Sue Loyd started studying dance at the age of five. She began with tap-dancing and added ballet to her study the next year.

 

At the age of fourteen Harold Christensen awarded her a scholarship to San Francisco Ballet School where she studied with Harold and Lew Christensen, Ruby Asquith, Gisella Caccialanza (prodigy of Enrico Cecchetti), Anatole Vilzak and Madame Scholar.

 

That same year, Lew Christensen, the Artist Director of San Francisco Ballet cast Sue into a demi-solo role, the Chinese Variation, making her an apprentice to the company. She soon became a member of the San Francisco Ballet Company dancing corp-de-ballet, demi-solo, and solo to principal roles. At the age of eighteen she danced her first principal role in Lew Christensen’s Dances Concertantes which was performed at the old Alcazar Theatre on O’Farrell Street in the San Francisco.

 

At this time Kenneth Rexroth, the American poet and critical essayist, was writing for the San Francisco Chronicle. Rexroth acclaimed Sue as an “etoile in the art of dance”.

 

The San Francisco Ballet was chosen as Ambassadors for the United States and was sent on three International Tours. In 1956 they performed in the Orient, in 1957 South America, and 1958 in the Near East

In her fourteen years with San Francisco Ballet she was in the original cast of twenty-seven of Lew Christensen’s ballets.

Her progress was notable in the Nutcracker every year as she went first into demi-solo roles then into solo roles of the Doll in the first act, Shepherdess in the second act, to Rose in the Waltz of the Flowers, Snow Queen Pas de Deux closing first act and the Sugar Plum Fairy.

 

In the late 60’s Robert Joffrey asked Sue and her partner Henry Berg to join the New York City Joffrey Ballet as Principal Dancers. In her first season she danced the leads in Balanchine’s Minkus Pas de Trio, Lew Christensen’s Con Amore and Jinx, and Jerome Robbins Moves.

 

As a dancer in the Joffrey Ballet she worked with Leonid Massine, Kurt Jooss, Ruth Ann Boris, Anna Sokolow, Richard Cragun, John Hart, and Twyla Tharp and was casted in Rudolf Nureyev’s Larenzia. She was in the original cast of all of Gerald Arpino’s Berkeley Ballets including Trinity, Confetti and Koncertanz.

Within a year Sue became Robert Joffery’s Assistant and Ballet Mistress coaching and teaching while still performing.

 

After six years, Sue left NYC to join the Cincinnati Ballet as their Ballet Mistress, where she assisted Frederic Franklin in setting his Nutcracker Suite. Before leaving NYC Sue became certified as a Ballet Master in Labanotation.

Sue was invited to return to San Francisco to become the Artistic Director for Pacific Ballet with Henry Berg and John Pasqualetti.

 

Also upon her return to San Francisco, Sue became the Company Teacher for San Francisco Ballet for seven years. At this time she taught and adjudicated at Regional Ballet Festivals throughout California and Idaho. Concurrently, she was Ballet Mistress to Oberlin Dance Collective [ODC] for five years.

 

She became one of the founding Directors with Carlos Carvajal of The Summer Dance Festival in San Francisco, which was later to be known as the Ethnic Dance Festival.

 

At the premiere performance of this festival, Sue made her debut as a choreographer and was acclaimed by the San Francisco Examiner critic, Alexander Fried, to be “an architect of dance.”

Receiving a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for choreography she created four ballets for Pacific Ballet.

 

She was a member of one of the planning committees for the Mascone Center to ensure the performing arts had a theatre and rehearsal rooms.

 

In 1980 Sue became the Founding Artistic Director with Henry Berg of the Golden Gate Ballet Center. There she established the Golden Gate Ballet Ensemble, where she taught and choreographed for ten years.

 

In 1990 an automobile accident forced Sue to stop teaching and go into years of rehabilitation. During this time she focused on her family and started training in Metaphysics and the Healing Arts.

 

She studied Shamanism, Psychic Awareness, Divination, Qigong –Tai Chi and was certified in several alterative healing methods, becoming a Reiki Master and an Energy Therapist

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After fifteen years of studying Qigong and the Chen Style of Tai Chi Sue is now an Assistant Teacher to her Master Teacher Kat Kroll whose teacher was Master Zhang Xue Xin from China.

 

In 2011, to further her ability to walk and dance again, Sue started tap classes. 

In the December of 2013 she had a milestone in her rehabilitation when she performed in Bruce Biada’s choreography with the Senior Tap Class for the ODC Staff Party.

 

Having regained her strength, Sue started teaching private Ballet lessons. Many of her students are those that had fallen behind in their classes due to injury or misunderstanding on how to train. Sue works on correcting these issues, providing students with the opportunity to enhance their technique, to refine their quality of movement and find a new mental and emotion perspective. Many have been able to go on to major schools and companies.

 

Sue now offers private lessons to students of all ages and levels in Ballet, plus workshops for Beginning Adults. Her joy of dance along with her vast experience and knowledge are a treasure and an inspiration to her students.