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 and has been a faculty member at Broadway Dance Center since the institution opened in 1984. She founded Jazz Roots Dance Company in 2009 and has served on the selection committee for the New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Awards.

Raised in Florida, Samuels trained in classical ballet before moving to New York City as a teenager. There she studied jazz with Luigi, Nat Horne, Phil Black, and JoJo Smith, whose rhythmic approach and musicality became central to her artistic development. She has cited her early ballet training, particularly its emphasis on alignment and injury prevention, as a lasting influence on her teaching practice. By the mid-1970s she was active in New York's commercial and theatrical dance scenes. Her Broadway credits include The Fifth Dimension with Jo Jo's Dance Factory at the Uris Theatre in 1974 and Got Tu Go Disco at the Minskoff Theatre in 1979, where she performed in the ensemble and understudied the role of Lila.

Alongside JoJo Smith, Samuels co-founded JoJo's Dance Factory, one of New York's early large, multi-teacher studios offering drop-in classes. The studio operated as a forerunner to Broadway Dance Center, and when BDC opened in 1984, Samuels joined its faculty. She has continued teaching there, offering multiple levels of Broadway jazz. Her classes are structured around a ballet-based jazz barre warm-up and feature live percussion accompaniment. Her pedagogy centers on clean lines, rhythm, and musicality. Former students include Brooke Shields and Irene Cara.

In 2009 Samuels founded Jazz Roots Dance Company, a troupe dedicated to presenting new choreography in a classic jazz idiom while also reviving works by mid-twentieth-century jazz choreographers and by JoJo Smith. Samuels was married to JoJo Smith, who died in 2019; they had two children, tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith and producer and arts manager Elka Samuels Smith.

Samuels received a Dance Teacher Award in 2018, a Flo-Bert Award from Tap Extravaganza in 2015, and a Dancers Over 40 Legacy Award in 2021.