We recently connected with Emmi Salonen and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Emmi, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I was a very energetic child and my parents were looking for a hobby where the excess energy could be channelled into something productive. They ended up enrolling me to a dance class when I was 3 years old and that’s how it all started.

I quickly got really excited about dance and added different dance styles as they became available for my age group. At the age of six, my ambitiousness was rewarded and the principal of the dance school gave me my first big role, I got to dance Jiminy Cricket’s role in Pinocchio at the school’s Spring recital. After the performances, I announced that I would become a dancer.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a dancer, singer and actress currently located in New York City and have recently returned from a North American tour with a circus.

I began my career in Finland where I was born and started dancing when I was 3 years old. I quickly got really excited about dance and added different dance styles as they became available for my age group. At the age of six, my ambitiousness was rewarded and the principal of the dance school gave me my first big role, I got to dance Jiminy Cricket’s role in Pinocchio at the school’s Spring recital. After the performances, I announced that I would become a dancer.

Over the years I kept adding more and more dance classes, but my favorites were ballet, tap dance and jazz. I also got to work in a local theatre where I sang a solo song in a play and was selected to be the soloist tap dancer for an opera production. When I was 13 years old, I got accepted into the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program which I loved and returned two more times in the following summers.
When it was time for High School, I auditioned and got accepted into the Ballet School of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet’s vocational education program to finally become a professional dancer. While in school, I had the honor to work with many successful artists and choreographers and before my graduation, I performed with the company in their world premiere production: The Snow Queen.

After graduation from the Opera Ballet School I knew sticking with ballet was not going to be my thing. I wanted to be as versatile performer as I could and started to explore my options. I ended up auditioning and eventually got into the American Musical and Dramatic Academy with a scholarship and two years later graduated with a Dance Theatre Conservatory Certificate. During my time at AMDA, besides my dance studies, I also worked hard to strengthen my singing and acting skills and was selected to perform in The Dance Workshop showcase every semester. Those two years were very busy, which was just a good thing. I also love to create and choreograph and my choreographies did get chosen to be performed at AMDA in both The Dance Workshop and the Graduation Showcase. My work has also been seen for example on Hällä Stage during the Tampere Theatre Festival and in Arktiset Askeleet dance competition.

I graduated just before the pandemic started and only really had time to perform in one Christmas musical and soon after the shut down began. I was in the middle of my visa process since I was on my OPT visa and was supposed to soon apply to my artist visa. The prevailing world situation prevented me from applying for a new visa and I had to return to Finland for a bit. Luckily almost immediately I was asked to join Espoon Tanssiopisto’s dance faculty to take over all tap dance levels and that kept me busy. Soon after, I became part of the dance faculty at Lärkkulla Musical as well where I taught theatre jazz and tap dance. I was also asked to choreograph all of Harmony Sisters Musical’s tap numbers for the Summer Stock Theatre in Mäntyharju. For the Spring season 2021, I was invited to teach ballet at the Tampere Conservatory.

As soon as it was possible as the world started to heal from the pandemic, I returned to New York with an O1B Artist Visa in my passport.

My recent credits include a soloist dancer on a North American tour with an international circus, a dancer in an opera production, principal singer/dancer in a big TV format for Warner Bros. International Television Production, a supporting role in TV series for Yellow Film & TV and national TV commercials.

Up next I will be performing with Atlantic City Theatre Company in their upcoming production.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I have to say it’s the moment when you see how your work positively impacts the spectators and you were able to successfully deliver the feeling and bring out emotions. That’s how you know you have done your job well as a performer. I love to communicate and interact with the audience. One of the best things with my latest contract with the circus was that usually the audience is just in front of you in a regular theatre, but there in the big top tent the audience is almost 360 degrees around you. In every direction you turn to, there is people ready to be mesmerized.

Also another thing that I find very rewarding is new challenges, like for example covering for a cast mate on a short notice or short notice change of a venue, and to be able to conquer them successfully and learn something new along the way.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The career of a performing artist is already a very competitive and challenging field and then came the pandemic, completely unexpectedly and without warning. It put this industry on hiatus for a long time and somehow I had to figure things out. The situation was not made easier by the fact that I am not a US citizen and what would happen to the visas and if I go back to Finland, will I ever get back. Many people around me that I knew started to pursue new careers during the pandemic. I was determined not to let this discourage me and prevent me from reaching my goals. I had just graduated and was ready to take on the world. I just had to accept that there was nothing wrong with me or my skills, I just had to wait patiently until we would win the fight against the pandemic and the industry could again flourish Stronger than ever. Perseverance was rewarded and I got the already very rare artist visa and was able to return to New York and continue to work as an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.emmisalonen.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmiserafia/?hl=fi
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emmi.salonen.5/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA2CagveFuCZR8_uRJ4K59w
• Other: Email: salonen.emmi@hotmail.com