Our Teachers

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. In 1982, she founded Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre in Minneapolis, with the mission to create innovative theater works that expand on traditional flamenco to reflect contemporary and universal concerns. Susana has created over thirty full length theater pieces. 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 2016 she was invited to choreograph Pica, a work on Picasso for the New York company Flamenco Vivo. Pica was performed on their national tour and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. 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 torture. Her work Casita on homeless women premiered as part of What The Moon Sees at the Lab Theater, April 2019 and toured Minnesota communities in 2022. During the pandemic, she united (via Zoom) a collaboration of international flamenco performers for the film Decameron 20:20.

A devoted teacher, di Palma directs classes at the Zorongo school and is a Cowles Center Teaching Artist. 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 is originally from Chicago where she began dancing ballet with Edward Parish. She started her flamenco journey with the Ensemble Español in 1990. Relocating to Minneapolis in 1998, she created FUEGO Flamenco Dance Company with guitarist Scott Mateo Davies, where she danced, designed, and produced numerous successful shows and impactful art residencies across the United States. She has received prestigious awards for her work including the McKnight Fellowship for dancers. She spent many years of training in Madrid under the important figures of flamenco: Ciro, Manolete, Güito, Manuel Reyes, Rafaela Carrasco and Belen Maya among others.

Colette has performed with many groups including Zorongo Flamenco, 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 Abilities class, encouraging dancers with and without disabilities to experience the curative power of flamenco.

Deborah Elias is a flamenco dancer and creator. She has choreographed and presented original theater- and traditional-flamenco works with her company, Deborah Elias Danza Española, and she founded the Coro Flamenco Street Choir, which enlivens urban community spaces through flamenco song. Deborah has been a longtime collaborator with Susana di Palma, and has danced as a soloist and ensemble member in many Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre productions. She has received numerous awards and grants for her work, including MRAC Next Step, MN State Arts Board Artist Initiative, and Jerome Foundation Travel Study. By day, Deborah is a Dance and Theatre Specialist at Global Arts Plus, a St. Paul public school.

Molly Kay Stoltz is a dance performer, choreographer, teacher, and arts administrator based in South-Central Minnesota. She specializes in rhythmic and percussive dance and performs with Joe Chvala’s Flying Foot Forum and Zorongo Flamenco in the Twin Cities. She currently teaches tap at Ballare Teatro Performing Arts Center, flamenco at Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, and dance classes through community education in St. Peter and Mankato, MN. She won an honorable mention for her solo at the national Flamenco Certamen USA 2021 in NYC, NY and has been a resident artist with the Hinge Artist Residency program through Springboard for the Arts. ( She can be found practicing at her studio/art gallery B3 Studio and Gallery in St. Peter, MN with her son and studio mate, Emily Kretschmer, or enjoying time with her musical partner-in-crime, Chase D. Burkhart.)

Ross Fellrath is a Flamenco guitarist from Minneapolis, MN specializing in traditional Flamenco. Ross has studied in Jerez de la Frontera, Sevilla and Madrid with Pepe del Morao, Juan del Gastor, Javier Heredia, Diego del Morao, El Perla, El Entri and more. He performs regularly with Twin Cities Flamenco Collective, Zorongo Flamenco and many more friends and artists. His goal is to share the art, connection and love of music.

Rachel Holmes Fargione recently relocated to Minneapolis from the East Coast, where she regularly performed with Flamenco artists in the Tri-State area (NY-NJ-CT) including her original mentor Melinda Marquez, and as a member of the Xianix Barrera Flamenco Dance Company. She was honored to be selected to participate in the Jacob’s Pillow Flamenco and Spanish Dance Program, studying with Carmela Greco and Carmen Ledesma, and in 2021 was chosen to be part of the first cohort of Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana’s Artist Development Program. Many years of studying tap, ballet and music have informed Rachel’s belief that her role as a Flamenco dancer is to be a visual musician.