Author Archives: Kate Lydon

About Kate Lydon

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first started dancing in my best friend’s kitchen when I was 3. She and I would put on 10 pairs of socks each so we could trade off trying on her mom’s pointe shoes (her mom, Susan Tripaldi, was my first teacher). I continued learning tap, ballet and jazz when my parents enrolled me at the California Academy of Performing Arts in Moraga, CA, when I was 9. By then I was totally hooked on dancing and performing. It was a whirlwind into San Francisco Ballet School before I moved to NYC. (I was one of eight girls chosen by Baryshnikov to study fulltime at American Ballet Theatre’s School of Classical Ballet!) At 16, I auditioned for San Francisco Ballet and got a contract. After five fab years there dancing with amazing people, I joined American Ballet Theatre where I danced with more amazing people! Now, I love working at Dance Spirit! Alison, Colleen, Margaret, Michael and Jo are zany, smart and savvy, and we have so much fun putting together the magazine for you (the best readers ever!) each month.