Susanne McHugh’s early training was dedicated to classical ballet before shifting her focus to contemporary dance while training with the modern-jazz influenced Koresh Dance Company in Philadelphia, PA. She spent freshman and sophomore year of college at SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance and then continued her college studies at University of the Arts where she obtained a BFA in Dance with honors. It was there that she won the Nadia Chilkousky Nahumck Award for Creativity and Dance-Making for her senior thesis. In 2018, Susanne founded NYC-based contemporary dance company Susie McHugh + Dancers where she works as artistic director and resident choreographer. She was selected for the inaugural Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellows Program at Jacob’s Pillow in August 2018 and was fortunate to have received mentoring and fiscal support from Mare Nostrum Elements as part of their Emerging Choreography Series’s collaboration with the IDACO Festival in Spring of 2019. New Dance Alliance hosted Susanne McHugh and her company as a resident artist this past summer as part of their LiftOff Creative and Project Development program. Susanne’s work has been showcased at the Hudson Guild Theater, Green Space, Bridge for Dance, Triskelion Arts, Spoke the Hub, Dixon Place, Laguardia Performing Arts Center, the Connelly Theatre, and both the Drake Theatre and Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia.