Photo by Jim Carmody
Emily Christianson is a choreographer, performing artist, and movement instructor based in Atlanta, GA. Before moving to Atlanta in 2006, Emily was a freelance dancer and choreographer in New York City.
Emily has a minor in dance choreography and performance from the University of Tennessee—Knoxville. Most of her formative dance education took place in New York City from 2002-2006, where she trained daily in postmodern, contemporary, and classical dance techniques at Dance New Amsterdam (formerly Dance Space Center), Gibney Dance Center, the Limon Institute, and Movement Research.
Emily's primary artistic focus is on creating intimate, evocative dance works that favor a stream of consciousness, non-linear approach. Intricate, textured, imaginative, and with a flair for revealing the unexpected, her work is emotionally driven and tends toward the relational. It is a celebration of the profundity of the individual’s journey transformed into a universal, shared experience. Offering a movement vocabulary that is simultaneously inventive and familiar, athletic and gestural, her aesthetic effectively fluctuates between the meditative and the dynamic.
Her work has been presented in Atlanta by the Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, Oxford College of Emory University, Fly on a Wall, Zoetic Dance Ensemble in collaboration with the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education, Skwirlhaus, Beacon Dance, Art on the Atlanta BeltLine, WonderRoot, Dance Truck, and Fieldwork; in San Diego by the University of California San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance; and in New York by Movement Research, The Metro Movement Project, Dance Space Center, and Triskelion Arts.
As a dancer and collaborator, Emily has worked with a wide variety of choreographers and dance companies, including Blake Beckham, Greg Catellier/ Catellier Dance Projects!, David Dorfman, Nicole Durfee, Gathering Wild, gloATL, Noémie Lafrance, Nicole Livieratos, Mark Lamb Dance, Mary Seidman and Dancers, Lillian Ransijn/ Ground Delivery, Lisa Race, Yolande Snaith, and Zoetic Dance Ensemble, among others.
As a dance educator, Emily has taught contemporary technique classes and workshops for professional and emerging artists through the Decatur School of Ballet, Atlanta Ballet's Centre for Dance Education, Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, ImmerseATL, Zoetic Dance Ensemble, and Ground Delivery, and was on faculty at the Atlanta Ballet from 2011-2013 where she taught contemporary classes for the pre-professional dance division.
Through a desire to expand on her existing movement practices, Emily completed her comprehensive Pilates certification in 2007, and in 2009 she became a certified GYROTONIC® instructor. Both modalities have been invaluable in helping Emily experience greater physical freedom and a more profound kinesthetic awareness. She is passionate about sharing her understanding of healthy, balanced movement with others. She currently offers Pilates, Gyrotonic, and Redcord private sessions and group classes at Kashi Atlanta yoga studio in Candler Park and at ActivCore Druid Hills.
Emily has a minor in dance choreography and performance from the University of Tennessee—Knoxville. Most of her formative dance education took place in New York City from 2002-2006, where she trained daily in postmodern, contemporary, and classical dance techniques at Dance New Amsterdam (formerly Dance Space Center), Gibney Dance Center, the Limon Institute, and Movement Research.
Emily's primary artistic focus is on creating intimate, evocative dance works that favor a stream of consciousness, non-linear approach. Intricate, textured, imaginative, and with a flair for revealing the unexpected, her work is emotionally driven and tends toward the relational. It is a celebration of the profundity of the individual’s journey transformed into a universal, shared experience. Offering a movement vocabulary that is simultaneously inventive and familiar, athletic and gestural, her aesthetic effectively fluctuates between the meditative and the dynamic.
Her work has been presented in Atlanta by the Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, Oxford College of Emory University, Fly on a Wall, Zoetic Dance Ensemble in collaboration with the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education, Skwirlhaus, Beacon Dance, Art on the Atlanta BeltLine, WonderRoot, Dance Truck, and Fieldwork; in San Diego by the University of California San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance; and in New York by Movement Research, The Metro Movement Project, Dance Space Center, and Triskelion Arts.
As a dancer and collaborator, Emily has worked with a wide variety of choreographers and dance companies, including Blake Beckham, Greg Catellier/ Catellier Dance Projects!, David Dorfman, Nicole Durfee, Gathering Wild, gloATL, Noémie Lafrance, Nicole Livieratos, Mark Lamb Dance, Mary Seidman and Dancers, Lillian Ransijn/ Ground Delivery, Lisa Race, Yolande Snaith, and Zoetic Dance Ensemble, among others.
As a dance educator, Emily has taught contemporary technique classes and workshops for professional and emerging artists through the Decatur School of Ballet, Atlanta Ballet's Centre for Dance Education, Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, ImmerseATL, Zoetic Dance Ensemble, and Ground Delivery, and was on faculty at the Atlanta Ballet from 2011-2013 where she taught contemporary classes for the pre-professional dance division.
Through a desire to expand on her existing movement practices, Emily completed her comprehensive Pilates certification in 2007, and in 2009 she became a certified GYROTONIC® instructor. Both modalities have been invaluable in helping Emily experience greater physical freedom and a more profound kinesthetic awareness. She is passionate about sharing her understanding of healthy, balanced movement with others. She currently offers Pilates, Gyrotonic, and Redcord private sessions and group classes at Kashi Atlanta yoga studio in Candler Park and at ActivCore Druid Hills.