Eliza Cooper
Eliza graduated from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts (2015) and received a Certificate IV in Dance in Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year program (2016). She continued her studies with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in the MASA Program (2017) and completed the Advanced Diploma in Dance accreditation at SDC (2021).
Since 2018, Eliza has worked as a seasonal dancer for Opera Australia (Dance Captain), Dance Makers Collective and Pepa Molina’s ‘Las Flamenkas’ flamenco ensemble. She presented numerous short choreographic works at esteemed venues including PACT Theatre, Riverside Theatres, NIDA Theatres, the Zichri Theatre (Kibbutz Ga’aton) and Town Hall Sydney.
In 2019, Eliza’s first full-length work ‘Old Life/ Dead Life’ premiered at the Old 505 Theatre in a highly successful sold-out season. In 2022, her second full-length work ‘Bat Lake’ premiered at Riverside Theatres in Form Dance Project’s ‘Dance Bites’ series.
In 2022, SDC’s Youth Ensemble presented her work ‘Play’ in SDC’s Neilson Studio and Configuration Company’s junior ensemble premiered ‘An Army of Frogs’ in ‘Movement Display’. In 2023, Eliza began developing her next major solo work ‘Snake Battle’ and worked with the PPY2s on an ensemble work ‘Chasing Fowls, Catching Rabbits’.
In 2023, Eliza received a prestigious ATLAS Choreographic Training Programme scholarship for ImPulsTanz: Vienna International Dance Festival. She will undertake intensive choreographic development and mentorship in Vienna with sponsorship from Life Long Burning and the EU’s Creative Europe programme.
Eliza works as a movement director in fashion for leading designers such as Lee Mathews and Martyn Thompson and is a freelance costume designer and maker.