Sophia Treanor

Sophia Treanor

Sophia Treanor is an MFA Directing student in the Department of Theater at University of Victoria. In her research, Sophia yearns to listen to and illuminate the infinite exchange between environment, perception and consciousness. Her practice centers reconnection with body and land in service of the liberation of our many possible futures. 

Sophia is a director, performer, and educator with thirteen years of professional experience previously based in New York City. Sophia’s live performance work has been presented in private and public spaces, theaters, and galleries, including the Living Theater, the Center for Performance Research, CAVE, the Glasshouse, Triskelion Arts, and Dixon Place. 

Most recently, Sophia directed and performed Ephemera, a posthumous collaboration with Mary Overlie, alongside co-creator Deborah Black at the Harold Clurman Center for New Works in Movement and Dance Theater, where she was the 2023 Artist in Residence. Previously, she directed the world premier of A Connected Place at The Gene Frankel Theater (2022) and Just a B’Day Dinner by Youlim Nam at The Secret Theater (2020). She is currently co-directing a documentary in production about Mary Overlie (www.overliefilm.com), is a founder of the Mary Overlie Legacy Project and the Director of the Six Viewpoints Institute (https://sixviewpoints.com). 

Sophia worked closely with Mary Overlie, originator of the Six Viewpoints, as a student, teaching assistant, dancer, and close companion throughout the United States, Europe, and China from 2011 until Overlie’s death in June of 2020. Sophia served as a primary reader for the Viewpoints book, Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory and Practice, and led the physical training of Mary Overlie’s international Viewpoints masterclasses from 2014-2020. Sophia assistant directed and performed in Brain to Brain: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Mary Overlie presented by Movement Research and Danspace Project at Saint Mark’s Church. Sophia also performed alongside Overlie at Fool's Fury in San Francisco for the 2016 book launch of Overlie's Standing in Space, and The Bunny Tail Range at the Basin, Montana Artists Refuge in 2012.  After Overlie’s passing, Sophia became the executor for her Artistic Estate and founded the Mary Overlie Legacy Project. The Legacy Project has secured Overlie’s archive at the Fales Performing Arts Library, initiated curriculum planning for an advanced practitioner and teacher training of the Viewpoints, and founded a steering committee for upcoming Viewpoints symposiums.

As an educator Sophia has taught Movement and directed projects at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting since 2015 and co-curated the Harold Clurman Center for New Works in Movement and Dance Theater. Since 2014, Sophia has been teaching the Six Viewpoints internationally as a guest artist at Vienna’s ImpulsTanz, Switzerland’s Scuola Teatro Dimitri, Rose Bruford College, Teatro Vertico in Spain, Toneelacadamie Maastricht, Shanghai Theatre Academy and Earthdance. 

Sophia currently resides on the traditional and unceded lək̓ʷəŋən peoples territory, the Songhees, Esquimalt & WSÁNEĆ nations land, and is studying rituals and theatrical practices that might open up communication with the surrounding stones.

Co-Supervisors Brian Richmond and Yasmine Kandil