Emil Maria Ertl

Emil Maria Ertl (they/them), *94 in Nürnberg, works as a dancer, choreographer and facilitator in the field of performance art. Both in their own work as well as when collaborating, their main curiosity lies in social relationality and its navigation. When making dance, Emil is interested in porosity, choreography as a container for feelings, holding several perspectives at once, staying with friction, moving within paradoxes, and magic-making.

Emil’s work Eternal Betrayal  was shown at Ballhaus Ost in the frame of Dirty Debüt, and at ada studios in the frame of NAH DRAN  extended. In 2022 they published Eigentlich benutze ich dieses Wort nicht, an audio piece around failure and fuck ups, in collaboration with Onur Agbaba, Rahel Barra and Lotta Beckers.

As a dancer they have worked with choreographers such as Tümay Kilincel and Cornelius Schaper, Olympia Bukkakis, Ellen Söderhult, Gry Tingskog, Ar Utke Acs, Tchivett, Florentina Holzinger and Sindri Runudde. Emil is facilitating dance workshops both in community-centers as well as in institutions.

They studied at Tanzfabrik Berlin, Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and graduated from University of the Arts Stockholm in 2019 with a Bachelor in Dance Performance. In 2023, Emil received the danceWEB scholarship at Impulstanz Vienna.

Most recently, Emil is working on Serpentine Serpentine, a research investigating the dichotomy between crumpling and straightening with Onur Agbaba in residency at Flutgraben Berlin. Next to that, they are in rehearsal process with Gry Tingskog for parasight, which will be premiering in spring 2024.

Emil is based in Berlin and active in Germany, Sweden and internationally.