Alumni

Emory Dance alumni answer questions generated by current Emory dancers, capturing how their own body knowledge has evolved since Emory.

Their stories will inspire and motivate you!

Dance and Chemistry Major

I came to Emory in 2015 with the intention to dance recreationally while I pursued a chemistry degree and a path into scientific research. Four years later, I pursued honors in dance instead and devoted my career to movement invention and performance. I received incredible mentorship from the department's faculty over the course of my degree. They guided me towards my path and invited me to perform better, develop my voice, and question everything around me. My peers in the dance department have become my friends, my artistic collaborators, my chosen family. The program also commits to inviting world-renowned guest artists to Emory for deep student engagement. Through these residencies, I was able to dance with artists like Anat Grigorio, Mary Grace Phillips, Blake Beckham, Kendra Portier, and the Trisha Brown Dance Company.

Since graduating, I have been consistently working and making work in Atlanta. In April 2022, I premiered my first evening-length work, Search History, at 7 Stages Theater. I was an inaugural participant in DanceATL's A.M. Collaborative, where I collaborated with Frankie Vandellous on a performance project called Taste. In fall 2023, I was an Arts & Social Justice Fellow at Emory University. I am also a recipient of the Meli Kaye Artist Residency at Decatur School of Ballet.

Dance and Business Major

I graduated in 2019 as a dance and business double major, with a concentration in arts management. While in the Dance Program, I was a member of Emory Dance Company, AHANA Dance, was a Stipe Fellow and received the Alan Rackoff Prize for undergraduate research conducted in Anna Leo’s Choreography I course.

Currently, I am a choreographer, dancer, and marketing specialist based in Atlanta. Though born and raised in Chicago, I relocated to Atlanta after graduation and began working for the Museum of Design Atlanta as a marketing specialist and have since transitioned into work as a full-time marketing freelancer working for DanceATL, staibdance, and the Emory Dance Program. I fell in love with the arts community here for its passionate people who pursue their grassroots ideas unapologetically - carving their own space and sharing it with the others. The Emory Dance Program provided me with a robust array of knowledge, resources and sense of personal artistry that inspired me to pursue an artistic path unique to me. I have had the pleasure of creating and presenting original works with Dance Canvas, the MAD Festival, Uprising Dance Company’s Showcase, Fall for Fall Dance Festival and most recently presented work at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the Dance/USA National Conference. I have also received grants to create work from the City of Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs and the Fourth Ward Neighbors Association, and was named a 2023 finalist for the Ardsley Choreographic Residency. As a dancer I am a company member with staibdance, ALA Dance and Komansé Dance Theater, recently having had the pleasure of performing in Komansé’s Permanent Project at the High Museum and staibdance’s performance at the 2023 American Dance Festival. Visit patsycollins.com or follow me on Instagram at @patsy_collins for more.

Dance and Spanish Major, Political Science Minor

Outside of my family, there is no greater influence in my life, conscience, and soul than dance.  At Emory I had the privilege to explore my passion in the context of a liberal arts degree. I was a Spanish major, a dance and movement studies major and a political science minor. This cross section of education brought me to different countries, where I became politicized in the art of protest and the demands of social justice. However, out of all my studies, dance was most attached to my identity. I was in rehearsals nearly every day. I had a uniform of sweatpants and headbands. Now, nearly 20 years from graduation the idea that I was a dancer for so many of my formative years is curious and even anecdotal to new colleagues. Their interpretation of my career is more connected to my newest degree, law.   

For nearly ten years, I have had the great privilege to advocate as a public defender in the Bronx. I now run a non-profit that supports abolitionist organizing for people working to envision a better world for BIPOC families. It may seem like a far departure from my roots in dance and my time at Emory but nothing could be further from the truth. The work I do is grounded on building liberated futures for BIPOC mamas, children, and families. It is work that is necessarily communal, requires connection to frameworks of liberation, demands organization and must be centered in deep care. These are all lessons I learned from the art of movement.

At Emory I had the great fortune to study choreography under the tutelage of Anna Leo and George Staib. Choreography is a practice and a discipline that demands vision. Like many art forms it requires you to ruminate in what has yet to be seen or experienced–to move from your head to the body. It also requires coordination, collaboration, patience, and organizing. If you ask any choreographer who is both managing their own show, getting venues, sewing costumes, supporting dancers, and deeply creating they will tell you that there is no better preparation for social justice organizing than dancing.  It is why so many of my heroes are artists/activists. It is also why having the opportunity to be connected to Urban Bush Women at Emory was such a profoundly life changing event. The cultural practice of Black dance in America, the legacy of Jawole, is an example of the deep culture work that dance creates every day. Even now, I am connected to her dancers. We work with many artists who have been touched by her legacy, as visioning consultants, strategic planners, and thought partners. I am so grateful and indebted to these relationships introduced to me at Emory. I may no longer be dancing on stage but as I work to support strategizing for a more liberated future, I am definitely building movement.

Dance and Neuroscience/Behavioral Biology Major

I came to Emory specifically for the ability to continue strong training in dance while having the ability to double major in Neuroscience & Behavioral Biology and pursue a pre-medical track. Emory Dance exceeded my expectations for how I would be able to grow as a mover, performer, and choreographer while maintaining this dual focus. While I grew up training in ballet, I cherish the opportunity I had to become immersed in both ballet and modern dance while at Emory. I usually danced four to five days per week, taking both technique classes and attending rehearsals for Emory Dance Company, AHANA (a student run company), and First Position (Emory’s Ballet Club). I loved having a chance to move and see my dance community between classes and in the evenings. The quality of dance training and sense of community and friendship fostered within the program was easily my favorite part of my undergraduate experience. The confidence, creativity, team-work, and dedication I learned through dance at Emory are skills that have served me well as I have navigated into post-graduate life. 

After graduating from Emory, I attended Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine to receive my medical training. While receiving my graduate education, I had the opportunity to continue integrating my interests in the arts and sciences by becoming a founding member of Echo Modern Dance Collective and by leading my institution’s dance interest group. My training in dance has motivated me to truly appreciate my patients' awareness of their own bodies and symptom manifestation, which has pushed me to become a more empathetic and thorough healthcare provider. As I navigate into a career as an internal medicine physician in the coming years, I am excited to continue incorporating movement and the lessons I’ve learned from dance into my life.

Dance and Linguistics Major

Emory Dance is a place that empowers you to bring dance with you in every stage of your life. With each class, I learned more about myself as a mover and made bonds with my professors and peers that are just as strong today. But, I also learned how to network, write grants, ask for my. needs, and put together the puzzle pieces - so important in this freelance gig-based profession. With leadership roles in the dance program, particularly AHANA Dance, I was able to bring what I learned into the community by creating the Fall for Fall/Spring for Spring Dance Festival, which highlights 30+ independent choreographers in a weekend of dance around the city of Atlanta. I have been blessed to dance professionally in Atlanta for Kit Modus, Greg Catellier, George Staib, Immerse ATL, and Core Dance as well as Yoshito Sakuraba, Yuki Ishiguro, and Emmy Wildermuth in New York. I also have my own company, rogue wave, that has performed across the Eastern Seaboard, and I have experience in arts administration, teaching, and technical production. It is a wild, magical ride, and I wouldn't be this person without Emory Dance. If there is any part of you that wants to keep dancing, do it. And don't be discouraged if you don't get into EDC or a certain level class your first round. Just keep going - you won't regret it. And endorphins are good for the brain!!

Dance & Educational Studies Major

I grew up in South Carolina training at a competition dance studio. When I decided to attend Emory, I was interested in the rigorous academic life I knew Emory would provide. I didn’t know much about the dance program, but felt that with Atlanta being a big city, it would provide avenues both on and off campus for me to continue my training while pursuing my degree. Little did I know that my life would change when I took my first modern dance class. The Emory Dance program totally shifted and expanded the way I move and think about dance, and even more broadly, my perceptions around art and art making. I found my people and found my place. 

I danced intensely in the Emory Dance Program all four years, as well as in the student-run group AHANA. I met lifelong friends that I am still close with today and got to work with professors and choreographers whom I continue to look up to as mentors. Through the range of movement classes and performance and choreographic opportunities, I was given both the guidance and freedom to explore and create. Senior year I had the chance to produce an evening length performance as a part of my thesis. I also received an Emory Friends of Dance Scholarship for two summers, which afforded me the opportunity to continue my training at the Boston Conservatory and the American Dance Festival. It was through Professor Greg Catellier that I learned about the Bates Dance Festival, which I attended for several summers and interned at. These summer festivals changed everything for me both personally and professionally. So many of my current friends and colleagues in New York City are people whom I first met at these festivals. 

When I graduated from Emory in 2012, I had the pleasure of dancing for Greg Catellier, staibdance, Emily Christiansen, and Tara Hemmer in Atlanta. I also choreographed a solo for Dance Truck, as well as set work on Spelman College students as a part of the Blabbermouth residency. These early experiences gave me the confidence to move to New York City in 2014. Since relocating, I have danced professionally for Brit Falcon and Falcon Dance. We have performed at venues including Triskellion Arts, Mark Morris Dance Center, Gibney Dance Center, Green Space, Brockport College, and The Muse. I am also an early childhood dance educator. I currently teach at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, Mark Morris Dance Center, and in various public schools through New York City Ballet’s Education program. Whether I am teaching developmental movement classes to toddlers, or leading choreography workshops for first graders, I am always inspired by my students, who remind me that play and curiosity are the building blocks of a creative life.  To broaden my knowledge and skill set, I also recently began pursuing a Pilates certification through Kinected. I am excited to keep learning and moving in whatever ways life leads me.  My time at Emory was so formative in shaping my interests, my profession, and my relationships. I am deeply grateful to all of my professors and the program. 

Photo by Jeff Mosier

Dance and Theatre Studies Major

Dance at Emory helped me discover that I want to tell stories by performing, choreographing, and producing shows. I still benefit from the connections and knowledge that I gained through the Emory program. My path since I graduated from Emory has been long and winding. I performed for many artists in the Atlanta area, and continued to develop my skills in technical theater under the mentorship of professor Greg Catellier. In 2013, I began developing my artistic voice in Florida State University’s School of Dance Master of Fine Arts Program. I created several works to hone my artistic voice during my time there. After returning to Atlanta I worked with Lucky Penny as a stage manager for their summer productions and with Moving in the Spirit, a youth development dance organization, as a teaching artist and a technical director. I then worked for Core Dance as their Production Manager. I currently have an executive assistant position at the CDC, and I use my free time to create stories to tell, perform, and produce. I am grateful for my ongoing journey as an artist and the training, resources, and support I received from dancing at Emory. 

History Major and Dance Minor

I came to Emory without a plan. I excelled in history and French studies, and assumed I’d pursue a PhD after undergrad with the goal of becoming a professor. And while I enjoyed those other subjects, I found my “family” in the Emory Dance Program. When I was a rising senior, it became clear that I wanted my career to be in dance and movement studies.  

My career path since then has involved many areas of exploration in movement studies: dance, yoga, arts administration, education, and most recently physical therapy. My current focus is using movement as a form of healing through the lens of physical therapy. Long term I hope to have some involvement in higher education, eastern wellness modalities, and physical therapy practice. 

Liz received her MFA in dance from Florida State University and her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Georgia State University.