Suzanne Ryanstrati

M. Suzanne Ryanstrati holds an Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Iowa, where she was on full scholarship and worked as a graduate assistant. She has taught at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri Western State University and is currently working at Southern Illinois University. Suzanne studied ballet under Todd Bolender, Una Kai and George de la Pena, and modern under Bill Evans, Armando Duarte, David Dorfman, Tyrone Aiken, Alan Sener, and Bella Lewitsky. At the age of 19 she had her first professional dance contract under Neil Hess, Director of the Lone Star Ballet,  in Texas. Later she toured with the Bill Evans Dance Company, performing modern, jazz, and rhythmic tap in the United States and Japan. Suzanne studied Evans Somatic Dance, Humphrey/Limón, Horton, Cunningham, Graham and Falco modern dance techniques. Suzanne’s choreography has been performed in ten states (including New York) and England, France, Germany and Ireland. Suzanne is the founder of Dancing Together with Cystic Fibrosis and founded the dance program at the National Parkinson’s Foundation, Heartland where she worked for 7 years.