In the words of others

48 Hills · July 29, 2026 Moving through a nine-year dream in Iris Company’s The Still Point A full review of Iris Company’s 70-minute immersive production at SOMArts. Skylar Wolff examines Stoller’s use of audience movement, projections, shadow play, props and site-specific choreography to create a liminal space between sleeping and waking. Read → No Proscenium · July 22, 2026 Stillness In Motion — Iris Company’s The Still Point Electrifies SF Noah J. Nelson gives an extensive, strongly positive review of Iris Company’s Bay Area debut. He analyzes the production’s four audience pathways—Water, Sand, Shadow and Void—and argues that its choreography and immersive mechanics produce a meditation on isolation, community and human connection. Read → San Francisco Chronicle / Datebook · July 10, 2026 In S.F. debut, Iris Company draws on T.S. Eliot and Buddhism in The Still Point This preview explains how the production combines T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets with the Buddhist concept of the bardo. It describes Stoller’s division of the audience into four groups and her intention that viewers experience an internal shift toward reconnection. Read → No Proscenium · June 4, 2026 Coming Soon: The Still Point A preview announcing Iris Company’s return after nearly a decade and its relocation from Los Angeles to the Bay Area. It introduces The Still Point as the company’s most ambitious production and includes Stoller’s comments about bringing the company to the region where she was raised. Read → L.A. Dance Chronicle · April 3, 2024 Inventive and powerful dance films shine in MashUp’s International Dance Film Festival Screening The festival review identifies Stoller’s short film Canvas as a personal favorite. It praises the integration of choreography, physical painting props, editing and visual effects, concluding that Stoller successfully fused dance, cinema and technology into a story about artistic inspiration. Read → Crystal Springs Uplands School · c. 2024–2025 Happy: One Shot Dance Film In this interview, Stoller explains how she choreographed and directed a one-take dance film moving through multiple locations on the school campus. She discusses the dancers’ off-camera sprints, musical cues, limited camera-rehearsal time and the logistical difficulty of coordinating a large cast without edits. Read → 24700, California Institute of the Arts · August 11, 2020 Sophia Stoller Directs Dance Film Screaming Shapes This institutional feature traces Screaming Shapes from a 2017 choreographer-composer residency through its development as a stage work and subsequent adaptation into a film. It also discusses the work’s politically inflected vocal score, visceral movement language and dance-film festival screenings. Read → Matthew Toffolo / WILDsound Festival Blog · April 23, 2020 Interview with Filmmaker Sophia Stoller (Screaming Shapes) Stoller describes meeting composer Peter S. Shin at the Cohan Collective and developing their initial one-hour experiment into a stage work and film. The interview addresses the relationship between sound and movement, filming choreography originally created for the stage and the collaborators who shaped the final work. Read → 24700, California Institute of the Arts · October 31, 2019 Iris Company Presents New Works in Collaboration with C3LA A preview of Breath + Body, Iris Company’s collaboration with the Contemporary Choral Collective of Los Angeles. It introduces five new dance works, identifies the participating CalArts-affiliated artists and summarizes Iris Company’s mission of creating socially relevant work through performance and film. Read → British Theatre Guide · May 17, 2019 Playground / Communion / Between and Within / Imprint The review covers Yorke Dance Project’s anniversary program, including Stoller’s commissioned quartet Between and Within. The critic highlights its lyrical passages, confrontational encounters and grounded vocabulary of bodily contact, tension and counter-tension. Read → DanceTabs · May 5, 2019 5 Questions to Yolande Yorke-Edgell on Celebrating Yorke Dance Project’s 20th Anniversary Although centered on Yorke-Edgell, the interview discusses the commissioning and mentoring process behind Stoller’s Between and Within. Yorke-Edgell explains how Stoller developed the work through the Cohan Collective under the mentorship of Robert Cohan and Yorke-Edgell. Read → Oxford Dance Writers · April 26, 2019 Twenty: Yorke Dance Project’s 20th Anniversary Season Maggie Watson’s review covers the anniversary program and Stoller’s contribution, Between and Within. The piece is discussed as part of a bill placing an emerging Los Angeles choreographer alongside major works by Kenneth MacMillan and Robert Cohan. Read → The Wonderful World of Dance · March 20, 2019 Royal Opera House — Yorke Dance Project Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary A feature on Yorke Dance Project’s anniversary season and its presentation at the Royal Opera House. It positions Stoller’s newly commissioned Between and Within alongside repertory by MacMillan, Cohan and Yorke-Edgell. Read → Seeing Dance · February 15, 2019 MacMillan’s Playground Returns in Yorke Dance Project’s 20th Anniversary Programme The critic evaluates Stoller’s Between and Within as four performers enact the interior and exterior facets of a relationship. The review praises Stoller’s handling of shifting emotions and the cast’s performances, while observing that conflict proves more theatrically compelling than harmony. Read → The Wonderful World of Dance · February 12, 2019 Yorke Dance Project’s Twenty — Celebration of the Human Collective Stephanie Brown calls Stoller an emerging Los Angeles choreographer and describes Between and Within as a tense, stripped-back duet for two couples. The review emphasizes the work’s pulsing physicality, coiled tension and push-pull encounters involving conflict and empathy. Read → Fjord Review · 2019 Yorke Dance Project Turns Twenty Rachel Elderkin reviews Stoller’s Between and Within, which developed out of the Cohan Collective residency. She calls the quartet captivating and discusses its frozen snapshots, changing partnerships and glimpses into the dancers’ private emotional worlds. Read → No Proscenium · May 2017 Learning to See What’s on The Other Side This detailed review covers Iris Company’s first immersive dance-theatre production. Nelson praises the ensemble’s maturity and Stoller’s raw, powerful choreography, while analyzing how the work transforms the Stanford prison and Milgram experiments into an interactive story about inequality, obedience and empathy. Read → Jewish Journal · May 3, 2017 The Other Side Uses Psychology in Experimental Dance A substantial profile of Stoller and the creation of The Other Side. It explores her background in dance and psychology, her formative experience with a classroom discrimination experiment and the way the 2016 election influenced the production’s treatment of power, privilege and resistance. Read → 24700, California Institute of the Arts · May 3, 2017 CalArtians Featured in Immersive Dance Theater Performance The Other Side This CalArts preview introduces the world premiere of Stoller’s immersive dance-theatre work and identifies the alumni involved in its choreography, performance, music, design and production. It situates the project within Stoller’s post-MFA development as a choreographer and artistic director. Read → Hollywood Close-Up · May 20, 2017 Creating a Visceral Experience Through Immersive Dance with Sophia Stoller A filmed interview segment with Stoller concerning the creation of The Other Side and the use of immersive performance to produce a visceral audience experience. The surviving public program record confirms the episode and air date, although the original publisher’s page and full metadata are no longer readily accessible. Read → LA Dance Review · November 2, 2015 Sophia Stoller’s Siren Haunts and Seduces at Highways The review examines Siren, created before the founding of Iris Company, as a physically sophisticated exploration of seduction, femininity and danger. It praises Stoller’s technical performers, narrative clarity and ability to construct an otherworldly atmosphere without overwhelming the choreography. Read → LA Dance Review · March 16, 2015 Sophia Stoller’s Lock and Key Is a Visual Feast Beth Megill reviews Stoller’s CalArts MFA thesis production, noting its athletic movement, geometric metal structures, projections, lighting and themes of captivity and freedom. Although the critic finds that its many visual ideas sometimes dilute its dramatic coherence, she describes Stoller as an ambitious and gifted director and collaborator. Read →