Q&A with Dance Alumnus Emmitt Cawley

South African dancer Emmitt Cawley (B.F.A. ’20, dance) joined the venerable Nederlands Dans Theater as a member of their NDT II company in 2019, while still a student at Boston Conservatory. The company, based in The Hague, Netherlands, is known for “non-conformist, progressive productions” that have put them at the forefront of the dance world. Cawley discusses the unique opportunities afforded to him by the Conservatory—particularly the school’s new professional transition program that allowed him to land and begin this coveted position with NDT II while completing his studies.

How did your experience at Boston Conservatory prepare you for your position with NDT II?

My time at the Conservatory taught me many valuable lessons surrounding what it means to be a professional within the industry but also a professional to yourself. I was given many tools that helped cultivate a sense of worth and drive, which have helped me maintain a constant sense of curiosity and interest within the process of dance and what it means to make art.

How were you connected with NDT II while attending Boston Conservatory?

I have always admired NDT and the work that they were and are doing. A couple of my professors at the Conservatory encouraged me to look into the company and the audition process as they felt that it would be a good fit for the kind of artist I was looking to become.

Tell us about your experience with the school’s professional transition program and how you were able to complete your degree while launching a career.

The faculty and heads of the Dance Division have been super supportive of the opportunity that I was given and thus helped me in achieving both the early start in my career, as well as the completion of my education and degree, which is also so valuable in today’s world. They helped tailor the school’s B.F.A. dance program toward me as an artist and an individual and allowed me to continue developing not only as an artist but as an intellectual, which is something I cherish and am so grateful for. They were super understanding of my time constraints and commitments to my work and were super helpful when I needed any advice or clarification on the topics that I continued to research and work on through an online medium in my free time here in The Hague.

What drew you to Boston Conservatory?

I think that you really feel like an individual within the program and that your individuality is what is focused on and nurtured in relation to what you have to say as a dancer and an artist. Never once did I feel like I had to be anything but myself or that I was being sculpted into someone else, but rather, I had space, time, support, and resources to define what I wanted to be.

Was there a specific experience that solidified your decision to pursue a career in dance?

I wouldn’t say there is one specific experience that affirmed my choice of pursuing a career within dance, however, dancing has shown me many aspects of myself that I wish to further discover and cultivate, as well as things within this world that can be connected through the language of movement.