A Tribute to Susan Alexander

Susan Alexander grew up in Southern California and graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara with degrees in Dance and English and from Mills College with an M.A. in Dance. Susan then taught at Denison University in Granville, OH for 6 years and was chairperson of the Dance Department there for four years. After teaching in Ohio, Susan moved to New York, where she taught at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio in New York, and choreographed and produced her own work during the 7 years she lived there. She also performed with several choreographers, including Albert Reid and Mel Wong, while at the same time choreographing and performing a program of solo works in collaboration with filmmaker David Robinson, entitled Moving Bodies/Moving Pictures. She then lived in France for over 20 years, teaching Modern Dance for the Paris Opera Ballet for 23 years, and at the Paris Conservatory of Music and Dance for 18 years. Ms. Alexander has done extensive guest teaching in France, including at the American Center in Paris, the Centre National de Danse (CND) in Paris and Lyon, and for numerous professional companies including those of Dominique Bagouet, Anne Teresa deKeersmaeker, Jean-Claude Gallotta, Angelin Preljocaj, DV8 from London, and the Australian Dance Theater. She has also been invited to teach for numerous schools and universities in Europe and the United States: the Laban Centre and The Place in London; the Internationale Sommerakademie des Tanzes in Köln, Germany; the University of California at Santa Barbara; Westmont College; and at Bard and Hunter Colleges in New York. Susan has taught modern dance at The Dance Hub since its founding in 2017. Until recently, Susan returned to France twice a year as a guest instructor at various professional and pedagogical training centers in Paris and Lyon. See her interview with Carrie Diamond here.

Molissa Fenley founded Molissa Fenley and Company in 1977 and has since created over 85 dance works during her continuing career. Born in Nevada, She grew up in Ibadan, Nigeria traveling there with her family in 1961, completing all of her early education there in International Schools and her last two years of high school in Spain. She returned to the US in 1971 to study dance at Mills College in Oakland, California. Upon graduation in 1975, she moved to New York. With her company, Molissa Fenley and Company, and as a soloist working in collaboration with visual artists and composers, she has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Her work has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, the Dia Art Foundation, Jacob’s Pillow, the Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, the New National Theater of Tokyo, The National Institute of Performing Arts in Seoul, The Kitchen, and Dance Theater Workshop/New York Live Arts. Fenley has been on the dance faculty at Mills College since 1999, in residence every spring semester. Since 2003, she has also taught choreography at the Experimental Theater Wing of New York University. She was awarded a Rome Prize for a six month residency at the American Academy in Rome from February through August 2008, and named a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow. Both Cenotaph and State of Darkness were awarded a “Bessie” for Choreography in 1985 and 1988 respectively. State of Darkness was awarded Outstanding Revival in 2021. During the COVID lockdown, this iconic solo work was recreated at The Dance Hub with the support of an AD&M Rent Subsidy Grant. It was later videotaped and streamed live, performed by seven of New York’s acclaimed dancers at the Joyce Theater in New York. During this period, Molissa was interviewed by Dance Hub director Carrie Diamond. You can see the interview plus Molissa’s 1990 performance of the work here.

Suzi Winson has been a professional ballet dancer, a Broadway performer, street clown, trapeze flyer, editor, publisher of literary magazines, political writer, educator, business leader, and arts champion. Her dance life began with ballet taskmaster Irine Fokine, continued with a theatre dance education from Lee Theodore at The American Dance Machine of NY, and included training with Bobby Blankshine, Melissa Hayden, Doug Wassell, Patricia Wilde, and Barbara Cole. This framework led to dancing (and singing) on Broadway with the 1980 revival of Brigadoon with Agnes deMille, Annie with Peter Gennaro, My One and Only with Tommy Tune, and the original NY cast of Nunsense, creating the role of the ballerina nun. From 2010 to 2020, Suzi co-founded and directed Circus Warehouse, the premier professional center for circus arts and dance in NYC and the only such training program with a ballet-based syllabus as an integral part of circus training. Suzi developed Ballet for the End of the World/ Renaissance, dance class refitted for Zoom, to keep her longtime students from losing their practice during the pandemic. She has been a director/trustee of Dzul Dance (an acrobatic indigenous dance co), The Forsythe Foundation (for German-based American choreographer, William Forsythe), and a founding member of The American Circus Alliance. Suzi currently serves as Operations Manager for the Santa Barbara Trapeze Co. She joined The Dance Hub staff this summer, teaching ballet and jazz.