Bio

Emily Hansel is a San Francisco-based dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, arts administrator, and artist advocate.

Originally from Rochester, Minnesota, Emily received their BFA in Dance from the University of South Florida. Emily has danced with the San Francisco Opera, SFDanceworks, Post:ballet, Christy Funsch, Robert Moses’ KIN, Mark Foehringer Dance Project | SF, Garrett-Moulton Productions, Dragons Dance, Rebecca Fitton Projects, David Herrera Performance Company, Jennifer Perfilio, FACT/SF, ZiRu Dance, The Anata Project, Talli Jackson, Marika Brussel, Alma Esperanza Cunningham, and Kristin Damrow & Company, among others. Emily has also performed in Alexandra Pirici’s Re-collection at SFMOMA and in Cunningham repertory in Signals from the West: Bay Area Artists In Conversation with Merce Cunningham at 100. 

For their choreographic work, which is centered around dismantling systems of oppression in the concert dance field, Emily has received an San Francisco Artist award from the San Francisco Arts Commission, was selected to participate in MANCC’s Forward Dialogues program, received an ODC Theater RDI Award, and was named an Individual Artist Fellow by the California Arts Council. While self-producing her own full-length productions, Emily has also created new work for FACT/SF’s Winter Dance Salon, FACT/SF’s Summer Dance Festival, Post:ballet, Berkeley Ballet Theater's Studio Company (in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Võ), REYES Dance’s annual dance film festival, and Lindenwood University Dance Program, among others. Emily has presented work at ODC Theater, the iMPACt Center for Art & Dance, BAMPFA, YBCA Forum, the Joe Goode Annex, SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts, Little Boxes Theater, and other venues throughout the Bay Area.

Through their choreography, writing, speaking engagements, teaching, and other creative work, Emily advocates for healthy and equitable working conditions for dancers. Since 2023, Emily has produced the Community Study Hall event series for Bay Area dance workers to gather and discuss strategies for workplace reform in the professional dance field. From 2021–2024, Emily was a proud member of the Leadership Committee at Dance Artists' National Collective, where they headed up DANC's development of a contract-building tool for dancers. Emily is a passionate arts administrator and has worked in administrative roles for a number of artists/companies in addition to producing their own work.

Emily teaches contemporary open classes and workshops for professional and pre-professional dancers at a variety of schools including ODC, LINES Training Program, the University of South Florida, GATHERINGS, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Bodies for Empowerment, and more. Emily has taught ballet and contemporary to students ages 3 through 18 for ten years at Steppin' Out Dance Studio, Berkeley Ballet Theater, the ODC School, and other studios as well as the San Francisco public schools via SFArts Ed.

Photos of Emily by Robbie Sweeny, Natalia Perez, and Maximillian Tortoriello.