Emma Portner wishes I didn’t need to ask her about being hired to choreograph a West End musical aged 20, or going on tour with Justin Bieber, or being married to a film star. “I think I’m one of the only choreographers that has to deal with, in almost every review, going through that list of things first, and then it’ll talk about the work. It’s almost humiliating, and I wish that we could just look at the work sometimes.”
OK, so let’s talk about the work. The reason we’re chatting (over video call, she’s in Oslo) is because a duet Portner made called Islands is being performed in London for the first time, by the National Ballet of Canada. It was Portner’s first ballet. She was only 25 when it premiered in 2020 (danced by Norwegian National Ballet) but at that point already had a thriving career in commercial dance, music videos and film.
