Sue Bernhard

Choreographer Sue Bernhard uses visceral movement language to create evocative dances that explore human relationships and states of being. Her work investigates how the infinitely expressive medium of the human body resonates with meaning through the prisms of space, time, energy and form. 

Bernhard’s dances have been shown in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and Poland, and in many venues in New York City. She has created dances for the Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, Purchase College, National Ballet Moderno de Guatemala, Convergence Dancers and Musicians, Long Island University, The Yard, and others. In collaboration with award-winning videographer Penny Ward, she has created video/dance performance pieces. Their film from The Water Pieces was shown in the Dance On Camera Festival at Lincoln Center and at venues in London and Berlin. Their dance/film piece Boundaries and Exposures was featured at the Conference on Dance and Technology at Simon Fraser University. Bernhard has commissioned music from composers Amanda Harberg, Bradley Kaus, Dred Scott, Jeff Hoyer, Peter Price, and Tom Price. 

Bernhard is on faculty at the Purchase College Conservatory of Dance and the José Limón Institute and guest teaches internationally. She has taught on the Modern Masters Series at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and has been on faculty at the Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, North Carolina School of the Arts, Hunter College, and Long Island University.

She is a former member of the José Limón Dance Company and Annabelle Gamson/Dance Solos. She has set reconstructions of masterworks by José Limón at colleges and in workshops.

She serves on the board of the American Dance Guild, the oldest dance service organization in the U.S., where she helps to develop performance opportunities for choreographers, including the annual ADG Festival and the Bare Bones New Work series. She has adjudicated for ADG Festivals and the Dumbo Dance Festivals.