Suki John, PhD is a Full Professor in Texas Christian University’s School for Classical & Contemporary Dance (SCCDance) where she teaches Contemporary Dance Technique, técnica cubana, Dance History, Choreography, Career Preparation, Dance in World Cultures, and Honors Art & Activism. Dr. John holds a BFA in Theatre Arts from the University of New Mexico, an M.A. in Choreography and Dance History from New York University, and a PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of Connecticut. She has had the good fortune to collaborate with exceptional artists and scholars across the globe.

 

Dr. John’s narrative dance film, Sh’ma: a Story of Survival won the 2025 Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography in a Feature Film. The film premiered in 2023 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage: a Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City, and has shown internationally, at museums and festivals, and locally in schools and community centers. Using the languages of cinema, choreodrama, and music, the Sh’ma film features four cameras, an evocative original score, and a cast of 15 extraordinary performers -- including Dance Theatre of Harlem and Texas Ballet Theatre professionals as well as TCU students and alums.

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Dr. John originally created the choreodrama Sh’ma in 1990 in the Former Yugoslavia, basing the work on her mother’s experience in the Holocaust. She restaged it in 1999 for New York’s 92nd St. Y. The Sh’ma film now forms the center of The Sh’ma Project: Move Against Hate, an artistic and educational Holocaust and Human Rights initiative. The Project combines an educational version of the film, pre- and post-screening Upstander Workshops, and a free Open Educational Resource, The Holocaust: Remembrance, Respect, Resilience. The goal of The Sh’ma Project is to create a safe space for young people to learn about the Holocaust and to converse, explore, identify, and ultimately reject hate speech and behaviors that lead to atrocities and genocide. 

 

Dr. John studied in the schools of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Harkness, Joffrey, Ailey, Limón, Jennifer Muller, Ballet West, Mary Anthony (with Anna Sokolow), Théâtre du Mouvement, Ritmo Flamenco, and Tina Bernal. She went on to perform with the London Festival Ballet (under the direction of Rudolf Nureyev), The Joffrey Upstarts, Rex Bickmore, Jennifer Muller and the Works, Sara Sugihara, Rachel Lampert, Living Art International, Dance Company Narciso Medina, The Horse’s Mouth, and Theater Sang Real. She apprenticed with choreographers Margo Sappington and Karen Azenburg, and with dance videographers Character Generators. Dr. John then focused on producing her own choreography in New York City, at venues such as Joyce SoHo, City Center, Marymount Manhattan, 550 Broadway, Music Theater Works, The 92nd St. Y, and The Culture Project. She has choreographed for Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, Snug Harbor/Staten Island Center for the Arts, Narciso Medina, Danza Espiral, Ritmo Flamenco, Connecticut Repertory Theater, Adelphi University, New York University, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Texas Christian University, the University of New Mexico, People’s Theater of Yugoslavia, Cuba’s Superior Institute of the Arts, Havana Festival of the Arts, and the International Ballet Festival of Havana. She co-founded and performed with Route 66 Dance Company and dance2degrees: dancing for a cooler world, designed to bring attention to the existential issue of climate change. She is former Director of Dance for the Texas Jewish Arts Association.

 

Dr. John continues to teach, choreograph, and write about the intersections between dance, history, activism, and culture. Dr. John’s journalistic and scholarly writings have been published by The New York Times, The Village Voice, Dance Magazine, Pointe, Ballet-tanz International, Dance Research Journal, Oxford International Encyclopedia of Dance, Oxford’s Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, and Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. Her book, Contemporary Dance in Cuba: técnica cubana as Revolutionary Movement (McFarland Press: 2012) is a personal and scholarly account of Cuban dance. She is arts editor for The Holocaust: Remembrance, Respect, Resilience (Penn State: 2023).