EMILY HAUSSLER
Director | Choreographer | Teacher
Emily Haussler is the Founder and Director of RESILIENCE Dance Company - a nonprofit dance company based in St. Louis, MO, focused on putting artists first.
Overall, her work centers on building healthier, more sustainable dance communities by equipping dancers with resources for their mental health, physical wellbeing, and artistic success. She believes in the power of collaboration and in challenging the toxic norms of the dance world, seeking to create high quality, insightful dance works inside of healthy dance spaces.
Emily's choreography primarily draws on contemporary, modern, and improvisational techniques, using collaborative practices to generate emergent, visceral dances that reflect the contemporary human condition and our relationships to one another.
Emily also teaches master classes to university students, offers consulting services, and shares her expertise at regional conferences - all of which feed her passion for community work and supporting the next generation of dance artists.
CHOREOGRAPHY
As Director of RESILIENCE Dance Company, Emily has choreographed seven evening-length works, the most recent of which, Benchmarks 9.0, enjoyed a six-performance run across St. Louis and Chicago in the Spring of 2026. Her works have been described by audiences as "captivating", "cohesive and beautiful", and "powerful & evocative". St. Louis Dance HQ described Haussler's 2025 work, Instead of waiting, they weave, as similar to "witnessing natural phenomena... a slow yet inevitable pull toward emotional clarity".
Her notable short works have been shown in St. Louis, MO (Washington University, The Link Auditorium, The Mahler Ballroom), Kansas City, MO (The Gem Theater), Detroit, MI (Detroit Institute of the Arts), Cape Girardeau, MO (Southeast Missouri State University), Nashville, TN (The Looby Theater), and Durham, NC (American Dance Festival). Furthermore, her dance film, There Are No Rules, was shown at Exchange Choreography Festival 2020.
In addition to choreographing for her company, Emily has lead two choreographic residencies at universities: Southeast Missouri State (2022) and Missouri Baptist University (2026). She has choreographed several short works for high school dancers at RDC Summer Intensives and recital choreography at local studios.
Emily draws on contemporary modern, improvisation, floorwork, and partnering techniques in her choreography. Her creative processes center collaboration and frequently incorporate other mediums, such as writing and visual art. A researcher and scientist by training, Emily believes in unearthing a dance through fearless experimentation, play, and communal exchange. Movement vocabulary emerges through task-based prompts, written scores, sensation or image distillation, and improvisational games. Her final works inhabit vivid worlds, filled with abstract storytelling and teeming with relationships, each one tugging on something visceral in our shared humanity.
For commissions or collaborations, please see the contact form below.
Come With Me
April, 2023 - Intersect Arts Center, St. Louis MO
RESILIENCE Dance Company
An inevitable, undefined you
November, 2022 - Cape Girardeau, MO
Southeast Missouri State University
ways to move in harmony
September, 2021 - The Link Auditorium, St. Louis MO
RESILIENCE Dance Company - Entry Points
29 Encounters
February, 2023 - Kansas City, MO
Modern Night at the Gem
All Times At Once
May 2022 - Intersect Arts Center, St. Louis MO
RESILIENCE Dance Company
Making Room
May, 2021 - The Link Auditorium, St. Louis MO
RESILIENCE Dance Company
TEACHING
Emily is an experienced instructor, leading a range of technique classes, workshops, and lectures for int./adv students, college dancers, and professionals. She has taught classes, workshops, and lectures including Ballet, Contemporary, Improvisation, Modern, Contemporary Partnering, Company Rep, Creative Process, Self-Production in Dance, Dance Management, and more. She is an Adjunct Professor at Webster University (SP2025; SP2026), where she taught Contemporary Partnering and Modern III/IV. She further has experience with elementary, middle school, and high school dancers through 2 local St. Louis studios: Arts in Motion (2019 - 2022) and St. Louis Academy of Dance (2023 - 2025).
Emily has had the privilege of teaching master classes at St. Louis University (2022), Southeast Missouri State University (2022), Webster University (2024; 2026), Lindenwood University (2026), Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville (2025), and at Washington University in St. Louis as the Marcus Artist in Residence (2022), in addition to several local studios.
She has been featured as a guest speaker for the SCALE Conference (2024), at Principia College (2026), The Business of Entertainment class at WashU (2025), and in Dance Appreciation (2022 - 2023) and Dance Management (2024) at SIUE. Outside of universities, she has taught master classes and workshops at the Central American College Dance Association Conference and the Missouri Dance Organization Conference (2022).
Influenced by the teaching and creative tools of Leah Cox, Liz Lerman, Doug Varone, and David Marchant, Emily creates joyful classroom spaces that focus on functional technique, balance rigor and nurture, spark curiosity, and support individual and collective growth.
For teaching inquiries, please fill out the contact form below.