Studio Stories: Reminiscing Twin Cities Dance with Susana Di Palma Season 3 Episode 41

Having studied Spanish dance and flamenco since childhood, Susana di Palma continued her apprenticeship with maestros such as Ciro, Manolo Marin, Manolete, Carmen Mora and Merche Esmeralda.   She performed throughout Spain in tablaos and with companies such as La Singla.  In 1985 she founded Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theater in Minneapolis.  Its mission has been to create innovative theater works that expand on traditional flamenco to reflect on controversial contemporary issues. Di Palma’s full length theater-flamenco ballets include:  Flor, Garden of Names, Gernika , Sadja , First, I Dream,  La Virtud Negra, Encuentros, Tales of the Black Legend, Zorro in the Land of the Yellow-Breasted Woodpecker, Convivir, Los Caprichos, Garden of Names among others. Her works have been presented at New York’s Joyce Theater, Miami’s Florida Dance Festival, St. Paul’s O’Shaughnessy Theater’s “Women of Substance Series,” and the Walker Art Center among other venues.   She choreographed Lorca’s “Blood Wedding” for the Guthrie Theater and Bethany Lutheran College.  In 2012, she was curator for the Walker Art Center’s “Choreographers’ Evening”.  In 2016, she choreographed the full-length work Lorca’s Women which was presented at The Cowles Theater.  That work won the Sage Award for Most Outstanding Choreography and was chosen as one of top 10 performances of the year by the StarTribune.In 2017, she was invited to choreograph PiCa, awork on Picasso for the New York company, Flamenco Vivo.  That work was presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is part of the company’s touring repertoire. In 2017, di Palma received a McKnight Fellowship for Choreography which included a Artist Residency at MANCC – Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. During that residency, she created Casita, a work on homeless women which was presented at The Lab Theater in 2019 and is scheduled to tour various Minnesota community theaters as part of the Minnesota State Arts Board Touring Grant.  Her puppet theater work for children Tra Ti Ti Tran Tran Toro on immigration has toured over 50 communities and is also scheduled to be part of the 2021 MSAB Touring Program.  Di Palma’s 2020 pandemic response video work Decameron 20:20 included a cast of international flamenco artists and received recognition as one of the noteworthy works of 2020 by the StarTribune. A devoted teacher, di Palma has been part of the Cowles Center’s Distant Learning Program since its’ beginning and continues as one of their Teaching Artists.   She taught at the University of Minnesota Dance Department for over 25 years.  She continues teaching at the Zorongo School where she directs and guides the Majas, apprentice program.Her work has been honored with grants from the McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board and a MRAC Next Step Grant among others.