Intersections
If we think of the many challenges we face in the world today - excessive screen time, declining health, cultural division, or loneliness to name a few, dance is a powerful solution hiding in plain sight.
Dancers face an endless string of intersections. Whether you start dancing as a child, continue as an adult, navigate injuries, or balance family and financial decisions, dancers constantly face the question: To dance or not to dance? These are intersections that happen on a pathway - each one offering a choice, a challenge, or a new opportunity.
There are also the intersections of overlap - where dance meets physical, mental, and emotional health, cultural heritage, artistry, storytelling, entrepreneurship, and social change.
Much like fabric, which is made up of many interconnected threads, dance is woven through various aspects of society, providing texture to our daily lives and building connections across generations, languages, and locations.
What could be possible if we focused more efforts and resources toward using dance as a tool for positive change?
“A Reimagining”
Meet Emily Running
At age 20, I wrote an artist statement titled Movement Inspired. In it, I declared that my life and career would be defined by seeking inspiration through movement — of my body, my mind, and my overall trajectory in life. I present that story to you below, in three Acts.
-
My 20s were defined by an insatiable pursuit of dance. I trained, performed, choreographed, and taught dance and aerial with companies, in projects, for gigs, and as a freelancer both nationally and internationally. My work intersected with education, nonprofit, and commercial spaces. My resume grew quickly as I relentlessly sought out opportunities of all kinds. I was living my dream.
-
In 2011 at age 30 I got diagnosed with hip dysplasia and had a major hip surgery to correct it at which point my career also took a turn. During this time my creativity needed an outlet so I wrote and published a book Anatomy Riot about this period in my life.
-
While my body bounced back from surgery relatively quickly and I was ferociously committed to returning to dance, my mindset shifted, and it felt critical to balance my livelihood with work that didn’t rely on my physicality so heavily.
For the subsequent 11 years, I founded and ran Dance Wire, a nonprofit dance service organization, whose work centered on building community through dance. Through listening, producing, connecting, and advocating, my experience moved beyond practicing the craft toward a deeper understanding of dance’s role in society.
In the years following the pandemic, I did two things simultaneously that launched my evolution into my Act 3.
1) From 2022-2024, I led a national group of service org leaders with a birds-eye view of their communities through a methodical exploration of the national and local dance landscapes, examining how things were shifting in real time. This deep dive, during a liminal time where we were exploring the space between what has been and what could be, ignited a new spark within me and profoundly shifted my worldview.
2) I was building a professional development program through Dance Wire, where I worked individually with early to mid-career artists striving to develop their careers, companies, and artistic identities. The experience reminded me that, at my core, the creative process, collaboration, and artistic creation are what I am most passionate about.
-
In my 20-year-old mind, this meant never losing my curiosity and willingness to grow and change throughout my lifetime.
Now, at 44, it means integrating my various projects and experiences into a body of work dedicated to my question: What could be possible if we focused more efforts and resources toward using dance as a tool for positive change?
In June 2025, I closed Dance Wire and have “returned to my natural habitat” of being a creative solo-prenuer.
My superpower is in leading people through the creative process - as I did with the national group of service org leaders, as I did with the 56 independent artists I coached over 241 Sessions, and as I’ve done hundreds of times in co-creating original dance productions and films.
I hope you enjoy this process!