EMILY HAUSSLER
Founder & Director of RESILIENCE Dance Company
Freelance Choreographer & Dance Instructor
St. Louis, MO
"A researcher by training, I seek to unearth dance through fearless experimentation, play, and communal exchange. I believe in nurturing collaborative spaces that enable creative risk-taking. Through processes that rely on movement and language, I lean into abstract storytelling, seeking threads of humanity that form their own logic. I believe in the deeply resonating power of relationships: whether between two people, within ourselves, as part of a community, or amongst the vastness of the universe. I am moved by a sense of visceral honesty uncovered through dance, and create to feel, question, and tug on that which connects us."
Emily Haussler (she/her) is the Artistic and Executive Director of RESILIENCE Dance Company (RDC), founded in 2019 in St. Louis, MO. Her work centers on building healthier, more sustainable dance communities by equipping dancers with resources for their mental health, physical wellbeing, and artistic success. Haussler has choreographed seven evening-length works during her tenure with RDC, the most recent of which, Benchmarks 9.0, enjoyed a 6-performance run across St. Louis and Chicago. Her short works have been shown throughout the Midwest in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Haussler has taught workshops at several universities in the St. Louis region, and is currently an adjunct professor at Webster University teaching Adv. Modern and Contemporary Partnering. She has furthmore received two choreographic commissions from Southeast Missouri State (2022) and Missouri Baptist (2026). Emily holds a B.A. in Dance and Biology from Washington University in St. Louis where she was the recipient of the Ian D. Cramer Prize for Dance (2018) and the Marcus Artist in Residence Award (2022).
Choreographic Works in order of appearance: Benchmarks 9.0 (2026), Song of Myself (2026), Give Me Hunger (2026), Instead of waiting, they weave (2025), Come With Me (2023), 29 Encounters (2023), Falling Forward (2024).
Emily is a Midwesterner at heart - lucky to have spent her whole childhood in Cincinnati, OH before moving to St. Louis to pursue Biology and Dance at Washington University in St. Louis. Brought up with rigorous ballet training, Emily discovered a love for creation & improvisation in college, and later for contemporary release techniques. She produced her first show on a whim in 2019 in Nashville, TN, after a year as a ballet trainee and before founding RESILIENCE. A grammar nerd, she loves to learn rules and practice parameters in exacting detail - before shattering them with glee. Emily enjoys trusting in patience and process, seeking more questions than answers at each stage of discovery thanks to 3 years of research experience in a Hematology Oncology lab. Always balancing competing passions in life, she is inspired and moved by her maternal grandmother, who managed four careers and four daughters throughout her life. Emily is an avid reader and curious baker, consuming both imagined worlds and lots of bread in her spare time. She lives with her husband Nathan and tiny dog Marco in their historic home in St. Louis, and strives to play a little every day.
For commissions, touring, master classes, consulting and other inquiries, please fill out the contact form or email ehaussler@resiliencedancecompany.com.
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