Dr. Susan Bendix is a professional modern dancer, choreographer, improvisational movement artist, and dance scholar who has performed nationally and internationally. She is also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner™ and founder-director of Think-Motion, a therapeutic arts organization.

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A master teaching artist, she works with local arts agencies, healing centers, hospice organizations, schools, and businesses. She has designed original curriculum for seniors to create “choreographic narratives” and has worked with Marin Shakespeare and the Los Angeles–based TheatreWorkers Project in prisons in California and Arizona. Her focus also includes Arts in Healthcare, Dance for Parkinson’s, and Dance for Seniors.

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Her work explores the human, cultural, social, and political experiences that live in the body and are expressed through motion. She has published articles and presented numerous papers nationally and internationally on social and pedagogical topics related to dance, aesthetics, and community.

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Dr. Bendix was the recipient of an Arizona Commission on the Arts Project Grant to design a movement-based program for people experiencing grief and loss, and was honored with the Outstanding Narrative Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association for her groundbreaking work in dance education.

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She holds an MFA and BA in dance and choreography and conducts professional development training in creativity for staff and faculty at the Maricopa Community College District, where she also teaches dance humanities and improvisation. A trained mindfulness instructor, she has developed a movement-based curriculum for teaching mindfulness.