Rahm Emanuel has the reputation for being one of Washington’s and now Chicago’s, profanist, hard-driving, non-sense politician. What prepared Emanuel, now the Mayor elect of Chicago, to lead one of the toughest, most corrupt cities in America, was that he studied dance in college. This is the story of how this political dancing bulldog discarded his ballet slippers, and took on Washington.

He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, a small liberal arts college located 15 miles north of New York City in Westchester County. Sarah Lawrence College has the reputation for being different, quirky, and slightly unpredictable. Some of the notable alumni of this college have gone on to traditional liberal arts careers such as the artist Yoko Ono, the editor of Vogue and designer Vera Wang, the broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, the author Alice Walker, the actress Julianne Margulies, and the filmmaker and producer J.J. Abrams. However, Emanuel has been standing out since his freshman year.

“I enjoyed the liberal arts curriculum of Sarah Lawrence and deeply appreciate it now. There are plenty of people out there who spent four years learning one subject and there is a lot of merit to that,” says Emanuel. “But at a liberal arts college you spend four years learning how to approach any subject, and in life you will face every subject. “

Emanuel, who was offered a full scholarship to Joffery Ballet at Julliard, turned it down in order to go to Sarah Lawrence. In his speeches, Emanuel often attests his dancing to his mother “who forced him to do it.” But, Marsha Emanuel says, “That’s not true.”

Rahm Emanuel was born the middle child of three boys. Ezekiel, the oldest, went on to become a doctor and is known as a leading bioethicist at the American National Institute of Health. He works in the controversial ethics department, and is known for his support of universal health care. He is opposed to legalized euthanasia and state-assisted suicide. Ari Emanuel, the youngest of the three brothers, is a Hollywood talent agent and founder of Endeavour Talent Agency in Hollywood, California. His likeness was the inspiration for the hard-driving, neurotic character Ari Gold on HBO’s show Entourage.

“Ari would be wrestling, Zeke would be pondering deep thoughts, and Rahmmy would be leaping down the stairs doing ballet dance twirls,” said his mother in congressional biographer, Naftali Bendavid’s book The Thumpn’: How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to be Ruthless and ended the Republican Revolution.

Knowing that Emanuel had talent in dancing and wanted to dance, his mother enrolled him in dance lessons. However, afraid that he would be the only boy in the class, she also enrolled his brothers.

“Every article I see, he says, “My mother forced me to dance,” she says. “Forgive me you little shithead, I didn’t force you; I forced your brothers.”

As an undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence, Emanuel danced for a year. The dance program at Sarah Lawrence presents students with an extensive education in the vital aspects of dance and varies from physical, creative, and analytical practices. Students are encouraged to broaden their study by widening their definitions of dance and performance, and engaging in explorations of form and function. Students engage in a yearlong series of coordinated component courses that make a Dance Third. A typical Dance Third consists of twelve to fifteen hours of in-class time, including a daily required practice class, and students also participate in movement training to increase their strength, flexibility, alignment, and coordination, as well as helping dancers address their short-term and long-term goals.

“There are about 12 first years this year who are dance thirds. It varies drastically from year to year.  This year there are about seven students who are seniors who have been with us through their college career – sometimes there are five, sometimes twelve,” says Rose Mary Thom, a dance teacher who has been at Sarah Lawrence since ’75.

Emanuel is not the only Sarah Lawrence dance alumni who left the school and pursued an unconventional career. Lisa Glosserman who graduated in ’84 is a small business owner. She owns High Gloss, a jewelry and accessories boutique in Houston with her sister Kim Glosserman. Together they founded it with their mother, Pam Glosserman, almost 16 years ago, ten years after Lisa graduated from Sarah Lawrence.

“We typically choose artists who have hand-made jewelry as well as one-of-a-kind jewelry. Our artists are international and local,” says Glosserman. “What we look for is design and good quality. We love vintage and eco-friendly design. Our customers know that when they come to High Gloss, they’re going to find something that no one else has. You won’t have to worry about someone else wearing the same jewelry.” About dancing in college and how it influenced her decision to open a jewelry and accessories boutique, Glosserman says nothing.

Anything but ashamed of his dancing past, Emanuel often mentions it while talking to other political figures. Once, while talking to George W. Bush, he said, “Yeah, I did ballet,” after Bush made a comment about how fit he looked.

“He often brings it up to try to one up other men. He really wanted to throw off Bush,” says Bendavid, Emanuel’s Congressional biographer. “Dance is one more quirky part of his personality.”

In addition to his year spent dancing at Sarah Lawrence. Emanuel took mostly classes in social sciences, philosophy, and literature. Although not an extensive list, many of the classes he took included the following: “Civil Liberties, Speech, and the Press,” “Economic Concepts and Ideas,” “Dewey, Heidegger & Wittgenstein,” “Animal Behavior,” and “Early Childhood Psychology.”

“I remember the lessons my professors taught me more than the specific classes I took. Mr. Adams taught me European History. Charlotte Doyle, who taught me psychology, and Bob Zimmerman, who taught me philosophy, helped me understand not only how people think and interact, but how to question theories and the way things are done,” says Emanuel. “And Jack Neal, who was my first Don, taught me American history through the law. He was a close mentor and I carry his wisdom and his memory with me always.”

As his Don for two and half years at Sarah Lawrence after Jack Neal’s death, Jeff Adams says Emanuel was unique. “He would go to Manhattan and buy suits on sale at the BFO,“ he said. “He was the only undergraduate I knew that did that. Most undergraduates I knew were buying their clothes at the thrift store at the hospital.”

Adams explains that he got his start in politics by being very “personable” and by fundraising for Paul Simon on weekends while he was in college. “He had made a number of the right connections by working with the Clintons,” said Adams.

As a national campaign director for Paul Simon in 1984 for his election to Senate, and in 1988, as the senior advisor and chief fundraiser for Richard M. Daley’s campaign for Mayor of Chicago, Emanuel worked hard for his reputation in politics. Later, Emanuel was appointed to direct then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. After an aggressive fundraising campaign across the United States, Clinton won the election when his primary rival Paul Tsongas  withdrew from lack of campaign funds. From 1993 to 1998, Emanuel served as senior advisor to President Clinton.

“Not many people know this, but I spent some time studying child psychology while I was at Sarah Lawrence. I really thought I wanted to be a child psychologist,” says Emanuel. “You have no idea how useful that training has been in politics.”

Matthew Davis, Emanuel’s Political Philosophy professor, tells the story of how his daughter Jessica’s first crush was Rahm. “At the same time he was studying with me, he was taking a course in psychology that involved working at the Early Childhood Center.” he says. His daughter, either three or four at the time, had Emanuel as her student teacher and she fell in love with him.

“I remember her coming home from school and gushing ‘Rahm talked to me today,’” says Davis, impressed by Emanuel’s ability to connect with such a young and shy child. With such an ability to connect with small children, Emanuel’s dual personality with his peers in politics shines differently.

In Washington, Emanuel is often jokingly called “Rahmbo.” He is known for his “take no prisoners style” and as a man who was “not to be fucked with.” Also, for his colorful vocabulary and extensive use of the word “fuck.” The irony of Emanuel’s language is that most politicians curse in private, while in public they speak eloquently. Rahm Emanuel is not like that.

“He uses fuck like a combination of comma and semicolon, to punctuate and highlight his thoughts,” says Bendavid. Some examples of Emanuel’s colorful language is changing Washington to “Fucknutsville,” changing the word knucklehead to “knucklefuck” when referring to congressmen John Hostettler with the derogatory term, and how he once told his party members in the last presidential election, “Let’s not nominate fucking idiots.”

About his language, Marsha Emanuel admits that it was actually her fault: “We said, “If you want to say those words, it just shows that you’re uneducated and uncouth. The words you can’t say are those that hurt people’s ethnicity, religion, how they look, how they’re shaped. Those are curse words and you dare not say them as an Emanuel.”

Adams, who was extremely close to Emanuel during his college career, says this Washington Rahm, was not “the Rahm I knew.” He says that as a student, Emanuel was very respectful. He admits now “Sometimes he says things that I am aghast at.” As a “moderate conservative” Adams admits that he was completely blown away when Emanuel suggested the idea of reparations in his campaign for Mayor of Chicago.

“I guess you say what you need to say to get elected in Chicago,” says Adams.

The now Mayor elect for Chicago, Emanuel will be sworn in on Monday May 16^th as the 46^th Mayor of Chicago, along with City Clerk-elect Susana Mendoza, and Treasurer Stephanie Neely, at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Preluding his swearing-in, there will be a Citywide Day of Service on Saturday, May 14th, where Emanuel and constituents alike will perform acts of services for the city of Chicago.

According to Charlotte Doyle, his “Theories of the Creative Process” professor, “He was full of energy, both physical and intellectual.” She often tells the stories to those who ask that he once told her that philosophy was his great love. She suggested that he read a psychologically sophisticated philosopher in conference. It was difficult reading, and he told her, “Charlotte, that was so hard I cried.”  After discussing the work, she found that he found his way to understanding the work and was impressed by his determination.

“He took dance only his first year, because he fell in love with liberal arts, especially philosophy and law, and he could not get enough of them,” says Doyle.

As a freshman, Emanuel was surprisingly outspoken about his political beliefs. In an issue of The Tribune, Sarah Lawrence’s student run newspaper, Emanuel gave his opinion on the Bakke Case in an Op-Ed in ’77. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) was a controversial ruling of Supreme Court about permissible scope factors in the admissions processes of many colleges used to improve and promote a more diverse learning experience for college students under the First Amendment. He said, “I believe that it’s the responsibility of our government to force institutions to help minorities take their first step.”

“He had a forceful personality and liked being the center of attention, and making his opinions known,” said Bendavid.“He was known for sitting in the dining hall [Bates] at a table with other students gathered around him arguing about different things.

While a student at Sarah Lawrence, Emanuel was an active member of student senate, the college’s student governmental system.  As a first year, he was a Student Advisory Senator. From ’78-’79, he was on the General Committee.

As a sophomore, Emanuel was a Resident Advisor, or a R.A. Because of his pushy, dynamic personality, one student named Meryl Rosen once referred to him as the “Resident Asshole.” He was also sophomore class president that year, and helped manage Rosen’s election for freshman class president later in the year in which she won.

“He was like Napoleon basically, a sort of dictator,” says Rosen.

Later in his political career, Emanuel was known for his upfront, aggressive, in-your-face style. Once, he sent a dead fish to a pollster who was late delivering results. Another time, after an election, Emanuel angrily yelled the names of people against Clinton while repeatedly stabbing the dinner table with a steak knife. He also once yelled in Tony Blair’s face, “Don’t fuck this up,” after a he gave a pro-Clinton speech when Clinton was about to be impeached.

“When you have a forceful personality, you make a lot of enemies,” say Bendavid.

Emanuel, however intense, is humble in admitting his mistakes. “I do think that failure is a necessary part of success. I’ve been lucky enough to have many successes in my life, but your achievements often depend on what you do when you fail – it is what you do in those valleys that determine the height of your peaks,” says Emanuel. “Try to learn humility and wisdom when you stumble and those lessons will help you reach higher next time. “

Even though Emanuel only worked as Chief of Staff for Obama from January 20, 2009 to October 20, 2010, he describes his relationship with Obama as “built upon loyalty, not in the knee-jerk, hopelessly devoted to you way” but rather in the sense of “wanting to ensure that my boss’s ideas are forcefully challenged by opposing viewpoints and, once tested, successfully implemented.”

Those close to Emanuel often laugh off his passionate, aggressive behavior and make jokes about him. At a 2005 Charity Event, while Emanuel was still Chief of Staff for President Barak Obama, Obama made a joke about Emanuel’s missing middle finger. “He lost part of his middle finger. As a result of this, this rendered him practically mute,” said Obama.

As a rite of passage, Emanuel often tells the story of how he sliced part off his middle finger off and came close to dying his senior year in high school. In his commencement speech to Sarah Lawrence graduates in 2008 he said, “When I was in high school, I was a pretty reckless guy. Let’s just say I wasn’t the staid and somber figure that stands before you. I was working as a meat cutter, and I sliced my finger deeply. And being seventeen years old, despite what was a pretty bad cut, I decided to go swimming in Lake Michigan. This turned out to be a mistake. But in my defense, it was prom night. I ended up in the hospital with five blood infections, two bone infections, gangrene and a 105-degree fever. For the first 96 hours, I battled between life and death. I was in the hospital for two months. It was a terrible time for me, and worse for my parents, but to be honest, I’m glad I went through it because a funny thing happened: nearly losing my life made me want to live my life.”

Before the accident, Emanuel was very unfocused with his life. “That was a turning point in Rahm’s life, to be honest,” said Marsha Emanuel in an interview with Bendavid. “It was touch-and-go, and finally when he came out of it, he was more serious… I honestly think that was his existential moment of near death and realizing you have to do something with your life.”

Whether this life threatening experience during the summer before his freshman year in college influenced Emanuel to decide not to spend his life dancing at the Joffery Ballet, he does not say.

“Afterwards, I was worried that the fever might have affected his mentality or his intellect,” Emanuel’s mother said. “But the first time he woke up I realized he was cursing and it was, “He’s going to be okay.”

However tough the months leading up were to Emanuel’s first day at Sarah Lawrence, he fondly looks back on his years at college and tells students, “My advice to all students at Sarah Lawrence is that you will do great things if you have seriousness of purpose, if you find wisdom in your failures, and if you give yourself to a cause greater than yourself. “

As Mayor elect of Chicago, Emanuel is passionate about the children and the families in the city. He says, “We have not won anything until a child can go to school and not think of their safety we have not won anything. Until a parent can think of their work, and not where they’re going to find work, we have not won anything. The plural pronoun of ‘we’ is how we’re going to meet the challenges… I do not want to see another child’s name in memorial killed by violence.”

Brielle Weber

Sarah Lawrence College Class of ‘14