Suki John’s The Sh’ma Project

Texas Christian University dance professor, choreographer, and longtime Dance Magazine contributor Suki John transformed a work she first created in 1990 into the narrative dance film Sh’ma: A Story of Survival, for which she was recently awarded the 2025 Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography in a Feature Film. On the significance of Sh’ma, John says:

“My film, Sh’ma: A Story of Survival, is my magnum opus—the ballet I was born to make. A choreodrama about my mother’s experience during the Holocaust, Sh’ma (‘Listen’ in Hebrew) celebrates my family’s resilience and honors victims of hatred and violence.

“Originally commissioned by the People’s Theater of (the former) Yugoslavia, I restaged it in New York after the Bosnian War. It was an artistic triumph and economic disaster. During COVID, I reimagined it as a film, abstracting time and place to help young viewers connect. While directing, I drew on all my skills: choreography, editing, fundraising, production, persuasion, psychology, storytelling, and collaboration. I’m now presenting Sh’ma in Europe and seeking distribution. A shorter version completes our educational Holocaust and human rights initiative, ‘The Sh’ma Project: Move Against Hate.’

“Through dance, Sh’ma tells a story of survival, revealing moments of beauty in the face of horror.”