Susana Prieto Elden started her ballet training at age 6 at Escuela Pro Arte Musical in Havana, Cuba. Once here in the United States, she continued to train with Sonia Diaz, Martha del Pino, and Eduardo Recalt at Ballet Concerto in Miami. Mrs. Prieto Elden would eventually graduate from Ballet Concerto School and dance soloist and principal roles with the Company in Miami, throughout the southeast United States, and Latin America in such locales as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. Some of her featured roles included Myrtha and Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle, Waltz and Mazurka from Les Sylphides, Prayer and Lead Czardas from Coppelia, Lead Swans and Pas de Trois from Swan Lake, and the Mistress of Ceremonies from Graduation Ball. Principal roles she danced include The Rose Adagio, Act III Pas de Deux and Lilac Fairy from Sleeping Beauty, Act II and Act III Pas de Deuxs from Swan Lake, Marie Taglioni and Lucile Grahan in Pas de Quatre, and Sugarplum Fairy from The Nutcracker. Mrs. Prieto Elden also danced featured roles in original contemporary works such as Chiaroscuro and Goyescas.

Her final two performances were both during full-length premieres by Ballet Etudes Company. First, via a special invitation by the International Artists’ Series to premiere the Company’s full-length Giselle, Mrs. Prieto Elden had the opportunity to play the role of Bathilde to ABT Principal Marianna Tcherkassky’s Giselle and the late Rudolf Nureyev’s Albrecht in one of the legendary dancer’s final performances. Her last performance was as the Queen in the first ever full-length staging of Sleeping Beauty in Miami by a resident company, starring ABT principals Cheryl Yeager and Wes Chapman.

Mrs. Prieto Elden founded Ballet Etudes Company of South Florida alongside with Ballet Etudes School, as a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the art of classical ballet to South Florida communities. The Company also serves to present the most advanced students and local professionals with the opportunity to perform the great classical ballets in a professional setting.The Company’s Nutcracker tradition also began in 1974 and has run consecutively for 35 years alternating between the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County Auditorium, bringing in world-renowned dancers from such companies as American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, as well as other international ballet companies. As Director, Mrs. Prieto Elden was commissioned by the former Florida Philharmonic to choreograph two original works for their KinderConcerts Series: Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals and Aaron Copeland’s Western Episodes (Rodeo). Over the years the Company has added such ballets as Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and Coppelia, among others, to its repertoire and now performs regularly at Miami-Dade County Auditorium, the Miramar Cultural Center, the Colony Theater, and the Hialeah Performing Arts Center. The Company is proud to have worked with the following dancers as principal guest artists throughout the years:
Merrill Ashley, Charles Askegard, Medhi Bahiri, Patrick Bissell, Marin Boeiru, Gil Boggs, Ashley Bouder, Ethan Brown, Wes Chapman, David Cuevas, Maria Teresa del Real, Joaquin de Luz, Lydia Diaz Cruz, Terry Emmanuel, Peter Fonseca, John Gardener, Marcelo Gomes, Guillame Graffin, Cynthia Gregory, Robert Hill, Nikkolaj Hubbe, Yoko Ichino, Petter Jacobbsen, Darci Kistler, Maria Kowroski, Robert La Fosse, Carlos Lopez, Jose Martin, Amanda McKerrow, Magali Messac, Dagmar Moradillos, David Nixon, Johan Renvall, Jenifer Ringer, Jose Rodriguez, Gennadi Saveliev, Pablo Savoy, Janet Shibata, Jennie Somogyi, Sofiane Sylve, Marianna Tcherkassky, Roger Van Fleteran, and Cheryl Yeager.

Mrs. Prieto Elden has been honored to receive keys to the cities of Miami Beach and Hialeah as well as to Miami-Dade County in honor of the Company’s work throughout the years. U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Leithenen also presented Mrs. Prieto Elden with a flag flown in the State Capitol in honor of the Company.

Mrs. Prieto Elden has also been an invited guest teacher to the Florida Dance Festival several times. In October 2009, she traveled to Belem, Brazil where she was a guest instructor at the Festival Internacional de Amazona. In August 2010, she was once again invited to be a guest instructor in Brazil in the beautiful city of Fortaleza.