PAS DEUX IN LIFE

Emily Dietz and Benjamin Shepard joined Verb Ballets in 2017. They got engaged in November 2020. Learn how they dance, live and work together.

Where did you meet? We met in college at Butler University in the dance department. It was a stroke of good luck since we are from opposite coasts. (Benjamin is from Maryland and Emily is from California). After about a year, we realized we liked each other as more than friends.

How is it sharing a profession? It’s wonderful to be with someone who completely understands your profession, since the dance world is a unique place. However, we can’t really ask, “How was your day today?” because we spend all day in the same studio. There’s also somewhat of a lack of novelty and awe when we watch each other dance because we are incredibly familiar with all of the technical aspects. In general, we try not to “take work home with us” in order to keep our work relationship separate from our relationship at home.

How does your dancing complement each other? Expectations of how women and men dance both technically and stylistically are pretty different. We like to joke about how Ben would love to have Emmie’s feet & flexibility. And Emmie wishes she could jump even a fraction as high as Ben. That being said, we love dancing together, and our heights match up perfectly for partnering! Trust is also a big part of dancing together as partners, and that comes easily for us.

What are your wedding plans? We are waiting for the vaccine to be widely distributed and readily available before making concrete plans. We watched many friends go through the stress of having to cancel weddings due to COVID. So it’s looking to us like sometime in 2022! We are incredibly excitedEmmie has already bought her dress. In the meantime, we are enjoying being engaged and getting used to l calling each other “fiancé/e” .