Today we’d like to introduce you to Su-Hwei Tan DeWitt.
Hi Su-Hwei, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember. Art was one of the first ways I learned to understand and communicate with the world around me. Growing up, I explored everything from drawing, painting, and mixed media to theater and dance. I’ve never seen these disciplines as entirely separate; to me, they’re different ways of exploring and expressing what it means to be human.
I was fortunate to grow up in a beautifully intersectional, mixed-race family that encouraged curiosity, free expression, and the pursuit of knowledge, art, and personal freedom. My parents built a life together that challenged many of the expectations people had about who they should be, whom they should love, and what their family should look like. Being raised around that kind of love and openness taught me there isn’t just one way to build a meaningful life. I’m grateful I was encouraged to explore different parts of myself rather than feel confined to a singular identity.
Growing up in different places, both within and outside the US, further shaped how I understand identity, belonging, and community. I was drawn to learning about people, cultures, and the systems that shape our lives, while art remained the thread that helped me make sense of my own experiences.
When I moved to Austin, I didn’t know these different parts of my life would eventually come together as they have. For years, I worked as a career bartender in downtown Austin, where hospitality gave me a front-row seat to the energy of the city. I loved being part of an environment where a night out could turn into a friendship, a creative connection, or an unexpected opportunity. I also gained valuable experience in event operations and hospitality management, learning how to create memorable guest experiences from behind the scenes.
Alongside that work, I continued growing as an artist and performer. I was drawn to pole, burlesque, and sensual movement as ways to explore strength, expression, and personal agency. Over time, that exploration expanded into performance, teaching, choreography and movement consultation, and creative programming. Austin’s creative community also helped me find the confidence to share visual art I had kept private for years. The encouragement I received showed me how powerful it can be when someone makes room for you to share your work—and inspired me to help create those opportunities for others.
Today, my work spans visual art, performance, movement education, and event production. Looking back, my path has never been about choosing one thing and leaving everything else behind. It has been about discovering how these experiences inform one another. My family gave me the freedom to explore who I could become, and Austin has given me the community to keep growing into that person. I hope to pay that generosity forward by helping others explore their creativity, connect with one another, and build lives that feel true to who they are.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Hahaha, not at all. A big part of my journey has been learning to trust my own perspective, honor my needs, and build a life that feels authentic to me, even when it doesn’t fit neatly into one category or follow a conventional path. None of that has come easily.
Coming out as bisexual and finding spaces where I could show up more authentically helped me understand how transformative it can be to feel accepted without having to explain or qualify yourself. It deepened my appreciation for communities where people can explore who they are without being expected to fit someone else’s idea of who they should be.
My relationship with movement and performance has been deeply personal, too. Sensual dance is sometimes viewed primarily through the lens of sexuality or spectacle, but for me, it became a way to reconnect with my agency and sense of self as a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence. Learning to move on my own terms helped me embody the difference between performing for someone else’s expectations and expression which genuinely belongs to me. That distinction continues to inform both my art and the spaces I hope to cultivate.
There have also been practical challenges in building a sustainable creative career. Working across several disciplines means balancing the artistic side of a project with the business, administrative, and logistical work required to bring it to life. Independent artists are often expected to be the creator, marketer, producer, bookkeeper, and advocate for their own work all at once. Learning to protect my creative energy while valuing my time and making my work financially sustainable has been an ongoing process.
I’ve also learned that caring deeply about a community doesn’t mean I can personally solve every challenge within it. I love supporting other artists, but I’ve had to recognize that supporting others and sustaining myself are not opposing goals. If I want to contribute meaningfully over the long term, I have to make room for my own well-being, too.
These experiences have made me more intentional about how I work and collaborate. They’ve shaped my commitment to consent, clear communication, accessibility, fair compensation, and environments where people feel respected. I don’t believe that going through difficult things automatically makes someone an expert in another person’s experience, but it can teach you to approach others with greater curiosity, humility, and care.
I’m still learning, and I think that’s part of the process. Growth hasn’t meant reaching a point where everything becomes easy; it has meant becoming more comfortable with who I am and more thoughtful about the life I’m building. I want those lessons to show up not only in my art, but in how I treat the people I work alongside.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a multidisciplinary artist, performer, educator, and producer, I’m fascinated by what becomes possible when different artistic disciplines inform one another. My work spans visual art, dance, pole, burlesque, sensual movement, theatrical performance, teaching, and collaborative programming. Across these disciplines, I’m drawn to work that is expressive, playful, thought-provoking, and human.
What distinguishes my approach is the combination of creative range and practical experience I bring to each project. My background in hospitality, event operations, and production has taught me how to translate an artistic vision into a tangible experience, balancing the big picture with the many details required to make it happen.
I enjoy moving between imagining a concept, exploring its artistic possibilities, developing programming, and coordinating the people and logistics needed to realize it. I can approach a project from both the creative and operational sides, while remaining mindful of the people whose work brings it to life.
I’m especially excited by the possibilities of multidisciplinary production. When performers, visual artists, fashion designers, photographers, musicians, and installation artists come together around a shared concept, they can create something none of them might have developed independently. I love facilitating those intersections and helping artists discover new ways to collaborate, share their work, and reach audiences.
I’m proud to be building a professional life where my different skills and interests can work together rather than compete for space. For me, the goal is to create work that is creatively ambitious while remaining thoughtful about the people, labor, and resources behind it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stdewitt.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/st_dewitt/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/the_playful_polymath/?hl=en
- Other: https://linktr.ee/stdewitt
