Suchi Branfman
Lecturer | Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES
Lecturer of Dance
Biography
SUCHI BRANFMAN, choreographer/curator/performer/educator/activist, has worked from the war zones of Managua to Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre and Kampala’s Luzira Prison to NYC’s Joyce Theatre. From street to stage, her work strives to create an embodied terrain grounded in storytelling, dialogue, listening and social action. 2023 marks year seven of Branfman’s ten-year choreographic residency inside a medium security state men’s-prison in Norco, California. She serves as Artistic Facilitator/Director of the multi-faceted Dancing Through Prison Walls project; choreographing and curating performance, film, and written works in deep collaboration with currently incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and “free world” movers. Her writing is published in The Nation, The Dancer-Citizen, Dance Education in Practice and Sming Sming Press. Her film work has been presented at film festivals nationally and internationally, including Dance Camera West, The Social Justice Film Festival, Real Art Ways, and Latchis Film Fest. Branfman is currently an 18th Street/California Creative Corps Fellow, a Montalvo Lucas Artist Fellow, and a Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Project Grant recipient. Her supporters have included The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The City of Los Angeles, and National Endowment for the Arts, amongst others. Suchi serves on faculty at Scripps College, is a Santa Monica community gardener and a prison abolition activist.
