About
RESILIENCE Dance Company (RDC) is a non-profit, contemporary modern dance company with a mission to create exceptional dance experiences that fuel human connection. Founded in 2019 by Artistic and Executive Director Emily Haussler, RDC’s work is rooted in building healthy, sustainable dance spaces that put artists first and enable curiosity, play, and creative risk taking. For the past five years, RDC has engaged audiences, supported artists, and strengthened communities through performance, education, outreach, and touring. Read on to learn more about the company's history and programs.
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RESILIENCE Dance Company values and upholds individuals as their full and authentic selves. We welcome, include, and uplift diversity in all its forms, knowing that a diverse community of artists is essential to progressing the dance industry forward to a more equitable, accessible space. RDC works to create tangible platforms, opportunities, and programs that further promote our mission of inclusivity. We acknowledge the need for continual work, embracing critical reflection, conversation, and change.
Putting Artists First
RDC believes in a professional company model that prioritizes artists. We challenge the "starving artist" narrative by providing fair, consistent wages for company artists, free or low-cost physical and mental health care to company artists, and affordable training, resources, and performance platforms to independent artists.​
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By investing in artists and building a collaborative ecosystem of mutual support, we allow creativity to thrive and make the arts more accessible. Artists create and perform authentically as their whole selves while audiences experience exceptional dance.
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To see the many ways in which RDC supports working artists and aspiring dancers, check out our 23/24 Annual Report and consider making a donation.
Programs
RDC is primarily a professional, performing dance company. We produce 2-3 mainstage performances each season, including repertory by diverse guest choreographers and original evening-length works.
Outside of mainstage performances, RDC tours repertory to regional festivals and universities. We further perform at local community outreach events, such as Dance the Vote and National Dance Week.
RDC’s educational programs serve dance students ages 11 - 18, college students, and int./adv. adult dancers. Dancers ages 11 - 18 can enroll in RDC’s week-long Summer Intensive in June, while high school students 14+ can additionally participate in our Choreographic Intensive. Int./Adv. adult dancers can access affordable, weekly drop-in company classes, usually held in the mornings. Local university students can attend drop-in classes and choreographer master classes, while RDC actively brings master classes and workshops to regional colleges.
RDC works to uplift independent artists through programs including Seen: STL and the St. Louis Contemporary Dance Festival. Both events are opportunities for choreographers to share work.
RDC weaves holistic physical and mental health resources throughout our programs. Company artists have access to ongoing physical therapy, mental health therapy, and massage therapy - all provided low cost or free of charge. Students who attend RDC’s summer programs participate in workshops on Injury Prevention and Mental Health and Dance. Independent artists who are struggling to find affordable mental health care can check out our online Therapist Directory - full of therapists who accept sliding scale payments and who are interested in working with dancers. Artists who are looking to produce work can utilize the Grants Tool powered by Connect the Arts, and further find collaborators and resources on CTA’s website.
To see more on RDC’s 2024/25 Funding Initiatives, please check out our Donate page. To see more on current programming, take a look at our Upcoming Events and Performances page.
RDC's Summer Intensive - 2023
RDC on tour - Modern Night at the Gem, Kansas City, MO, 2023
History
RESILIENCE Dance Company began as an idea in February, 2019, when Emily Haussler, Founder and Director, was producing an independent dance concert in Nashville, TN. During this time, Haussler experimented with how to put artists first, both in creative processes and through the business of dance - it was paramount for her that every artist involved got paid. After fundraising over $4,000, working with 14 collaborators, creating three new works, commissioning two guest choreographers, performing to 100 audience members - and paying everyone involved - Haussler was inspired to do more. In August 2019, she moved back to St. Louis and recruited the original, founding company dancers: Hannah Bialecki, Emily Duggins, Josiah Gundersen, Kami Miller, and Hanna Pierce.
RESILIENCE Dance Company officially launched on December 14th, 2019 as a fiscally sponsored sole proprietorship. In February 2020, RDC hosted our first Seen: STL performance, then soon incorporated as an LLC in March 2020 while maintaining fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas. The founding company members rehearsed twice a week and helped create several early projects, including There Are No Rules and Stanzas and Sculptures - a dance film and walk through interdisciplinary performance, respectively. The founding company further helped create and perform Haussler’s first evening-length work, Making Room, which premiered April 2021. These early years were critical in establishing RDC’s mental health programming, including implementing group therapy with Brittni Collins, deploying a community research survey on dance and mental health, and sponsoring a Mental Health First Aid Training in May 2021.
In the Summer of 2021, RDC welcomed two new company apprentices, Chrissy Clair and Emily Small, and transitioned to a regular daytime schedule. With this, RDC began offering drop-in classes four times a week while maintaining two regular company rehearsal blocks. In September, 2021, RDC premiered our first repertory concert, Entry Points, featuring choreography by Emilia Sandoval, LOUD BODIES, David and Holly Marchant, Emily Haussler, and Victoria Lynn Awkward. In February, 2022 RDC received our first university commission as the Marcus Artists in Residence at Washington University. In April, 2022, RDC held our first open company auditions, and hired four new dancers: Michelle Parkhurst, Ashlynn Woelbling, Liza Heeler, and Abbi LeBaube - bringing the company’s total up to 8 dancers.
The 2022/23 Season saw several milestones for the company. After incorporating as a nonprofit in July 2021, RDC entered the season with full 501c3 status, independent from Fractured Atlas. RDC began touring and expanded on university programming - teaching master classes at St. Louis University and Southeast Missouri State, and performing at Modern Night at the Gem in Kansas City and A New Light festival in Chicago, IL. RDC continued to produce Entry Points in the Fall, an original evening length in the Spring, and multiple Seen: STL performances. In Summer 2023, RDC launched our first Summer Intensive for students ages 11 - 16, hosted at Washington University. RDC’s Board of Directors and operating budget grew, and RDC expanded its suite of resources to include monthly massage therapy and more regular physical therapy through partners Kip Taylor and Athletico, respectively.
Our 2023/24 Momentum Season lived up to its name. Having firmly established in St. Louis, RDC sought to expand our programs and connect with audiences and artists beyond our circle. In 2023, RDC toured to Detroit, hosted our first in-person fundraising event, Choreography and Cocktails, and launched the Master Class Series with local and guest artists: who, for the first time, RDC was able to bring to St. Louis for in-person residencies. In 2024, RDC welcomed 70 dancers to our company auditions, commissioned 9 choreographers to present work at the first St. Louis Contemporary Dance Festival, and enrolled 5 talented high school students in RDC’s first Choreography Project - an immersive opportunity for young dancers to learn and perform an original work by an RDC Season Choreographer.
Now, RDC employs 8 company artists who work 16 - 20hrs a week from August through May, rehearsing, performing, touring, and teaching. Our programs continue to expand, serving new and returning audiences, students, and independent artists. RDC remains committed to our founding value of “putting artists first”, and will continue to create exceptional dance experiences that fuel human connection.