- Ellen Page recently announced her marriage to Emma Portner on Instagram.
- Portner is from Ottawa, Ontario, and teaches at the Broadway Dance Center.
- The 23-year-old has choreographed music videos and tour performances for Justin Bieber.
- She first found widespread acclaim as a teenager, when her collaborative dance video, "Dancing in the Dark," went viral.
On Wednesday, Ellen Page surprised fans with a marriage announcement.
The actress shared on Instagram that she recently married dancer and choreographer Emma Portner. The photo set shows off their wedding bands, an adorable shot of the couple cuddling, and a portrait of Portner — who Page called an "extraordinary woman" in her caption. (Editor's note: Click through the Instagram post below to see the additional photos.)
Fans have been following this love story on social media since May, when Page first posted an interpretive dance clip that praised Portner. Since then, the couple's posts have included collaborative dance videos, acoustic covers, and plenty of clever captions.
Page, who is known for her starring stints in the X-Men franchise, "Inception," and "Juno," made a splash in September when she brought Portner as her date to the premiere of her new film, "Flatliners."
But aside from rare public appearances and scattered social media nuggets, Page has not shared many details about Portner and their thriving relationship.
Here's everything you need to know about Page's now-wife.
Portner is from Ottawa, Ontario.
Like Page — who was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia — Portner is Canadian. She began dancing at the age of 3, training intensively with companies like Leeming Danceworks and The National Ballet School of Canada, according to The Cut.
When Portner was 16 years old, she moved to New York to train at The Ailey School.
She caught her big break as a teenager.
The same year that Portner moved to New York, she met Los Angeles-based dancer Matt Luck. They choreographed and starred in a performance called "Dancing In the Dark," which went viral in 2012.
"I never expected the video to generate the reaction it did,"Portner tells Dance Spirit magazine.
The video racked up hundreds of thousands of viewers — including the hip-hop choreographer Parris Goebel, who had been enlisted to direct Justin Bieber's ambitious "PURPOSE: The Movement" project. The goal was to create a unique dance video for each of Bieber's songs on his new "Purpose" album.
Goebel asked Portner to choreograph and star in Bieber's music video for "Life Is Worth Living."
"I wanted different styles for each song on the album, and I knew Emma would bring this one to life," Goebel tells Dance Spirit.
"Life Is Worth Living" now has almost 50 million views.
The video, which was posted to YouTube in 2015, featured Portner in a dance duet with Patrick Cook.
"We had six hours to make a dance," Portner tells Dance Spirit. "I did my best to make something that would be well received on a commercial platform, but still pushes the platform in a new direction."
Due to the success of the video, Portner was contacted by the creative director of Bieber's Purpose World Tour, Nick DeMoura. He gave her the opportunity to choreograph a piece of the tour.
"The tour was something so unlike me, but I'm really grateful for that opportunity. It opened me up to this elite world of artists that I never would have been exposed to," Portner said. "Now, I'm experiencing an influx of people contacting me to work on their videos and tours, and I'm able to be specific about what I choose to do."
Portner is an award-winning choreographer who has captivated the dance world.
Even before Bieber's influence took effect on Portner's career, she had been garnering attention from dance enthusiasts and professionals.
The New York Times has called her work "beguiling," while The Cut wrote that Portner's moves have "transfixed the dance world." Dance Spirit labeled her "an incredibly focused, multi-hyphenate artist,""powerful yet seemingly boneless," and "a melting pot of dance."
Portner was named Young Choreographer of the Year by the American Dance Awards in 2012. Since then, her choreography has won several national and regional awards, according to her teacher bio for the Broadway Dance Center.
At age 22, Portner became the youngest woman ever to choreograph a musical, called "Bat Out Of Hell," on London's West End — which is akin to the Broadway of England.
Her choreography smashes gender norms in the dance world.
In a July features, Bustle noted that Portner's success has come in spite of gender norms and expectations. Portner tells the site that she wanted to wear boys' clothes as a young dancer and still rejects the longstanding ballet dress code of a leotard and tights.
Portner, who identifies as queer, tells Bustle that she wants to challenge expectations with her androgynous look, black T-shirts, and powerful movements — to reject the expectation to "dance smaller."
"In dance there's an extreme imbalance of woman to men, especially in the commercial contemporary world. So if there's a boys' group, they get so much more seen than the women. They get more space. They get more for their money. They just get more," she says.
She now lives in New York City, where she heads her own dance company and teaches at the Broadway Dance Center.
Portner founded a dance company called Emma Portner and Artists, which she now directs and manages.
At the Broadway Dancer Center, she teaches "a class of exploring, sharing and pushing boundaries," according to the website.
Portner and Page met through Instagram.
Portner has grown accustomed to catapulting her career forward by using Instagram, where she boasts nearly 100,000 followers. According to The Cut, she held off hiring a manager until a few months ago because directors, choreographers, and organizations found and approached her through social media.
But Instagram brought Portner more than professional opportunities. After posting a video to a song by Sylvan Esso, the band shared the video — and caught Page's eye.
Page thought Portner was "the s---" and DM'd her, according to The Cut.
The rest, it seems, is history.
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