Creative Partnership

Drawing from dance as an embodied discipline, I help translate curiosity into creative process, allowing meaning, interaction, and transformation to emerge in ways that can’t always be reached through words alone.

My Process

  • Dark image of a incandescent light bulb hanging from the ceiling with a person's hands reaching upward beneath it.

    Curiosity + Inquiry

    You bring a question, an impulse, or a situation. I bring an embodied way of seeing—rooted in dance—that helps surface what’s really asking to be explored.

    Through one or two initial visioning sessions, we will explore possibilities. Rather than starting with a predetermined outcome, we allow the direction of the work to emerge through shared inquiry.

  • A person's hand writing on a colorful planner with sticky notes on a white desk, with laptop computers, pink earphones, a highlighter, and papers nearby.

    Shaping the Container

    As clarity begins to form, we identify the shape the work wants to take. This may lead toward a participatory experience, leadership activation, site-responsive work, performance, film, or something in between.

    At this stage, we define scope, timeline, and budget, and I formalize the container through a clear agreement.

  • A motion-blurred image of a dancer in a flowing white gown, captured in a dark setting.

    Making + Emergence

    This is where the work comes into being through iterative creation, collaboration, and responsiveness. While the process is intentional and structured, the outcome remains open to discovery.

    Often, what emerges carries a life of its own and insight, connection, or resonance are revealed beyond what was initially imagined.

Explore Partnership

  • While every partnership is unique, past and potential contexts include:

    • Creative commissions or interdisciplinary collaborations

    • Site-responsive or community-centered work

    • Performances, films, or installations

    • Leadership or team-based experiences

    • Public or private gatherings seeking embodied engagement

  • This work is well-suited for:

    • Organizations activating story, space, or community

    • Institutions seeking embodied approaches to engagement

    • Teams interested in exploring new ways of thinking and working together

    • Artists and cultural producers

  • While outcomes vary, partners often leave with:

    • A deeper sense of connection and shared meaning

    • New insight into people, place, or purpose

    • An experience rooted in the body, not just the intellect

    • Work that continues to resonate beyond its initial moment

"Seasoned Professional... And so gracious. Watching Emily Running work, I experienced her enveloping passion. There is no corner of Choreography, Dance, Stage, that Emily does not OWN. From building relationships to crossing every T in the business/logistics end, to the Show itself, Emily leaves no detail to chance. Her preparation is tireless. She can do it ALL."

— Barry Yee, Striven Media