In 2019, after nine years as a student at the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, three ABT Summer Intensives, and a starring role as young Clara in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Emilie Trauchessec decided to swap her pointe shoes for a textbook and enrolled at McGill University.  

Today, Emilie is a psychotherapist, specializing in providing mental health services for dancers and athletes, building on her professional ballet background to pave a career that supports other dancers. As we approach the 10th anniversary of The Nutcracker at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in California, SideBarre checked in with Emilie about this career transition, her relationship to dance today, and her time starring in The Nutcracker as a teenager. 

At age nine, Emilie joined the ABT JKO School Children’s Division, working her way through the School until her high school graduation. Emilie performed in The Nutcracker three times, as a Party Girl, Soldier, and, eventually, Clara. She looks back on those days fondly, particularly how much she loved getting to connect with the main Company members. Emilie shares that she remembers attending her first company rehearsal and being “so anxious,” but was immediately comforted as the dancers were “so nice and welcoming and all just wanted to help out.”  

Through her time at the ABT JKO School, Emilie found a family among her fellow dancers, relying on each other for support as they navigated the challenges that come with being a young dancer. This experience of communal support inspired Emilie’s decision to study psychology and sociology and go on to earn a Master of Social Work at Columbia University. “I saw a lot of people I was growing up with and dancing with struggling with their mental health,” Emilie shares, motivating her to pursue a career “making mental health care more accessible for the dance community.” 

Through her career as a therapist, Emilie has found new ways to integrate ballet into her life. This transition was not an easy one; she says, “I thought ‘who am I without dance?’ And so, when I took that step, at first, it was super scary. But then being able to continue to integrate dance into my life in different ways has been so eye opening and such a positive experience.” While dance is no longer her primary focus, she continues to take classes, see performances, and work with dancers as a therapist.  

As a Licensed Master Social Worker, Emilie works in a private practice, providing psychotherapy to a range of clients, with an emphasis on dancers and athletes. She sees the benefit of shared experience, having a personal understanding of high-pressure environments, performance anxiety, and injuries. Emilie is passionate about prioritizing mental health for professional dancers, telling us that mental health has traditionally been seen as taboo, but “now there’s a lot more discussion around it, a lot more resources at dance schools.” Emilie says that she thinks it’s important that these conversations are happening with young dancers, teaching kids from a young age to “be able to cope with the tough, competitive world they’re growing up in.” 

As her career progresses, Emilie’s dream is to open her own private practice focusing on dancers and athletes. She says, “because they have such unique experiences, I think a lot of dancers struggle to find therapists that they can connect with, because they feel like they need to explain a lot.”  

While her relationship with ballet has shifted over the years, Emilie has found the change to be positive. Working with dancers in a new way has helped her rediscover her love of ballet and help other dancers navigate the stresses of the industry. She says, “a lot of people think that once you’re no longer a dancer, that part of you is gone. But the way I see it, it’s still part of me. I think of it not as letting something go but finding a new way to integrate it into your life.” 

The writer, Lauren Trossman, is an ABT Press Intern for Fall 2025.