Biography
Suchi Branfman, choreographer, performer, educator, curator, and activist has worked from the war zones of Managua to Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre and Kampala’s Luzira Prison to NYC’s Joyce Theatre. Her work strives to create an embodied terrain, grounded in storytelling, dialogue, listening and action. Branfman is currently amidst a ten-year choreographic residency at the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium security state men’s prison in Norco, CA and is Artistic Director/Facilitator of the multi-faceted Dancing Through Prison Walls project. She serves on faculty at Scripps College, where she has received Mary W. Johnson Excellence Awards in both Teaching and Research, the Claremont Consortium Faculty Diversity Award, and the QRC Lavender Award. Branfman is a community gardener, a prison abolition activist, and a Session Artist at Recess Space (Brooklyn, NY), Lucas Arts Fellow at Montalvo Arts Center (Saratoga, CA), City of Los Angeles Neighborhood Engaged Artist Resident Fellow and COLA Master Artist,18th Street Arts Center/California Arts Council Creative Corps Fellow, City of Santa Monica Individual Artist Fellow, and recipient of funds from the Foundation for Community Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, amongst others. https://www.dancingthroughprisonwalls.org #carenotcages
Academic History
- MFA, Goddard College
- BA, SUNY Empire State
Interests
- Dance and Social Justice
- Dancing Through Prison Walls
- Experimental Choreography
- Social Practice Performance
- Community Engaged Dance Practice
Courses Taught
- Choreographing Women's Lives
- Choreographing Our Stories (an Inside/Out course taught at the Norco Prison)
- Dancing Social Justice
- Modern Dance I and II
- Introduction to Dance/Dance Studies
- Improvisation