In an art form that trades in silence, choreographer and TCU professor of Dance Dr. Suki John is telling the loudest story of her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This summer, John received the 2025 Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography in a Feature Film for “Sh\u2019ma: A Story of Survival,” a haunting and luminous narrative dance film based on her mother\u2019s experience during the Holocaust. In a category usually dominated by big-budget musicals and Disney spectacles, John\u2019s deeply personal project stood out. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI beat ‘Wicked,’ Amelia Perez, and a Disney movie,\u201d she said during a phone interview. \u201cThere\u2019s no Oscar for choreography. So to win best choreography in a feature film over major Oscar contenders? I\u2019m blown away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She should be. Sh\u2019ma, which means \u201clisten\u201d in Hebrew, is a work of stunning clarity and emotional power \u2014 a wordless chronicle of loss, resistance, and resilience rendered entirely through movement. It began as a ballet in 1990, initially commissioned by the People\u2019s Theater of the former Yugoslavia. She restaged it in New York after the Bosnian War to critical acclaim. Later on, during the peak of the pandemic, John saw a new path forward. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI reimagined it as a film, abstracting time and place to help young viewers connect,\u201d she says. \u201cDirecting it pushed me to use everything I had \u2014 from choreography and storytelling to production, psychology, and the art of collaboration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The result is a visceral, choreographic language that speaks directly to audiences \u2014 even (and especially) in the absence of dialogue. \u201c’Sh\u2019ma’ is my magnum opus,\u201d John says. \u201cIt\u2019s the ballet I was born to make.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
John\u2019s mother, born in Budapest, survived the Holocaust as a child. So when “Sh\u2019ma” had its first European screening in Budapest during her recent summer\u00a0tour, the moment was layered with personal meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was moving beyond words,\u201d John says. \u201cIt was incredibly special.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The screening also brought an unexpected surprise: \u201cI met three cousins I didn\u2019t know I had,\u201d she says. \u201cTheir grandfather was actually the inspiration for one of the characters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
John traveled through four countries\u00a0showing “Sh\u2019ma” in five cities total. Each stop had its own tenor. In Paris, conversation was intellectual. In Krak\u00f3w \u2014 the final stop on her tour \u2014 she screened the film as part of the Jewish Culture Festival, where the response was\u00a0warm and curious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the film\u2019s critical success, John noticed a troubling pattern.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only disappointment across the entire tour was the lack of young people in the audience,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In France, she presented “Sh\u2019ma” at a prestigious dance school shortly after winning the Chita. She assumed students would jump at the chance to see the work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the young dancers didn\u2019t come,\u201d she says. \u201cThey were afraid the subject would upset them. Their teachers were livid \u2014 they had carved out time for this, and the students stayed away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For John, that moment crystallized why “The Sh\u2019ma Project: Move Against Hate” \u2014 an educational initiative using the film in Texas classrooms \u2014 is so vital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of Holocaust ignorance in younger generations,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not intentional. They just haven\u2019t met survivors, because there are so few left. That\u2019s why education is crucial. Because genocide, oppression, and ethnic violence are still happening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the support of the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission, John and her team have crafted a condensed version of the film to bring Holocaust education into classrooms. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe language is dance,\u201d she says. \u201cNo archival footage. Just movement. It reveals moments of beauty in the face of horror.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that purity can be misunderstood. In a time of growing global conflict, the project has touched unexpected nerves. The film is dedicated to \u201cthe children of Israel and Gaza,\u201d and John says she’s worried people might interpret that as a political statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about sides \u2014 it\u2019s about civilians,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s no excuse for killing or starving children, ever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She adds, \u201cWe need to see the signs \u2014 when people who are different from us start being seen as less than human. That\u2019s where it begins.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back in Fort Worth, John is preparing to return to teaching this fall and already laying the groundwork for her next dance film. Inspired by a Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez novel and composed by a longtime collaborator in New York, the piece would be shot in Fort Worth \u2014 her artistic home for more than two decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m planting the seeds,\u201d she says. \u201cBut distribution for ‘Sh\u2019ma’ is still a full-time job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She may even return to Serbia this fall, where “Sh\u2019ma” was first staged in 1990, to screen the film at an academic conference. Until then, she\u2019s chasing the same goal she\u2019s had since she began reimagining the project during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want young people to see it,\u201d she says simply. \u201cI want them to listen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an art form that trades in silence, choreographer and TCU professor of Dance Dr. Suki John is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":101572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,12043,10929,1020,7371,7372,30315,10763,5921,10077,358,7453,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-101571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arts-and-culture","10":"tag-dance","11":"tag-film","12":"tag-fort-worth","13":"tag-fortworth","14":"tag-historical","15":"tag-stephen-montoya","16":"tag-style","17":"tag-tcu","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-top-story","20":"tag-tx","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}