About Susan
Susan Bauer, (MFA, RSME/T) is a dance / somatics educator who has taught in both college and community settings for the past 25 years, informed by her extensive background in dance, Authentic Movement, and Body-Mind Centering®. She began her study of Body-Mind Centering® with founder Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in 1984 and is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator / Therapist through ISMETA. Other somatic disciplines she has studied include Ideokinesis, Laban / Bartenieff Fundamentals, and the Feldenkrais Method.
Susan has been dedicated to the practice of Authentic Movement since 1984. She studied with several of the graduates of Janet Adler’s school in Massachusetts (the Mary Starks Whitehouse Institute) and later extensively with Janet Adler in California. Susan has facilitated Authentic Movement in the U.S. and Asia, and continues to be inspired by supporting others in this deep and rewarding experience as part of their own personal journey.
Susan is also a Fulbright Scholar to Bali, Indonesia, where she has studied Balinese dance, mask-making, and ritual, since 1997. She co-leads tours to Bali for California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She has performed in numerous intercultural collaborations in both the U.S. and Asia, and has studied and performed with noted Indonesian movement masters Sardono Kusumo and Prapto Suryadarmo.
She developed her own form of dance improvisation, called Moving-from-Within™, based on the philosophy of Authentic Movement, that she founded in 1987. Susan has studied with renowned American improvisers Simone Forti, Anna Halprin, Nina Martin, Richard Bull, and Cynthia Novack.
Susan’s background also includes meditation and dedicated study of spiritual philosophy from her Tibetan and Indian teachers, Garchen Rinpoche and Amma, respectively. Susan has also studied with Ellen Tadd since 1989, whose teachings on meditation and the integration of spiritual principles into everyday life have profoundly influenced her perceptions. She brings all of this background into her heartfelt teaching, embodied witnessing, and dynamic therapy sessions.
Susan’s articles on Authentic Movement and international teaching have appeared in several publications, including Contact Quarterly (Winter 2007) and in the book, Essays on Authentic Movement, Volume 2, edited by Patrizia Pallero (2007). She is also the author of A BodyMind Approach to Movement Education, which presents her unique curriculum in Experiential Anatomy for teens. Her introductory training program, now in its sixth year, is called Embodiment in Education: Professional Development for Dance / Movement Educators.
Susan currently serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco in the Performing Arts Department, where she teaches lecture / studio courses in Dance Appreciation and in Balinese Dance and Culture. She is also Adjunct Faculty at John F. Kennedy University (JFKU) and at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. She recently served as Program Director and Core Faculty at Moving on Center School for Participatory Arts and Somatic Research (2004 – 2009).
Curriculum topics she has taught include Experiential Anatomy, Laban Movement Analysis, dance improvisation, dance and culture, contemporary dance history, and world dance. She has also taught at such places as Saint Mary’s College, San Jose State University, UCLA, Denison University, and the Moon Ban Dek School in Thailand.