Emma Evelein

choreographer / dancer / teacher

Talent Management

Emma Evelein is a Dutch Urban / Contemporary choreographer, dancer and teacher focused on movement on screen.

Emma Evelein is a Dutch choreographer / dancer / teacher, she graduated from the Urban/Contemporary department at the Theaterschool Amsterdam in 2015. She danced with companies in Europe and Israel and trained with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and Batsheva Dance Company. Now Emma choreographes for theatre, film and music videos. She won Amsterdans 2018, the KURT JOOSS choreographic Preis (Germany) 2019 and was awarded the title of Emerging choreographer at Springboard 2020. Together with Remy Tilburg she won the NDT partnership award at RIDCC 2021.

My motivation.

After many years of dancing and creating movement material, I started to investigate and define my movement language and choreographic signature. A kick of inspiration came during my time in Israel, observing and learning from great companies such as Sharon Eyal, Batsheva, The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. In their movement, I enjoyed the combination of both very soft and hard movements that were simultaneously very transparent in what they wished to express. This led me to the search for movement that stands on its own, is raw, yet carries stories. On the other hand, my urban/contemporary education gave me the contrast to shape the raw, expressive shapes and forms of dance I love.

For dance films there is still a lot to discover and improve. On a daily basis I am researching the possibilities of how to make dance a solid element in film, instead of a special addition. I believe movement directing makes any given scene better, because movement is natural for all of us and can therefore make scenes more believable, fun, touching or sincere.

In my collaborations I look for freedom and vulnerability. I believe the magic happens when a team is inviting risk, guided by passion, in a process with a positive work environment for dancers and creatives. I’d rather choose a project blindly led by my gut feeling and passion, then guided from intellect, usual ways and habits.

The inspiration for me comes also from outside the dance world; spoken word, film, sounds and stories bring a lot to my choreographies. In the future I wish to use them even more and deepen myself in all disciplines for dance film. Camera, styling, light, sound, music, art, they should all be able to support what we want to share: a story translated by movement.