Ariel Osterweis is a scholar-practitioner of dance and performance. She has a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from UC Berkeley and is on faculty at CalArts, where she teaches Performance Studies and Critical Dance Studies.
Osterweis writes about embodied performance, theorizing at the intersection of race, sexuality, gender, labor, and movement. She has three book projects underway: Body Impossible: Desmond Richardson and the Politics of Virtuosity (Oxford University Press, Oxford Studies in Dance Theory Series, forthcoming), Prophylactic Aesthetics: Latex, Spandex, and Sexual Anxieties Performed (University of Michigan Press, Theater: Theory/Text/Performance Series), and Disavowing Virtuosity, Performing Aspiration: Dance and Performance Interviews (Routledge).
As a dancer and performer, Osterweis has worked professionally with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Mia Michaels R.A.W., Heidi Latsky, and Julie Tolentino. She was also a dramaturg for John Jasperse and Narcissister. Projects on the horizon include an experimental memoir called Bad Koreans (minor mourning) and the development of a performance institute. Osterweis lives in Los Angeles.