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Artistic Staff

Katita Waldo

Rehearsal Director

Katita Waldo

Biography

  • Born

    Madrid, Spain

  • Training

    San Francisco Ballet School

  • Company Membership

    Joined the Corp de Ballet in 1988
    Promoted to Soloist in 1990
    Promoted to Principal Dancer in 1994
    Appointed Rehearsal Director in 2010
    Named Principal Character Dancer in 2022

Spanish-born Katita Waldo trained at San Francisco Ballet School, prior to joining the Company in 1988. With the Company, Waldo was promoted to soloist in 1990 and to principal dancer in 1994, before retiring in 2010. During her twenty-two year tenure, she performed principal roles in a diverse repertory of works by acclaimed choreographers including George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Lar Lubovitch, Helgi Tomasson, and Christopher Wheeldon.

In 2004, Waldo set Yuri Possokhov’s Magrittomania, a work she had performed with the Company, on the Bolshoi Ballet. Because of this experience, Christopher Wheeldon, who had worked with Waldo on numerous occasions, asked her to join him as choreographer’s assistant on his creation of Misericordes, also for the Bolshoi Ballet. The work premiered in spring 2007 and was also performed by the Bolshoi Ballet at London’s Covent Garden that summer to critical acclaim. The process of creating the work was filmed and made into a documentary which aired on the BBC in late 2007.

In 2008, Tomasson asked Waldo to serve as Rehearsal Director for two premieres from the New Works Festival and in 2010, Waldo was appointed Rehearsal Director. During her tenure, Waldo has served as Rehearsal Director on works by Julia Adam, George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Edward Liang, John Neumeier, and Alexei Ratmansky among others. In addition to teaching at San Francisco Ballet and at the San Francisco Ballet School, Waldo has taught both nationally and internationally.

In 2022, Waldo joined SF Ballet as a principal character dancer.