In 1987 she graduated from Claude Watson School for The Performing Arts in North York where
she majored in dance and minored in theatre. In 1991 she graduated with her Bachelor of Fine
Arts from The Juilliard School in New York. Her graduation juries included The Martyr solo
from Martha Graham's Seraphic Dialogue coached by Jeanne Ruddy, a duet excerpted from Jose Limon’
s Orpheo coached by Laura Glenn, and Subways and Social Rooms choreographed by contemporary,
Nancy Bannon. With the Juilliard Dance Ensemble, Eryn performed, the lead role in Doris Humphry's
Day On Earth and the 1945 classic Kaddish, coached by Risa Steinberg, in honour of Anna Sokolow.
She toured Flamenco, Chinese, African, and Kathak dances with The Cross Cultural Tour, and modern
dance repertory and improvisation with The Contemporary Dance Tour for three years. Receiving the
Maxwell and Murial Gluck Fellowship allowed her to perform dance at AIDS hospices, retirement homes
and hospitals in New York City. Eryn presented Second Sex Soliloquy in association with The Taler
Group when she returned to Toronto in 1992
In 1993, responding to an instinctual need to have a place to work, Eryn co-founded Damn Straight
with stage manager and lighting designer Sharon DiGenova; a 4000 sq. ft. rehearsal and performance
space in downtown Toronto . The space was launched at the beginning of the Conservative governments"
Common Sense Revolution" which ended all facilities grants and deeply cut all arts grants. Damn
Straight provided a haven for artists of all genres for five years and became a presenter in 1994
with The Forward Motions Series, presenting dance companies and festivals for the next four years.
During this time, Eryn received a Canada Council grant and began creating and performing excerpts
from Morgaine's Tayle, which is still in progress. In 1997, Damn Straight produced her third full
length show Forced Horn.
In 1998 the decision to close Damn Straight was encouraged by Toronto's "Revitalization of the Kings"real
estate inflation project and a necessity for rest and rejuvenation. In August of that year Eryn created
My Private Venus for The Summerworks Theatre Festival and collaborated with Rebecca Todd in Dendrite for
The Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists enabling Now Magazine to publicize both festivals with
one cover feature. In this year, Eryn started boxing by being hired by Moynan King to play the Opponent
in Savoy Howe's Doohnamow.
In 1999 Eryn was awarded a Chalmers Performing Arts Training Grant to further her studies in Skinner Releasing
Technique with Joan Skinner, Trapeze with Bill Davidson and improvisation and composition with Stephanie
Skura in Seattle, "The Score" with Contact Improvisation pioneer Nancy Stark Smith, and "the work" with
Linda Putnam.
Eryn's most recent full length show Slinky Trailers,
put to task newly acquired skills in improvisation. It documented a series of investigations into the
physicality of listening and sounding, combining with it, her interest in collaborations with musicians.
Slinky Trailers also complemented Eryn's repertoire of duets with women.
Eryn's current work Heliotrope, sister to Elimination of Lateral Violence, re-enters Eryn's journey of contrasting
elemental and natural landscapes with urban states of consciousness. Her investigation of the cycles of birth, death,
decay, and regeneration are present, along with the challenges of solitude with spiritual accompaniment.
