Emily Herrin

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Emily is the Director of Education & Community Engagement at Colorado Ballet where she is pleased to be overseeing the department and pursuing the mission of Every. Body. Dance. Her department creates and brings the strategic plan to life through a lens of equity and access. Her role also includes working as a Teaching Artist, providing training, and managing programs. After receiving Bachelor of Arts degrees in dance and psychology and a minor in French, she moved to Colorado and danced as a company member for Kim Robards Dance in 2015 and 2016 and worked briefly with Winifred R. Harris. Emily began dancing at the age of five and she has studied a variety of dance idioms and dance pedagogy with masters such as Anne Mueller, Maurice Watson, Brian Enos, and others. After hip surgeries insisted on a transition away from the stage, Emily refocused on teaching, arts administration, and management. She pursued further training and education; most notably was her participation in the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers at the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, WA where she studied directly with Anne Green Gilbert and Dionne Kamara and her completion of Leaders on the Rise with Lana Hailemariam of StandUp. 

Emily’s passion for expanding inclusivity in the fields of dance and dance education has shaped her work. She uses arts integration to help inspire students of all ages to explore social and emotional skills or language, math, and sciences on a deeper level using movement. Beyond dance education, Emily approaches leadership with a people-first perspective and is inspired by the work of Brené Brown. She enjoys learning industrial and organizational psychology, finding the potential in processes, and understanding how people think and interact. Emily is also a two-time presenter at the National Dance Education Organization’s annual conference, a certified Pilates instructor, enjoys traveling, and is an avid rock climber.