Susie Thiel

Susie Thiel is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Western Michigan University and an MFA in Choreography from the University of Michigan. Susie performed in NYC with several modern dance companies, including the New York Dance Collective, Genesis Dance Company, Sharon Fogarty Dance Theatre and the Impulse Initiative. Her work in concert dance, musical theatre, and theatre has been presented at a variety of venues including, the University of Kentucky in Theatre, Dance and Opera Theatre productions, Green Space Studio (NYC), Dumbo Dance Festival (NTC), three seasons at the Seagle Music Colony (NY), The American College Dance Festival (GA, AR, MS, OH), the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) conference in Miami, The Moving Collective (KY), The Cincinnati Fringe Festival (OH), Anne Bogart’s Barn (NY), the Detroit Dance City Festival (MI), Inner Mongolia Arts College (China), the Hainan Normal University (China), Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the Arts, and in The Days of ’98 Show, With Soapy Smith (AK). Susie often works on dance projects that center around feminism, revealing women’s stories and perspectives. She has created dances in collaboration with other women, depicting their personal narratives, insights, and findings. She has also created and performed autobiographical solo work, using dance as a vehicle to tell stories from her own life and the lives of other women. Most recently, Susie is working with an interdisciplinary team using a scientific approach and the Fayette County Extension Office in a project entitled, Intergenerational Interactions: Mapping Women’s Mental Health through Movement and Creativity. The intervention program promotes mental health through interpersonal and intergenerational relationships using movement and creativity exercises to take a person-centered approach that brings together non-familial generations of women. First-generation female undergraduates and college-educated older women are the center of the interactive program. She is co-creating and leading all the in-person sessions, which foster relationships and overall health and well-being through evidence-based techniques rooted in positive psychology and art related, creative physical movement exercises. Susie serves as a South Regional board member for the American College Dance Association. Susie received the University of Kentucky’s 2016 Provost’s Outstanding Teaching Award and most recently the College of Fine Arts 2020 Faculty Excellence Award.