Artistic Associate/Associate Director of Outreach
Emily Kate Long is delighted to begin her sixth season on Ballet Quad Cities’ staff creating witty and musically sophisticated choreography for the professional company and developing and presenting community outreach programs for youth and adults throughout the Quad Cities region.
Ms. Long’s choreography credits for Ballet Quad Cities include Our Will to Live (2022), The Nutcracker (2014-2023), Love Stories (2018-2023), Ballet on the Lawn (2020-2023), Musicmoves (2019), Paris en Pointe (2018) and Defining Dance (2018), and the complete Peter and the Wolf (2019) and Petrushka (2016) with Orchestra Iowa. In 2021, her choreography Gershwin Songs was performed at the Figge Art Museum by students from Ballet Quad Cities School of Dance. Her work Vivo e Giocoso was performed at the 2019 Iowa Dance Festival in Iowa City.
Ms. Long began developing programming for Dance Me a Story: Exploring Literature through Ballet in 2019. In 2020, she created a series of virtual Dance Me a Story programs which were distributed to Quad City area schools and broadcast on local cable across five states. Her original ballets Dorothy Goes to Oz: A Story of Friendship and Teamwork (2021) and Giraffes Can’t Dance: A Story of Encouragement and Tolerance (2022) have been enjoyed by over 3,500 students in Pleasant Valley and Rock Island-Milan schools. Most recently, Ms. Long led successful pilot programs of LEAP! Dance as Conversation (Leadership, Expression, Action, Participation) for grade 4 and LEAP 2! Dance as Knowledge for grade 5, which she developed alongside CEO Joedy Cook. Her enthusiasm and passion for arts education is exceeded only by the joy and wonder experienced by participants.
Ms. Long received her dance training at Southold Dance Theater in South Bend, Indiana, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, and the Nancy Einhorn Milwaukee Ballet II Program. Ms. Long performed with Ballet Quad Cities from 2009 until 2018.
She has furthered her education at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet’s Teachers’ Workshop (2013), Glenda Brown Choreography Project in Kansas City, Missouri (2015-2018), Parsons Dance Master Choreography Workshop (2018), Massachusetts Academy of Ballet’s Vaganova Teachers Seminar (2019), and courses through the National Dance Education Organization. In addition, she graduated Summa Cum Laude from Scott Community College in 2020 and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Liberal Studies degree from the University of Iowa.