Sophia Stoller, artistic director of Iris Company, is a choreographer, dancer, dance educator, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA. Sophia has presented choreography and screened films in festivals and venues in California, Washington, the UK, Buenos Aires, New York, Israel, and Bali. Notable venues include the Walt Disney Concert Hall, REDCAT, Electric Lodge, Highways, the Fowler Museum, SoCal Dance Invitational, and Bootleg Theater. She was recently commissioned by Yorke Dance Project to create a piece for the company's 20th Anniversary Tour. The work was performed at the Royal Opera House and other venues around the UK. Sophia founded Iris Company in 2016 with the creation and production of The Other Side, an immersive dance theater performance exploring classism and human resilience. Sophia often brings together artists of different mediums to create interdisciplinary work, believing deeply in the power of collaboration.
She is an award-winning director of experimental dance shorts. Her films have screened in festivals across the US and internationally. Most recently, CANVAS, a film created in collaboration with Amodeo Creative and The Third Floor, won the Audience Choice Award at the 2023 Los Angeles Dance Film Festival and the 2024 Lights Dance Festival in Seattle, WA. CANVAS was additionally selected for a StandardVision Award Honorable Mention and screened on a large facade outside LA Live in Downtown LA. Sophia has been commissioned to choreograph a number of projects for the camera, including Malynda Hale's God and His Gun music video, the short narrative film You and the Moth, and Jarell Perry’s music video, Relapse.
Sophia has participated in the HOTHOUSE Choreographic Residency at UCLA, was a recipient of the PDG Space Grant, and was one of three choreographers selected to be part of the 2017 Cohan Collective residency in Los Angeles. She holds an MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts, a BA in World Arts and Cultures/Dance and a BA in Psychology from UCLA.
photo: Peter Amodeo Gould
Sophia spent ten months living in Israel, dancing full time in an apprenticeship program with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, where she studied and performed KCDC repertoire, choreographed by Rami Be’er and directed by Mika Webber. During her time in Israel, she additionally studied the repertoire of Batsheva Dance Company, Inbal Pinto, and Vertigo Dance Company, and performed the repertoire of Cullberg Ballet including excerpts of Swan Lake and Giselle choreographed by Mats Ek, excerpts of Monger choreographed by Barak Marshall, and an original work choreographed by Sharon Visvaser. In Southern California, Sophia has performed with Nickerson-Rossi Dance, Union Project Dance Company, Dance Aegis, and Soul Lab Dance Project.
Sophia has taught dance technique and composition at CalArts, YWCA Santa Monica/Westide, Scripps College (guest teacher), CMDC, California School of the Arts - San Gabriel Valley, Gabriella Charter School, and The Gabriella Foundation's Everybody Dance program. She was a full-time faculty member at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences for 7 years, where she worked closely with the Dance Department Chair to develop and reimagine the Crossroads dance program. In 2024, she relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area to take over the upper school dance program at Crystal Springs Uplands School.
photo: Jane Bear