It must be nice when others describe your college career as the dancer everyone wanted to be.
Given Emily Schoen’s accomplishments, it’s easy to understand why.
As we hope the world of Contemporary Dance, Competitive Female Grappling and other indoor female sports partner with performances on the same event at the Dojo, we’re extremely happy to introduce another mind blowing Dancer and Choreographer into our world.
The widely admired and respected Broadway Dance Center expresses, “Emily Schoen has toured the world performing with concert dance companies. She’s graced stages in Germany, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Russia.
More local performance venues include the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, and the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. While not touring, Emily is a freelance dancer based in New York. She has worked for Mark Morris, Nejla Yatkin, Nicholas Andre, Lauren Hale, the Steps Repertory Ensemble, and is a proud current member of Keigwin + Company.
Dance Magazine chose Emily as one of their “Top 25 to Watch” in 2011.”
At her website emilyschoen.com she shares that she holds a BFA in Dance and a BS in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Arizona where she graduated summa cum laude with honors.
During her university years, Emily performed pieces by Paul Taylor, River North Dance Chicago, and Charlotte Griffin who was in residency at the American Dance Festival at the time.
In addition to the afore mentioned travel destinations, Emily also has the unique experience of studying traditional drumming and dance in Ghana, West Africa for a summer.
She received the Undergraduate Creative Achievement Award for the University Of Arizona School Of Dance, the Jerry Bywaters-Cochran scholarship from the Dallas Dance Council, was a 4-time recipient of the Medici Scholarship, and twice received a full scholarship to Gus Giordano Dance Chicago summer study.
Believe or not, in terms of her achievements we could fill the stage with more but we think you get the point.
The above is resume speak.
Let’s allow others to describe her to you from the heart and then Femcompetitor Magazine would like to share our amateur analysis of her magical choreography.
Ms. Laura Di Orio, of Dance Informa smiles, “Emily Schoen, a dancer who draws you in with her presence and smile, presented the evening’s first work, Banjo Suite, a playful, quirky, all-female “mini ballet” set to folky bluegrass music. The dancers, all in country frocks, moved with ease as they seemed to have a dialogue with each other and with the music. Here, Schoen and her dancers seemed to portray the layered woman – graceful and “girly”, humorous and smart, and, by incorporating moments of partnering between the women, strong and capable. With this first glimpse of Schoen as a choreographer, and through watching her dance over the course of the evening, she is surely someone to follow.”
We agree. Let’s hear another.
Bayla Gottesman from Uptempo Magazine announces, “As a choreographer though, Emily is nameless. Perhaps anonymity lends itself to fearless exploration because the dance she presented was not only leagues above her fellow choreographers, but also superseded any past work of hers I’ve seen.”
Well, at least in our world, she’s not nameless anymore.
Okay, here is our evaluation.
“As we introduce some of you to the exciting and entrancing world of dance, we ourselves are learning much for the first time.
The world of dance to the untrained eye can be viewed as complicated but if not that, layered and complex for certain. It’s absolutely a steady diet for brilliant artistic minds.
The personalities of the choreographers really come through in their work. Some are very aggressive, acrobatic, techno tarts, erotic oriented and many are song driven.
Emily Schoen’s work comes across as very people and relationship driven.
The songs are simpler, the development slower moving and the relationship and chemistry between the dancers involved is paramount. With Emily’s work it doesn’t jump out at you or leap into your lap. Her rural beginnings are evident, influential and desirable.
No texting or speed chat dancing.
You have to be a little patient but like important real life relationships that require development, it’s well worth the wait.”
Let’s visit Emily’s humble beginnings. She springs from Brookfield, Wisconsin.
I had a very simple, unremarkable and happy life. And I grew up in a very small town. And so my life was made up of, you know, in the morning going to the river to fetch water – no tap water, and no electricity – and, you know, bathing in the river, and then going to school, and playing soccer afterwards…..Ishmael Beah
Brookfield is a city located in Waukesha County. It had a population of 37,920 in the 2010 census.
The community is located west of Milwaukee in an area originally inhabited by Potawatomi Indians.
According to the informative site www.indians.org, “The word, Potawatomi means, Keepers of the Fire. It refers to the fact that this Indian tribe participated as members on the Council of Three Fires. The Council of Three Fires was an alliance of the Potawatomi, the Ottawa, and the Ojibwa Tribes. The Potawatomi Indians were native to what is now commonly known as Michigan.”
Apparently it’s not just her beautiful flaming red hair that ignites her choreography with fire.
Brookfield Square is the main shopping mall for the city and also serves as a commercial anchor to the Blue Mound Road shopping district serving the western suburbs of Milwaukee and Waukesha County. Brookfield has off-road bike paths throughout the city.
What keeps this unique community so desirable? The city site ci.brookfield.wi.us explains it well. “Brookfield remains committed to orderly development, responsible government, and maintaining a high quality of life.”
After viewing some cultural and civic photos, we agree.
It was very much like Norman Rockwell: small town America. We walked to school or rode our bikes, stopped at the penny candy store on the way home from school, skated on the pond……..Dorothy Hamill
Emily’s small town roots have served her well.
Brandon James Routh, an actor and former Fashion Model who grew up in a small town in Iowa and later moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career gained greater recognition for his role as the Man of Steel in the 2006 film Superman Returns.
He was quoted as saying in a positive way, “There are things about growing up in a small town that you can’t necessarily quantify.”
That may be true for some but when it comes to the beautiful, multi-talented, well-traveled and highly accomplished Dancer and Choreographer Emily Schoen, amateur reviewers though we may be, we can quantify her work.
It’s brilliant.
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Sources: brainyquote.com, Wikipedia, fciwomenswrestling2.com, FCI Elite Competitor, photos thank you Wikimedia Commons.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0746125/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
http://www.indians.org/articles/potawatomi-indians.html
http://www.ci.brookfield.wi.us/index.aspx?nid=59
broadwaydancecenter.com
https://www.broadwaydancecenter.com/faculty/bios/schoen_emily.shtml
http://emilyschoen.com/biography/
http://www.4dancers.org/2014/03/emily-schoen-performance-highlights-at-gibney-dance-center/
http://blog.uptempomag.com/dance-wednesday-dancer-profile-emily-schoen-dancer-with-kegwin-company/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/emily-schoen/40/589/97a
http://www.schoenmovementcompany.com/about/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Zl2W_gqvY
http://emilyschoen.com/biography/
