Emily Oleson: Dance Instructor
Emily Oleson received her B.A. with Honors in Theatre and Dance from James Madison University in 2004, where she was the student Technical Director of the Dance department and a member of the Virginia Repertory Dance Company and the Contemporary Dance Ensemble. While at JMU she was chosen for a scholarship for summer study to attend the American Dance Festival, among other awards within the program, and her choreography was selected to be presented at the American College Dance Festival. In 2005 she moved to Charlottesville, where she co-founded Good Foot Dance Company, a percussive dance trio, with her now husband Matthew Olwell and long time dance partner Meghan Madden.
Since 1999, Emily has been teaching and coaching a variety of forms of dance in the Shanandoah Valley, where she grew up in a dancing family. She founded and currently operates Shenandoah Irish Dance Arts, a traditional Irish step dance program offering classes in Harrisonburg, Staunton and Waynesboro. She loves to create more accessible contexts for traditional dancing, and her choreography often has a theatrical frame. She has directed two evening length Irish Dance dramas, "Drowsy Maggy Sleeping Beauty in Irish Dance", and "Robin Hood" performed at the Paramount Theater in 2006. Emily has also enjoyed several choreographer/consultant positions for area high school drama departments, including Stuart Hall, Tandem Friends School, and the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind.
She has studied with the Zen Monkey Project in Charlottesville and recently performed comtemporary dances by local choreographers Katherine Birdsall, Dinah Grey, Jesse Laurita-Spanglett and Keira Hart. Her trio Good Foot Dance Company appeared in multi-media projects "A Charlottesville Wunderkammer" and "Shentai," as well as with major Irish music artists The Cheiftains and Lunasa, and frequently performs with local traditional bands around Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland.