Susan Van Pelt Petry had a forty-year career as a choreographer and dancer, teacher, and administrator. She was on the faculty at Ohio State’s Department of Dance from 1985-1989 and again 2006 to her retirement in 2022. Professor Petry was Chair of the Department for ten of those years. She also served as Faculty Fellow for Ohio State’s Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme, was Assistant Dean in the Legacy College of the Arts. For four years she served as Associate Professor at Ohio University. 

For ten years she was the Artistic Director of The Van Pelt Dance Ensemble in Columbus, Ohio and was a guest artist at universities and festivals. She toured her solo program "Just Susan" and did her last solo concert event in 2017. Highlights include a residency at Headlands Center for the Arts in California, teaching at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, at the Taiwan National University of the Arts and serving as rehearsal director for the Cloud Gate Dance Company of Taiwan. 

She received eight Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, The Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Raymond J. Hanley Fellowship, and OhioDance’s award for Contributions to Dance Education. She served on the Board of National Association of Schools of Dance for six years and was President of OhioDance for two terms. 

She received her undergraduate education at Oberlin College and completed her graduate studies at The Ohio State University. 

Susan retired in 2022 and is now writing creative non-fiction, poetry, and fiction. She lives in Ohio and Maine.