Erna Ómarsdóttir, artistic director of the Iceland Dance Company, graduated from PARTS (performing arts research and training studios) in 1998. Following her graduation she worked with Jan Fabre, Ballet C De la B, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and became a founding member of the collectives Ekki (Reykjavík) and Poni (Brüssel). She has created and directed a number of works for the Iceland Dance Company. In 2009 Erna created and directed Black Marrow for the Australian company Chunky Moves, in collaboration with Damien Jalet. The work was presented at the Melbourne International Arts Festival and re-staged in 2015, under Erna’s direction, by the Iceland Dance Company (IDC). For her choreography in Njála, a collaboration between IDC and the Reykjavík City Theatre (2015) Erna received the Icelandic Theatre Award 2016 in the category Dance- and stage movement. In 2017 Erna Ómarsdóttir was co-artistic director of Sacrifice – A Festival Of Common Things Made Holy. In 2008 Erna founded the performance group, Shalala, together with Valdimar Jóhannsson. Shalala has produced numerous dance- and performative pieces that have been presented. Valdimar and Erna also form a theatrical band called LAZYBLOOD.Erna Ómarsdóttir has worked closely with visual artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir and musicians Björk, SigurRós, Ólöf Arnalds Jóhann Jóhannsson and Ben Frost. She was the associate director of Les Grandes Traversees in Bordeaux France in 2007 and co-artistic director of the Reykjavík Dance Festival 2014. Erna has been nominated a number of times for her work in the Ballet Tanz annual reviews, she is a recipient of the Iceland Theatre Awards and a resident artist of APAP - advancing performing arts project, a European network connecting international and local aspects of contemporary arts.