Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, Emily Wright is a dancer, educator, choreographer, and writer exploring how movement shapes the ways we connect, create meaning, and experience the world.

Rooted in modern dance, somatic practice, and Contact Improvisation, Emily’s work bridges performance, education, and community engagement.

She teaches modern dance, dance studies, eco-somatics, and community-based movement practices at the University of Virginia and leads workshops and collaborative projects for movers of all ages and experience levels.

A central thread in Emily’s work is creating spaces where different bodies, experiences, and ways of moving are welcomed and valued. Her projects often bring together dancers, students, artists, and community participants across generations through shared creative process.

Emily holds degrees in dance from Belhaven University, Arizona State University, and Texas Woman’s University and is an Associate Member of McGuffey Art Center.

land acknowledgment:

I live and work on the ancestral lands of the Monacan Indian Nation, a Siouan-speaking tribe of the piedmont and mountain regions of Virginia. These lands were occupied by a government that also enslaved Africans and African Americans, and the legacy of this oppression continues to impact Black and Indigenous peoples today. I support the Alliance of Native Seed Keepers, Black Lives Matter, and Showing Up for Racial Justice.