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 1982 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,” and “Los Caprichos” 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 a curator for the Walker Art Center’s “Choreographers’ Evening.” In 2016 she was invited to choreography “Pica,” a work on Picasso for the New York company, Noche Flamenco. “Pica” was performed on their national tour and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She has introduced new work for the past seven seasons at Cowles Center for the Performing Arts in Minneapolis. Her “Lorca’s Women” won the Sage Award for Most Outstanding Choreography. In 2018 she choreographed and danced in Mill City Opera’s “Carmen.” In 2017-18 di Palma recreated two works that speak to today’s contemporary concerns her children’s puppet show “Tra Ti Ti Tran Tran Toro” about immigration and “Garden of Names” on political “disappeared.”

Her recent work “Casita” on homeless women premiered as part of “What The Moon Sees” at the Lab Theater in April 2019 and toured six Minnesota cities giving then ten performances in 2022. As part of di Palma’s 2017 McKnight Fellowship for Choreography, she was in residency at MANCC, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, in Tallahassee, Florida, to further the development of this new contemporary flamenco duet. MANCC is the only national center for choreography in the world located in a major research institution and operates from one of the premier dance facilities in the United States. The Center is embedded within The Florida State University School of Dance and offers unparalleled opportunities for contemporary choreographers to hone their artistic practice and develop new work inside a creative community.

Her most recent work, “The Birds Gather” premiered at The Cowles Center in November 2022. This prelude to a larger flamenco theatre production, “Conference of the Birds,” inspired by a 12th c. Persian/Sufi poem by poet Attar of Nishapur. The project, to premiere in Zorongo’s 2023/24 season, brings into dialogue 3 cultural voices - Persian, Andalusian (flamenco), and African-American (Hip hop) – in an uplifting and at times humorous exploration of the pursuit of wisdom and renewal of the human spirit.

A devoted teacher, di Palma taught in the University of Minnesota, Department of Dance for over 25 years. She currently teaches in The Cowles Center’s Distance Learning Program and directs classes at the Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theater School. As an individual artist, she has received grants and fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, National Endowment for the Arts, The McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and The Bush Foundation. In 2017 she was awarded a McKnight Fellowship for Choreography and a Minnesota Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant.

Colette Illarde (Dancer) is originally from Chicago where she began dancing ballet with Edward Parish and started flamenco training with the Ensemble Español. Relocating to Minneapolis in 1998, she created FUEGO Flamenco and danced, designed, and produced many successful shows. She has received numerous awards for her work including the McKnight Fellowship for dancers. Colette has performed with numerous groups including the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, Rogue Flamenco, and Interact Center Theater. Colette is a dedicated ally to the disabled community and believes strongly in personal empowerment through the arts. She is currently teaching Flamenco for All Ability, encouraging dancers with and without disabilities to experience the curative power of flamenco.

Ben Abrahamson (Guitarist) is a fresh, dynamic voice on the acoustic guitar. His compositions

evoke the dexterity of flamenco and the harmonic storytelling of jazz.

His passion for flamenco guitar drove him to Taller de Músics School of Music in Barcelona, where he studied under Juan Ramón Caro. He has composed works for the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, Mac Jazz big band, and Muhlenberg College Theatre and Dance Dept. Ben has shared the stage with mentors like Michael and Tony Hauser, Susana di Palma, La Conja, Chuscales, Billy Steele, Tonia Hughes, Pedro Cortes Jr., Joan Griffith, and Gary Lee Joyner. In 2019, he recorded his latest record, "Neolithic."