Suzanne HaaG 

choreographer, dancer, and instructor based in the Pacific Northwest. 

Background

Originally from Connecticut, Suzanne Haag received her early training at the School of the Hartford Ballet with notable instructors including Alla Osipenko, Franco De Vita, Raymond Lukens, and Kirk Peterson. She received her Bachelor of Science in Arts Administration and Dance at Butler University in Indianapolis before performing professionally with Nevada Ballet Theatre, Ballet Idaho, DROP Dance Collective, and the National Choreographers' Initiative. Suzanne retired after her 15th season with the Eugene Ballet (EB) in Eugene, OR. She had been a featured soloist in many works by EB Artistic Director Toni Pimble and guest choreographers including; Mauricio Wainrot, Jessica Lang, Amy Seiwert, Robbert Battle, Stephanie Martinez, and Septime Webre. Upon retiring from the stage in 2018, Suzanne was named the Resident Choreographer of Eugene Ballet.

Choreography

Suzanne began creating ballets as a young student and has continued to create throughout her performance career. As an emerging choreographer, her first major commissioned work for the Eugene Ballet Company, Look, premiered in 2016. Her ballet, The Surrounding Third, premiered in February of 2017 and was selected as a finalist in the McCallum Theatre's Choreography Festival (November 2017). Suzanne was 1 of 4 choreographers selected from across the United States to participate in the National Choreographers Initiative directed by Molly Lynch in July of 2017 where she created Remain, based on the death of a fellow dancer and the loss that followed. Her work An Exercise in Leaving Home, created for Dance in the Parks (Chicago, IL) was featured in shows in Chicago throughout the summer of 2017. Her work with the internationally renowned band, Pink Martini, earned her a second finalist award in the McCallum Theatre’s Choreography Competition in 2018. Suzanne was a UNCSA Choreographic Development Residency Awardee in 2018, joining 3 other choreographers to work on their craft, create new work, and participate in a mentorship session with internationally acclaimed choreographer, Helen Pickett. In 2019 Suzanne was awarded the Oregon Arts Commission’s Joan Shipley Fellowship and a New York Choreographic Institute Commission Initiative grant for her collaboration with percussionist Pius Cheung on their work, Heaven and Earth which premiered in April 2022. She has been an artist in residence at the University of Oregon, Texas Christian University, the University of Utah, National Dance Institute (Santa Fe, NM), and Dance Lab New York’s More to the Pointe Lab. Suzanne’s recent futuristic take on Stravinsky’s Petrushka, in collaboration with videographer Katherine Frizzell/Gravy Media and Orchestra Next, premiered on February 11, 2023.

Current projects include Portrait in Glass (an interpretation of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie) and a collaboration with musician Tracy Bonham in 2024,

#instaballet

In 2013 Suzanne co-founded and became Founding Director of the unique performance group, #instaballet, which utilizes audience participation and creativity to generate new ballets. #instaballet works with a broad range of audiences including students of Bridgeway House, a school for children with autism and other related abilities in Springfield, OR. The mission of #instaballet is to teach the use of creativity to empower the self and build community through the art of dance. For more information on #instaballet’s work with the autistic community, click here.

teaching

Suzanne is a sought-after instructor and coach of advanced ballet technique in both Oregon and around the country. She has taught master classes and summer intensives at the Regional School of Ballet (Corvallis, OR), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Lincoln, NE), University of Oregon in (Eugene, OR), Babcock Fine Arts (Wasilla, AK), Olympia Dance Center (Olympia, WA), Columbia Dance (Vancouver, WA), Northern Plains Ballet (Bismarck, ND), Summer Dance Lab (Walla Walla, WA), the Northwest Dance Festival (Eugene, OR), Texas Christian University’s School for Classical and Contemporary Dance (Fort Worth, TX) and the University of Utah. Her approach focuses on efficient movement through proper placement and energy distribution with an emphasis on finding ease of movement for each individual dancer. She regularly teaches company class for Eugene Ballet. Suzanne Haag is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.