Biography

Emma Sandall is an Australian dance artist, writer, and creative producer working across performance, movement, and interdisciplinary storytelling. She began her career as a classical ballet dancer, performing internationally with Béjart Ballet Lausanne, The Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, and West Australian Ballet.

She now creates, directs, and produces original performance works while also writing on dance and contemporary culture. Alongside her creative practice, Emma is an experienced guest teacher of ballet and contemporary practices, working with pre-professional and professional dancers. Her work brings together artistic authorship, dramaturgical thinking, and cultural leadership, with projects developed across Australia, the United States, and Europe.

Her recent solo work An Ambivalent Woman of 37 premiered in Sydney in 2024 and toured internationally later that year.

Emma holds a Graduate Certificate in Arts and Cultural Management (Deakin University) and has additional training in writing for performance and movement-based practice.

Photographer Taylor Phoenix

Photographer Jennifer Morse

Artist Statement

Dance… where to begin?

I started at the age of four, at my kindergarten. I remember having to be a bear climbing a tree to get to the honey. Maybe this was a set pre-primary RAD exercise… or just an invention of a ballet teacher in front of a room of rowdy kids. Whatever it was, I remember the steps to this day!

Dance has carried me on a wonderful, varied and enriching journey—across continents, through different styles, and among movers and shakers of all kinds.

It continues to fascinate me: why we do it, why we watch it, how to create with it and what it can say. These are the same questions asked for hundreds of years.

And today I feel very much part of that lineage of passionate people the world over who can talk endlessly about the position of a body, the placement of a foot, a gesture, a step—and what it might mean.

Areas of Practice

  • Performance and creative producing (dance, theatre, voice)
  • Arts writing and editorial
  • Teaching, workshops, and mentorship

Experience Snapshot

  • 30 + years in professional performance
  • 15+ years producing, directing, and devising original work
  • 15+ years in arts writing (Dance Magazine, Dance Australia, The Australian)

Training

  • Graduate Certificate in Arts and Cultural Management (Deakin University)
  • Tour Producing (PAC Australia)
  • NIDA Screenwriting Short Course (2025)
  • Pilates & Personal Training qualifications
  • BA Dance (incomplete) – Edith Cowan University / WAAPA
  • Professional training: The Royal Ballet School (London), Australian Ballet School (Melbourne)

Resumé [link to PDF]

Work with Emma

Emma collaborates as a producer, dramaturg, creative partner, and teacher.
Get in touch to discuss a project or collaboration.

[→ Contact Emma]

Photographer Tiffany Bessire