Karilyn Ashley Surratt is a distinguished dancer, singer, actor, and educator with over 20 years of experience in the performing arts and entertainment industry.
The first Native American Radio City Rockette, she performed with the company for 10 seasons and was a Rockette brand ambassador during its partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line. Her performance and choreography credits include Fox’s Gotham (choreographer, co-star), Saturday Night Live (featured dancer/showgirl), Irving Berlin’s White Christmas National Tour, West Side Story International Tour (Consuelo; Anita & Rosalia u/s), and various commercial and print campaigns, including Reader’s Digest (cover model) and BET/OnBlast (voiceover).
As a choreographer and creative collaborator, Ms. Surratt’s recent work includes choreographing and script consulting for Star of Freedom at Ivoryton Playhouse, assistant choreographing on A Part of the Main for the New York Free Arts Festival at Little Island, and contributing as associate choreographer and standby for Smokey Joe’s Café at The Muny. She was also associate choreographer and dramaturge for 42nd Street at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre.
Ms. Surratt is currently faculty at American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School (Children’s Division), Steps on Broadway (Academy), and Pace University (Sands College of Performing Arts). She has taught dance as an adjunct master dance instructor at Molloy University/CAP21 in NYC and a guest ballet instructor and choreographer at Oklahoma City University’s Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment and its Broadway Bound Summer Intensive. She has also been a guest speaker at University of Kansas’ Department of Theatre and Dance and a teaching artist in residence at Goodspeed Musicals’ Arts Education Collaboration, among others. Her commitment to arts education was recognized by Oklahoma City’s Dunbar Elementary School with a special award for her outstanding contribution to their Black History Month program.
Ms. Surratt holds a Master of Arts in Dance Education and ABT® Pedagogy from New York University. She is an ABT® National Training Curriculum Certified Teacher (Pre-Primary through Level 7/Partnering). A citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Ms. Surratt received her Bachelor of Performing Arts in Dance Performance from Oklahoma City University, where she studied with Jo Rowan and Robert L. Reed. She has also studied in NYC with Kat Wildish and Madame Gabriela Darvash, in St. Louis with Pelagie G. Wren, Danny Clark, and at COCA with Lee Nolting, and in Kansas City, on scholarship at Missouri State Ballet (now Kansas City Ballet). She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
DANCE EDUCATOR
teaching philosophy
To whom much is given, much is required, and with freedom - education - comes the enduring responsibility to experience it as both the student and as the teacher (Freire, 1970; hooks, 1994).
Therefore, as an artist and educator who has experienced and who seeks to continue enjoying the freedom found in education’s reciprocity, my vision as a dance educator is to instigate a shift towards artists’ sustainability in the dance subculture, performing arts industry, and society at large by providing students with the correct tools to promote their individual artistic and personal development.
My classes are planned with information and experiential learning opportunities that increase technical proficiency, nurture critical thinking, demonstrate culturally germane applications of the subject matter, and empower students to become autonomous, lifelong participants in their education and professional development.
In essence, I aim to educate individuals who, in pursuit of their artistic and personal development, will welcome and embody the responsibilities that lie therein - respecting the learning process, reciprocating the sharing of knowledge with their own understanding, valuing the uniqueness in their peers, and committing to their own lifelong learning goals.
teaching history
CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
selected credits
PERFORMANCE PORTFOLIO
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