I’d love to be in dialogue with you about dance, movement, mindfulness, music, art, and belonging! Get in touch:

  • IG: @suzannebeahrs

  • Email: sbeahrs@gmail.com, sbeahrsconsulting@gmail.com

  • Ongoing Modern Dance classes: Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley, CA Register

I’m Suzanne Beahrs– feel free to call me Suzanne, or Zan for short, as you prefer. I use she/her pronouns, and they/them pronouns are also fine with me.

As a student and a teacher, dance is my most enduring practice— I see dance as a way to be in community that is focused on movement, mindfulness, and play. I have practiced modern dance as my primary practice for 30 years and taught for 12 years.

I think a lot about how our mindsets, relationships, and culture influence the well-being of ourselves and our communities. I find that building awareness of these powerful yet often invisibilized features of our daily lives can empower us to be present through life, and to access more choices that we may have previously not considered in order to create beautiful paths forward. I enjoy applying this lens to my personal life as well as to my work as an instructor of modern dance, a facilitator in the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) space, and most recently when I am making visual art and writing about my embodied experience.

In the DEI space, my work has included qualitative data analysis, supporting professionals and teams in understanding how aspects of their organization’s culture connect with the concepts of equity work in general, and managing project plans to be responsive to and inclusive of a multitude of stakeholders.

Other interests include house dance and music, contact improvisation, yoga, and mindfulness meditation. I love nature and the outdoors at many scales, and being present with the beautiful, polyrhythmic movement of our planet, life, and in my own body is a deep joy in my life.

Previous dance work:

  • ODC (teen teacher, 2018-2023)

  • Elon University (adjunct professor, 2015-2017)

  • Suzanne Beahrs Dance (company director, 2012-2015)

  • Freelance teaching: Ninth Street Dance, ADF Scripps Studios [NC], Gibney Dance, Mark Morris Dance Center [NYC], Gateway High School, San Francisco Dance Center, City College of San Francisco, Las Positas Community College, Marin Academy, Branson School, Walltown Childrens’ Theatre, Arts Together, Carolina Dance Center, North Carolina State University, Phoenix Center for the Arts.

Consulting:

  • Facilitation of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Trainings

  • Project Implementation

  • Team Management

  • Organizational Culture Report Development

  • Qualitative Data Analysis

Previous Clients: Justice Outside, TOGETHER Bay Area, Bay Area Ridge Trail Council.

Education:

  • MFA Dance, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, 2012

  • BA Geology, UC Berkeley,2004

Based in Berkeley, CA (Ohlone land)

dancing photo by Stephanie Leathers