Sue Samuels

Sue Samuels is an American jazz dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher based in New York City. A protégé of jazz master JoJo Smith, she co-founded JoJo’s Dance Factory in the 1970s—an independent studio that became a precursor to Broadway Dance Center (BDC)—and has taught on BDC’s faculty since the center opened in 1984. In 2009 Samuels founded the Jazz Roots Dance Company to preserve and present classic jazz repertory alongside her own choreography. She received a Dance Teacher Award in 2018 and a Dancers Over 40 Legacy Award in 2021, and has served on the selection committee for the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards.

Career Training and early career Raised in Florida, Samuels trained in classical ballet before relocating to New York City as a teenager. In New York she studied jazz with Luigi, Nat Horne, Phil Black, and especially JoJo Smith, whose musicality and rhythmic approach became central to her style.

By the mid-1970s Samuels was working in New York’s commercial and theatrical dance scenes. On Broadway she appeared in the revue The Fifth Dimension with Jo Jo’s Dance Factory at the Uris Theatre (1974), and in the musical Got Tu Go Disco at the Minskoff Theatre (1979), where she danced in the ensemble and understudied the role of Lila.

JoJo’s Dance Factory and Broadway Dance Center In the 1970s Samuels joined JoJo Smith in opening JoJo’s Dance Factory, one of New York’s early large, multi-teacher studios for drop-in classes. The studio functioned as a forerunner of Broadway Dance Center, and when BDC opened in 1984 Samuels became part of its regular faculty. Flo-Bert Award (Tap Extravaganza®, 2015). Service on the Bessie Awards selection/steering committees (mid-2010s).

Selected stage credits The Fifth Dimension with Jo Jo’s Dance Factory (Uris Theatre, Broadway, 1974). Got Tu Go Disco (Minskoff Theatre, Broadway, 1979) – ensemble; understudy (Lila).

Legacy Trade publications have described Samuels as a “legendary” New York jazz teacher whose stylistic blend of ballet technique and jazz musicality has had long-term influence; she is frequently cited for her role in linking the 1970s jazz-dance generation with contemporary practice through both studio teaching and the repertory efforts of Jazz Roots Dance.