Emily Johnson

Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work. A Bessie Award–winning choreographer, Guggenheim Fellow, and recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award, she is based—after a long time living in Minneapolis—in New York City. Originally from Alaska, Emily is of Yup’ik descent, and since 1998 has created work that considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance. Her dances function as portals and installations, engaging audiences within and through space/time and environment—interacting with a place's architecture, history, and role in community. Emily is trying to make a world where performance is part of life; where performance is an integral connection to each other, our environment, our stories, our past, present and future. Her choreography and gatherings have been presented across the United States and Australia. Recently she choreographed the Santa Fe Opera production of Doctor Atomic, directed by Peter Sellars. Her large-scale project, Then a Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing at Stars is an all-night outdoor performance gathering that takes place among 84 community-hand-made quilts. Her new work in development, Being Future Being, considers future creation stories and present joy. Emily was an advisory committee member for Creative Time's 10th Anniversary Summit and an organizer of First Nations Dialogues. She serves on the advisory committee for Advancing Indigenous Performance and the Native American Arts Program Expansion Committee for Idyllwild Arts. She is the Pueblo Opera Cultural Council Diplomat at Santa Fe Opera. Each month, Emily hosts ceremonial fires on the Lower East Side in Mannahatta in partnership with Abrons Art Center. She is part of a US based advisory group—including Reuben Roqueni, Ed Bourgeois, Lori Pourier and Vallejo Gantner—who, with international colleagues, are working to develop a Global First Nations Performance Network.