Wicked dancer Emer Walsh: ‘It was really special, because I was that little girl who watched movie musicals growing up’

The path from Co Wicklow to the Emerald City is not paved with yellow bricks, but it’s one that Emer Walsh has boogied down for 20 years, nevertheless. The dancer and choreographer from the seaside town of Bray has rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names in the entertainment business over the course of her career. Now, it has led her to her first dancing role on the big screen — where she’ll soon be seen in the Hollywood adaptation of Broadway hit Wicked .

“I’d never danced in a movie — it was the only bucket-list item that hadn’t been ticked off,” the down-to-earth Walsh says when we meet for coffee on a sunny Dublin morning. “I was a bit like, ‘Is this for real? Is this for me?’ when I got the email asking about my availability,” she says. “As it turned out, one of the choreography team on Wicked recommended me to the casting team; she was a former student and it was her way of saying ‘thank you’.

So there were a good few of us who were 35-plus in the corners.”.