Dance

Susana has been dancing since she was 14.  She studied jazz, tap, ballet, contemporary, and some Hawaiian with Rikki Lugo, Debbie Roberts, Lee Martino and Tobi VanBuskirk in Monrovia, California.  She studied hip hop with Regina Williams and her staff in Los Angeles, and ballet folklórico (traditional Mexican dance) at the Universidad Autónoma de México in Mexico City.

Her musical theater roles include Flora Dora Dean in 45 Minutes from Broadway and Coco in Fame.  She was a chorus and featured dancer in Me & Juliet and Quest for the Land’s Heart.

Susana has performed other dance roles in A Salute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jazz Etc. Dance Company’s Dancing Through the Decades, and UCLA’s Mock Rock, where she was a finalist, co-choreographer, and principal dancer in a lip sync production of Paula Abdul’s “Cold Hearted”.

Her choreography has appeared in A Salute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Quest for the Land’s Heart, and multiple routines she created for the cheer squads and dance teams she led throughout high school. She also taught hip-hop at the University of New Mexico, where she presented 15 pieces of original choreography during weekly classes.

Upon graduating from high school, Susana was invited to join the Jazz Etc. Dance Company, but turned down the offer to pursue a bachelor’s degree at UCLA instead, where she continued to dance and do musical theater.

Susana has also been dancing Latin social dances (salsa, cumbia, merengue, bachata, reggaetón) since early adulthood.  She was a backup singer and dancer with the grupo versátil (cover band) Baccará in Guadalajara, México in the mid 1990s, doing multiple local performances and appearing on the local television show Club Cuatro.

Susana was a professional fitness instructor off and on for 21 years. She improvised, choreographed, and taught high impact, low impact, step, and cardiokickboxing classes in Los Angeles and Albuquerque.

Susana continues to take hip hop, UJAM and GROOV3 classes in Los Angeles.