Susan Douglas Roberts CD/FW Artistic Advisor & Founding Director

Susan Douglas Roberts
Susan Douglas Roberts is Artistic Advisor & Founding Director of Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth and an Associate Professor of Modern Dance at Texas Christian University. In 1998, Susan was awarded the College of Fine Arts & Communication Award for Distinguished Teaching at TCU. She co-designed the TCU in Taiwan MFA program for the dance department.

In 2000, Susan was in residence at the Universidad de las Américas-Puebla, choreographing (her ninth residency there over the past 6 years), and the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares in Madrid, Spain, teaching. In September 1999, she was in Asunción, Paraguay for a month-long residency in which she presented her own work in a concert at the Cultural Center, performed in the Danza de Hoy Showcase, conducted a workshop for choreographers, and choreographed and taught for the National School of Fine Arts. Her residency was sponsored by USIS and the Cultural Center for Paraguay and the Americas. Prior to that, in 1998, she taught in Paraguay for the the National Ballet and in Taiwan for the Chinese Culture Univ. and Tsoying Performing Arts High School, where she set a work.

In 1997, she was in Taiwan teaching for 2 months, in Brasil at the Bento Gonçalves Dance Festival, and in Hong Kong at the Pacific Rim Festival.

In the past six years, Susan's choreography has been seen in the US, Mexico, Brasil, France, Italy and Germany. Her work was presented at the Avignon-Off Festival in France. Susan has twice served on the Mid-America Arts Alliance Dance on Tour Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts.

As a dancer, Susan has performed in works by a variety of choreographers, including Andrea Beckham, Michael Kelly Bruce, Mary Cochran, Sabrina Castillo (Guatemala), David Dorfman, Jan Erkert, Caryn Heilman, Cecilia Lugo (Mexico), John Mead, Dana Eugene Nicolay, Yacov Sharir, Mercy Sidbury, Gus Solomons jr, and Holly Williams. She has studied modern dance in Humphrey-Limón, Graham, and contemporary styles (including contact improvisation) and ballet for the past 25 years.

One of the architects of the TCU New Century Danscene, a long-term project to build audiences for modern dance, Susan served as director for the duration of the project (1989-1997). As NCD Director she presented performances in 175 area schools, produced the work of 10 independent choreographers and presented 25 professional dance companies from throughout the US, Mexico, Canada, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Susan earned a MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a BFA in Modern Dance and BA in Spanish from Texas Christian University.