Katita Waldo

Katita Waldo (born Kathryn Cristine Waldo Grey; April 9, 1968) is a Spanish ballet dancer and ballet master. She joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1988, was promoted to principal dancer in 1994, and retired from performing in 2010, but remains in the company as a ballet master.

Early life and training Kathryn Cristine Waldo Grey was born on April 9, 1968, in Madrid.

In 1979, when Waldo was eleven, she and her family moved to Ithaca, New York, and she continued her training at Ithaca Ballet. She also attended public school between the ages of eleven and twelve, and later recalled she was "demoralized" there. Due to her experience in public school and the desire to have better dance training, she auditioned for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, which accepted her when she was thirteen and provided a scholarship. However, in her first year at the school, she started developing a tendinitis in her hips, which worsened during the second year and forced her to drop out. She received therapy in New York, covered by an award she received, and returned to school eight months later.

In 2002, Waldo and fellow San Francisco Ballet dancers Long, LeBlanc, Roman Rykine and Gennadi Nedvigin won the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Ensemble Performance, for their performances in Forsythe's The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. She won the award again the following year with Joanna Berman and Julie Diana for Robbins' Dances at a Gathering.

In 2004, 2006 and 2007, Waldo worked as ballet master and choreographer's assistant for Christopher Wheeldon and Yuri Posskhov at the Bolshoi Ballet, including for Possokhov's Magrittomania.

Waldo retired from performing in 2010, after a 22-year career, making her the last dancer hired or promoted by Tomasson in late 1980s to retire.

Personal life In 1989, Waldo married Marshall Crutcher, a composer. Their son was born in 1999.