Just a few weeks after her 3rd birthday, Emily Grace Kersey saw “The Nutcracker” production by Chamber Ballet in Williamsburg. She was mesmerized, and stood for the entire performance. Several weeks later she began dance lessons.
Fast forward through years of training with Chamber Ballet and the Institute for Dance, and since age 5 an unwavering goal of making it on Broadway, the time is here. On Friday August 18th she will debut on Broadway’s Neil Simon Theater stage as Cassandra in “Cats”.
Emily is the daughter of Ian and Tammy Kersey. Growing up in Williamsburg, she performed in 10 productions of “The Nutcracker” with Chamber Ballet, “Christmas Dreams with Institute for Dance, and in Jamestown Theater’s productions of “A Chorus Line” (Kristine), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Mote), and “The Boyfriend” (Maisie). She also performed at Busch Gardens in “This is Oktoberfest”, “Festa Italia”, and Howl-o-Scream’s “Rockin’ Eve’s Wrath” and “Fright Night”. During her senior year of high school, Emily participated in the WJCC Honors Program. As her required project, she produced, choreographed and performed in “Leap of Faith”, a benefit dance performance at the Kimball Theater featuring dancers from the National Ballet, Oracle, Williamsburg Ballet Theatre, In His Steps, Institute for Dance, and Virginia Regional Ballet. The project raised almost $5,000 for Avalon.
Emily completed an internship with Broadway Dance Center the summer before graduating from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia with a B.A. in Jazz Dance Performance and a minor in Musical Theater. After graduation she moved to New York City to pursue her dream. Highlights of her career since then include the National Tours of “Flashdance the Musical” (Ensemble/understudy for Gloria/understudy for the Ballet Dancer) and “Bullets over Broadway” (Ensemble); and regional theater productions of “A Chorus Line” (Kristine Urich), “The Producers”, “Saturday Night Fever”, and “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”. Between shows, she also judges dance competitions nationally.
Interested in going? Emily will be performing the role of Cassandra through September 25th.
https://neilsimontheatre.tickets.expert/
Submitted by Tammy Kersey
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