dance Productions, Dance Kaleidoscope, Cornish Dance Theatre, the Ruth Page Dance Festival, Spectrum Dance Theatre, Seattle Dance Project, and the Seattle International Dance Festival.

Jason has taught at several professional schools and internationally recognized training programs including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Spectrum Dance Theatre, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet. He has served on the faculties of Barat College, the University of Washington, and Cornish College of the Arts.

In addition to his artistic profile, Jason has presented research at the annual conferences of the International Association of Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS) and the National Dance Educators Organization (NDEO). His work on museum-based choreographic research entitled “Choreography as Seeing” was published in the Journal of Dance Education (JODE) in 2019. In 2020, JODE published his research on contemporary technical practices entitled “Rethinking Technique: Considering Visual, Oral, and Movement Literacy to Promote Technical Skill and Artistic Growth”.

Jason joined the Skidmore Dance Department faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2016. In 2021 he was promoted to Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the Dance Department.