Susana Panadés Diaz

Susana Panadés Diaz is a contemporary dancer based in Geneva. Trained in classical and contemporary dance at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and P.A.R.T.S in Brussels, she has worked as a performer with choreographers such as Caterina Sagna, Claudio Bernardo, Frédéric Flamand, Fabienne Berger, and Rudi van der Merwe. While developing her own choreographic works, she created SPACE (2012), Genetrix (immersive solo, 2022), and the dance film Miguel, produced by Cie Jozsef Trefeli. Miguel has been selected for the Wilddogs International Screendance Festival in Calgary (2023), as well as the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema in Boulder, Colorado (2024), and the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, USA (2024).

Exploring Digital Dance

Since 2005, Susana has been a core performer with Cie Gilles Jobin, taking part in all of its productions and touring internationally. With the company’s transition into digital creation in 2016, her role expanded to refining the use of motion capture from the dancer’s perspective, bridging movement and technology.

She has performed in groundbreaking digital productions, including WOMB (stereoscopic 3D film, 2016), VR_I (VR, Sundance Film Festival 2018), Dance Trail (AR, Sundance Film Festival 2020), La Comédie Virtuelle (VR multiuser, Venice Biennale 2020-21), and Cosmogony (live mocap, Sundance Film Festival 2022).

Beyond her role as a performer, Susana facilitates communication between dancers and technologists in digital projects. She has led professional motion capture workshops for dancers in Bangalore, India, at the CND in Lyon, and for professional artists exploring movement in digital spaces.

As dance continues to evolve within virtual and augmented environments, she emphasizes the importance of movement quality in these new digital spaces.