Suki John

Suki John, PhD is founder of The Sh’ma Project, and director/choreographer of Sh’ma: a Story of Survival. This narrative dance film won the 2025 Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography in a Feature Film, and has screened in the US, Latin America, and Europe. She has choreographed for Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, The Culture Project, Joyce SoHo, 92nd St. Y, Snug Harbor, Narciso Medina, Danza Espiral, Ritmo Flamenco, Havana Festival of Arts, International Ballet Festival of Havana, People’s Theatre of Yugoslavia, Marymount Manhattan, NYU, North Carolina School of the Arts, and others. Widely published in scholarly and mainstream outlets, she is Arts editor of The Holocaust: Remembrance, Respect, Resilience. Her book, Contemporary Dance in Cuba: técnica cubana as Revolutionary Movement (McFarland Press 2012) is a personal and scholarly account.

Dr. John has been joined by creative collaborators and extraordinary performers with global professional credits. Their combined talents create the timeless and powerful impact of The Sh’ma Project: Move Against Hate.

The Sh’ma Project uses the following tools to build understanding across diverse learning styles:

THE FILM

The new dance film, Sh’ma follows a close-knit community through struggle and survival during the Holocaust. Sh’ma focuses on director Suki John’s mother as she journeys from school days to the Jewish ghetto, deportation to concentration camp, refugee to American citizen. Originally a live choreodrama performed in the former Yugoslavia and New York City, Sh’ma has been recreated as a powerful dance film. Produced with 4 cameras, 15 extraordinary performers, original music and design, Sh’ma highlights resilience, connection, and hope.

The film is currently in previews, and will be available in full length and abbreviated formats appropriate to high school and college classes.

UPSTANDER WORKSHOPS

Through movement, writing, and dialogue, Upstander Workshops give young people thoughtful, safe, and collaborative methods to contextualize history and create personal responses in empowering ways. Students are invited to participate in these workshops before and after viewing the Sh’ma film.

OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER)

To deepen the meaning, breadth, and impact of The Sh’ma Project, students and educators are invited to access the free educational resource, The Holocaust: Remembrance, Respect, Resilience. This digital anthology was written by a team of international scholars, co-edited by Dr. John and fellow 2nd generation survivor, Dr. Michael Polgar (Penn State University Sociology Professor).

SH’MA (sh-mah) means “listen” in Hebrew, and comes from the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy.

The Holocaust: Remembrance, Respect, Resilience;  Editor  of Arts Content (Pending; Rebus Online Educational Resource)

Contemporary Dance in Cuba: Técnica Cubana as Revolutionary Movement. McFarland Press, 2012.

“Christina Bernal, 1945-2016.” Dance Magazine, June 7, 2017.

“The Dancer’s Guide to Cuba” Dance Magazine, May 31, 2016.

“Narciso Medina,” Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography. Oxford University Press, 2016.

“Ramiro Guerra, the father of Cuban Modern Dance,” Routledge

Online Encyclopedia of Modernism. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2016.

Founder/Choreographer: The Sh’ma Project for Holocaust and Human Rights Art and Education

Dance2Degrees: Dancing for a Cooler World https://www.dance2degrees.com/

Signature dance works with original musical scores include L’Dor V’Dor, Wall of Babel, BarrigaBestia, and the evening-length Sh’Ma. These dances have been produced in the U.S., Europe and Latin America.

I was interviewed about Native American dance, and appear briefly in the film Veiled Lightning, produced by Jaima Chevalier. The film premiered January 12, 2017 at the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

My original choreodrama, Havana Love Letters (Cartas de Amor), was performed in Havana at the Bertolt Brecht Theater on June 3 and 4, 2016. Excerpts were performed in New York City at CAP 21 and by Dance TCU students. This work was the result of a collaboration between myself, composer Joel Diamond, TCU designers Murell Horton, Roma Flowers, and Brian Clinnin, and Cuba’s renown National School of Art (ENA) and Institute of the Arts (ISA).

• Deans’ Award for Research and Creativity Finalist, The Sh’ma Project: Move Against Hate, 2023
• New York Havana Film Festival: Moderator for Carlos Acosta’s premiere of Yuli, 2019
• Coleman Fellow
• TCU Honors Faculty Fellow
• First international adjudicator for Danzandos Festival, Matanzas, Cuba, 2016.

• Director: Dance Division, Texas Jewish Art Association
• Dance Studies Association
• Founder, Cuban Arts Match
• Altruvistas Journeys, associate and consultant on dance Advisory Board of US-Cuba Cultural Exchange
• Adjudicator for Danzandos Festival, Matanzas, Cuba
• Council on Research on Dance
• Corps de Ballet International
• Centre Internacional de la Danse – UNESCO

• Peer Reviewer for Oxford University Press, Routledge, The Getty Foundation, and Dance Research Journal
• The Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County Music Center proposal that I reviewed was titled, Cuba then/and now.
• Founder, Cuban Arts Match: matchmakers for the arts
• Board Member: US – Cuba Cultural Exchange