Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Suzanne Costello - Season 11, Episode 134

SUZANNE COSTELLO joined Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater in
New York City in 1979 and became its Artistic Co-Director in
1984. During her career with the company, she has been
highlighted as a performer, choreographer, teacher, and rehearsal
director. As Director of Arts & Education and Arts &
Healthcare Programs for the company, she creates and facilitates
the many community-inclusive projects SPDT has come to be known
for nationally and internationally. 

Over the past decade she has received support from the National
Endowment for the Arts for programs across the country that give
voice to those whose stories have not been heard. Currently, she
is developing a national performance project for persons with
spinal cord injury, From Where I Sit, which will be premiered in
Birmingham, AL in 2025. Recently, she directed the NEA project I
Believe / The South Dakota Prison Project. This five-week
program engaged men at the Sioux Falls Penitentiary in creating
performance through writing and movement to express their
non-carceral stories. Past NEA community performance projects
include Our Country’s Keepers at the Walter Reed Military Center,
Bethesda, MD, engaging active military and veterans; Raising Our
Voices for the Birmingham cancer community; and LISTEN / Stories
of Cancer told through Movement, Music & Voice, commissioned
by Gilda’s Club of the Twin Cities, with participants impacted by
cancer. https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/389513015

Ms. Costello has been invited to present on this body of work at
the International Conference on Culture, Health, and Wellbeing
Conference in Bristol, UK, and at the International Conference on
Parole & Probation in Ottawa, Canada. National presentations
have included the National Organization for Arts in Health,
Austin, TX; Expressive Therapies Summit, NYC, NY; and Performing
Arts Alliance, Atlanta, GA; among others. 

Ms. Costello’s choreographic work has been honored with three
Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and has
been commissioned by national dance companies and individual
artists. She directed and choreographed CATS for Broadway at
Iroquois, Louisville; Go, Dog, Go! for Metro Theater Company, St.
Louis, and Stage One, Louisville; and choreographed Grimm Tales
for Children’s Theatre Company, Minneapolis. She has been a Guest
Artist at colleges and universities across the U.S. and abroad
and has twice been a Cowles Guest Artist as well as Affiliate
Faculty for six years at the University of Minnesota.
 
In New York City, Costello performed with several companies,
including David Gordon Pick Up Co. and Billy Siegenfeld &
Dancers. She has also worked with colleague Joe Goode in San
Francisco who created a solo for her, Movie Star Life. Ms.
Costello began her study of dance under Annelise Mertz at
Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated Magna Cum
Laude with a B.A. in Dance.