Erin Boswell is a theatre-maker, movement artist, director, actor, and teaching artist whose practice explores the body as a language of theatrical storytelling. Her work is particularly interested in expanding the physical vocabulary of text-driven and classical theatre through movement methodologies not traditionally associated with those forms. She is drawn to the grotesque, ritual, transformation, ensemble-work, and the ways bodies can alter our experience of space, time, language, and character.
Though not formally trained as a dancer, Erin’s relationship to movement began in an evangelical Pentecostal church, where “holy rolling,” dancing in the aisles, and ecstatic physical expression were part of ritual from childhood. That early experience continues to inform her fascination with ritual, catharsis, the sacred and profane, and the body’s capacity for transformation. Her movement practice draws from Butoh, Suzuki, Viewpoints, Laban, contemporary dance, physical theatre, German Expressionism, animal work, and visual art. She is particularly interested in horror and physically transformative storytelling — creating bodies that can become uncanny, monstrous, psychologically charged, or otherwise transformed — and in developing specificity in physical vocabularies with performers who are not traditionally trained dancers.
Erin’s practice spans choreography, movement direction, directing, acting, physical dramaturgy, and education. She approaches each project as a collaborator, combining rigorous physical training with curiosity, compassion, and an instinct for the strange, visceral, and unexpected. Her work is rooted in the belief that movement is not simply decoration or choreography, but a way of thinking, storytelling, and building theatrical worlds beyond realism.
Her recent movement and choreography credits include Body Count with Hidden & Forbidden Theatre at Scene + Heard Festival of New Work in Dublin; The Exterminating Angel, The Glass Essay, Hurricane Season, Ubu Roi, and Medea Unborn with Vernal & Sere Theatre; Lysistrata and Static Head with Theater Emory; Shadowplay and Maybe Politics Are Over with Working Title Playwrights; and Light with Celeste Miller Dance, which continues to tour internationally. Her choreography for The Exterminating Angel, directed by Sawyer Estes, drew from Butoh, Abstract Expressionism, Pina Bausch, and the work of Akram Khan, Peeping Tom, and Hofesh Shechter. Her work on The Glass Essay, adapted from Anne Carson, explored movement as a physical manifestation of memory, fragmentation, and grief.
Her directing work includes Far Away by Caryl Churchill and the original devised work Inglese, Inglese, Inglese at The Lir Academy, as well as Lear by Young Jean Lee with Vernal & Sere Theatre. She also assistant directed Cyclone at Dublin Theatre Festival with ANU Productions, directed by Louise Lowe. In 2016, Erin co-founded Vernal & Sere Theatre, an experimental theatre company based in Atlanta, where she developed the company’s movement and training program and introduced physical theatre, movement methodologies, and devising practices to artists across the Southeast.
Erin’s experience performing in physically and emotionally demanding roles, many involving intimacy, has also shaped her commitment to creating processes that prioritize actor safety while honoring the vision of writers, directors, choreographers, and producers. She has completed more than 100 hours of training with IDC Professionals and Theatrical Intimacy Education, supplementing her movement training with specialized study in intimacy direction and coordination.
Erin holds a BFA in Acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA in Theatre Directing from The Lir National Academy of Dramatic Arts at Trinity College Dublin. She has continued her movement training with SITI Company and Frantic Assembly.
Based between New York City, Cleveland, and Dublin, Erin works across theatre, dance, and film as a director, movement specialist, actor, coach, and educator.
