After 12 years as a dancer with Ballet BC, Emily Chessa now leads from the wings as Rehearsal Director, guiding the daily studio work that transforms creative ideas into powerful performances.
What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far as a Rehearsal Director?
I am still learning, growing, and discovering different challenges that come with this position every day. But the most important one has been learning how to manage 20 different voices in the room and making sure they are all being heard and taken care of. The dancers are all on different journeys—in their careers and in the pieces being danced—and I would love to be able to give them all what they need to grow at the same time.
As rehearsal director, how do you ensure a choreographer’s vision is fully realized on stage?
I try to listen to the bigger picture of what they are trying to give to an audience, and then work with the dancers to make sure it is felt from within as well as from the theatre seats.
Can you describe a moment in rehearsal or performance when you truly felt the collective energy of the company—that sense of everyone working together toward one goal?
I really felt like the company came together at TRILOGY. The whole show was well performed from all sides and in all pieces. BOLERO X, with 30 extra bodies, also really brings the collective together because of what it gives to an audience. The world is bigger than ourselves, and it is a great reminder of that.
ABOUT EMILY:
Emily Chessa (she/her) grew up in Richmond, BC and began her professional dance training at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in 2006 where she received the Paddy Stone Scholarship for choreography and the Arnold Spohr Scholarship for achievement in dance. After graduating in 2010, Emily trained at Arts Umbrella in the graduate program under the guidance of Artemis Gordon and has participated in summer programs such as the Movement Invention Project in New York City and Springboard Danse Montreal. During her time as a dancer with Ballet BC, Emily performed in various works by choreographers such as Company 605, Out Innerspace, Johan Inger, Lesley Telford, Serge Bennathan, Emmanuel Gat, Adi Salant, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Fernando Magadan, Emily Molnar, Felix Landerer, Marco Goecke, William Forsythe, Medhi Walerski, Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal. Highlights include dancing the role of ‘Juliet’ in Medhi Walerski’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’. In the 2020-21 season, Emily joined Nederlands Dans Theater 1 in The Hague. In 2025, she joined Ballet BC’s artistic staff as Rehearsal Director.
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