Emma Portner

choreographer

Emma Portner is an enigmatic director-choreographer, dancer, and actor known for her inimitable movement quality and complex devotion to the craft. An Olivier Award nominee, she has been hailed by The New York Times as “beguiling” and recognized by critics as "from another planet.” Born in 1994, she trained at the National Ballet of Canada and The Ailey School in New York. By age 20, she had choreographed the West End musical Bat Out of Hell — becoming the youngest woman in history to do so, and garnered millions of views for her dance film work. She has created for artists including Doechii, Maggie Rogers, FKA Twigs, Blood Orange, Justin Bieber and Sylvan Esso. Her choreography has been commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada, The Norwegian National Ballet, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, Jacob’s Pillow, Lafayette Anticipations, and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Recent stage work includes Forever, Maybe (Göteborg), Bathtub Ballet (Royal Swedish Ballet), All My Solos Were Prayers (Lafayette Anticipations) and islands (National Ballet of Canada), presented alongside works by Crystal Pite, George Balanchine, Jiří Kylián, and Ohad Naharin. Portner portrayed Gozer the Gozerian in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and stars in A24’s I Saw the TV Glow (2024), directed by Jane Schoenbrun. She continues to merge classical rigor with experimental form across stage, film, music and installation. Emma Portner will be working with Bayerisches Staatsballett for the first time in the 2025-26 season.

(Information as of September 2025)