Staff and Board

Holly Bright is a performer and dance educator.  She holds a BA in Dance, BSc in Human Physiology, is certified  in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis,  Gyrokinesis/Gyrotonic movement systems and Thai Massage. Holly founded Crimson Coast Dance Society (Nanaimo, 1998), an organization that supports creation and presentation of professional dance programming.

In 2010, Holly was awarded The City Of Nanaimo’s Honour In Culture Award for her contributions to the cultural fabric of the arts in Nanaimo.  Her youth program, Body Talk, was nominated for a 2015 Business Achievement Award for Cultural Vitality. In 2016 Holly was selected for one of two annual John Hobday Awards offered through the Canada Council for the Arts by the Saidye Bronfman Family to acknowledge her work as an arts manager and to support her desire to cultivate cultural knowledge of Indigenous people, protocols, and their arts and artists — especially those of Snuneymuxw First Nation.

Teaching credits include; Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, The University of Akron, Ohio, The University of New Mexico, Las Cruces, and various B.C. dance academies in Nanaimo. Holly has danced with artists such as: Susanna Hood, Margie Gillis (Montreal) Judith Adams (U.K), Senta Driver, Hanya Holm, Agnes de Mille, Nina Weiner, Maureen Fleming-Odo, Lynne Taylor Corbett (New York City), Helen Myers (New Mexico), Chick Snipper, Kokoro Dance, Judith Marcuse (film), Lee Eisler, Deborah Dunn, Judith Garay, Jennifer Mascall and Cheryl Prophet (Vancouver). 

In her role as artistic director for Crimson Coast. Dance Society, Holly has choreographed solo works as well as works for dance professionals, dance students, and community dance projects. She draws on her experience with Harry Streep and Stephan Koplowitz (NYC).

Musical Theatre choreographic background includes Euphemia (Akron, Ohio), The Spirit of Bleeker Street (NYC), A Good Person? (Malaspina University Theatre), Hot Flashes (Theatre One, Nanaimo), Heidi and South Pacific (Chemainus Theatre), Rocky Horror Picture Show and All Grown Up (Schmooze Productions, Nanaimo).  She has performed in Guys and Dolls (Ohio), and created the lead role in an original musical, The Swing of Things (NYC).