I’m Emily Jones (she/they), a dance artist, performer, movement educator, and bodyworker based in Portland, Oregon. I’m a Licensed Massage Therapist, Axis Syllabus teacher, and fully certified STOTT Pilates teacher. My work spans across educational, therapeutic, and artistic realms.

My approach to movement education and bodywork is rooted in respect for individual body autonomy and guided by clear consent practices in spaces of learning and healing. I bring an inquisitive, holistic lens to my work — as an ongoing student of anatomy and functional biomechanics, I’m continually learning from the body-minds I work with. I’m committed to cultivating a practice that is antiracist, queer affirming, and divested from ableism within fitness and wellness culture.

As an artist, I’m interested in honing intuition. I believe intuition can be cultivated through learning and the exchange of perspectives, allowing our impulses to become more expansive, intentional, and legible. I’m drawn to the ways we can honor the body’s signals as a means of questioning and disrupting social norms and power dynamics. My choreographic work invites audiences into their own critical engagement and is often shaped through collaboration and interdisciplinary forms. My dance lineage includes classical and contemporary techniques, alongside many years of experience in various somatic practices and contact improvisation.

I am part of a long-term artistic collaboration with Hannah Krafcik. Our work has taken many forms: dance, video, sound, sculpture, and writing and has been presented by New Expressive Works (Portland, OR), Art Klub NOLA (New Orleans, LA), Pieter Performance Space (Los Angeles, CA), Performance Works NW (Portland, OR), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (Portland, OR), KH Fresh Festival (San Francisco, CA), Paragon Arts Gallery (Portland, OR), and Velocity (Seattle, WA). We also co-teach workshops that reflect our shared values and practices.

In Portland, I help facilitate contact improvisation jams, and I’m part of the Queer Contact Improvisation Cohort — alongside ara oshin, Hannah Krafcik, Leland Hull, Robin Ekeya, and Quinn Gumbiner. I also teach Axis Syllabus, contemporary dance classes, and contact improv locally and beyond.