The Finnish-British dance artist aims to uplift the ballroom scene in the Nordic countries. Interview from Finnish Dance in Focus magazine 2023.
Text: Emma Vainio
At eight years old, Samuli Emery started contemporary dance classes, and the dance world pulled them in like nothing else. “At 13 years old, dance was everything – I didn’t want to do anything else anymore,” they remember.
The Finnish-British dance artist graduated in 2019 from SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Austria, majoring in choreography. Over the years, multi-award-winning Emery has immersed themselves in the cultures and movement lineages of different club and street dances.
Emery also teaches and organises large-scale international events for the ballroom scene, a community created by Black and Latin trans people in New York. They aim to strengthen and uplift the position of the ballroom scene in the Nordic countries.
“I want to offer performance spaces and create events where queer people can be empowered and flourish,” Emery explains. “I dream of a world with more solidarity through art.”
The Solo Series is a performance and touring platform of new dance, created by Emery. The idea is to give dance artists the opportunity to do small tours in Finland. Emery chooses the artists for the project through an international open call.
I dream of a world with more solidarity through art
Samuli Emery
The piece to be brutally honest (2022), produced by Zodiak, was created in collaboration with dance artist Jessica Piasecki. Playing with the roles of performer and spectator, this intensive performance seeks to shatter the traditional use of a stage into pieces. “We wanted to go as far as possible from the idea, where art is reduced to a detached, elitist source of entertainment, disregarding the climate crisis and mass extinction.”
“What kind of physicality do we absolutely have to present, call forth and project onto audiences in this day and age, when huge crises are raging all around us?”
In recent years, Emery has worked widely with many different choreographers from around Europe. In Summer 2023, they will be working as a dancer in Tero Saarinen Company and Canadian Ballet BC’s jointly produced piece Heart Drive, which was created by Dutch choreographer duo Imre & Marne van Opstal.
The article was originally published in the Finnish Dance in Focus magazine issue of 2023.