It’s not often that you meet someone who can dance, act, sing and talk to you about anthropology. That’s one combination that makes Emery Ronan Bacon quite unique.

The 24-year-old actress, who grew up in Bountiful and graduated from West High and later the University of California at Berkeley, has been charting her own professional course for years. She left Utah for Berkeley to study biology and anthropology, and after earning her undergraduate degree, she moved to San Jose. There, she became a member of the South Bay Musical Theatre (SBMT) troupe and is now part of the cast of “Company,” the Tony Award-winning musical comedy by legendary composer Stephen Sondheim. It played at the Saratoga Civic Center last month.

How do you combine two completely different disciplines? Emery said they actually coexist quite comfortably.

“The way I think of it is that I’m very lucky to get to do both,” she said during a telephone interview from California. “My day job is as a research assistant with a pharmaceutical research company, and musical theater is sort of how I unwind.” 

She serves as understudy for two character roles in the musical – Kathy, one of the girlfriends, and Sarah, one of the wives. 

“Most of my training has been dance-focused,” she said, “but I do act and sing. I trained with Dance Impressions in Bountiful for eight years and then for two years at Valley West Academy. That led me into theater at West High School.”

With a show like “Company,” she said, “I get to work with performers who are absolutely incredible singers. I’m lucky to work with them.”

Emery is preparing to pursue a master’s degree in forensic anthropology – yes, she wants to work with a coroner’s office or a police department to help identify skeletal remains. It’s a “wide open field and very, very different from musical theater. I do love acting and I’m grateful for now that I can do both, and plan to even after graduating with my master’s.”

Following the run of “Company,” she’s eyeing a role in a production of “Beauty and the Beast,” and hopes to get involved with SBMT’s next production of “Singing in the Rain” next May. λ