Tony Olivares is a Nicaraguan dancer and choreographer based in Edmonton, Canada. As a youth, he studied folk dance in Nicaragua with Irene Lopez and contemporary dance with Heriberto Mercado. He relocated to Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta in 1987. In 1991, Olivares began formal dance training at the Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton. In 1993, he co-founded the Edmonton-based dance collective Dirty Feet Productions. In 2003, he moved to Hartford, USA to study massage therapy at the Connecticut Center for Massage Therapy. He also earned a certificate in dance pedagogy from Hartford Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Dance with Sculpture minor in metal from Trinity College. In 2012, Olivares moved back to Edmonton and worked as bilingual educator at the Art Gallery of Alberta.