Susan Bendix

Susan Bendix
Tempe, AZ, USA
Acting, Dance/Movement, Improvisation, Storytelling, Media Arts
English
Adult Day Care, After School Program, Assisted Living, College/University, Community Center, Hospital, Independent Living, K-12 Schools, Library
Susan is an artist with the Arizona Commission on the Arts. She has performed and choreographed internationally and currently teaches Dance for Parkinson’s for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Center and is on faculty at the Maricopa Community Colleges where she teaches dance improvisation, dance humanities and is working with staff to develop an elder dance program. She created a program called Body Stories that explores personal story using the body and voice. Susan recently received a grant to create a movement-based program for people dealing with grief and loss. Susan was the recipient of the 2011 Outstanding Narrative Dissertation conferred by the American Educational Research Association for groundbreaking work in Dance Education. She received the Social Embeddedness Award - conferred by Arizona State University president, Michael Crowe for dance and community work
To be human is to move. People of all ages have been moving together in communities for centuries. Because we are all part of the same continuum, (regardless of age), we are not really so different from each other. I love movement work with elders because it reveals the spirit and ageless quality of all of us. My work brings people together in playfulness and the pleasure found in moving the body. I guide participants to explore movement in a safe, gentle and stimulating way and awaken aliveness and pleasure! I do this through practical attention (solid knowledge of dance and the body) and the imagination. I stress breath and centering. It aids relaxation and the ability to connect with deeper experience and each other. Creative expression brings us back to who we are!