Katherine Healy

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Katherine Healy (born in New York City)is a former principal ballerina who also had a professional performing career in figure skating.

Healy never competed at an elite level in figure skatng; instead, she turned professional at the age of eleven. In 1975, at six years old, she appeared in the televised SuperSkates exhibition at Madison Square Garden. A few years later, she was the subject of the book A Very Young Skater, published in 1979. She was a protegee of John Curry and skated professionally with his company.

Healy's true career goal, however, was not to be a figure skater, but to become a professional ballet dancer. She was trained in George Balanchine's School of American Ballet, and performed the character of Marie/Clara in the New York City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker in 1978 and 1979.

In 1982, Healy had a major role in the film Six Weeks, with Mary Tyler Moore and Dudley Moore, portraying a young ballet dancer with terminal leukemia. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for this role in the category "Best New Star -- Actress".

Shortly afterwards, Healy concentrated exclusively on ballet. After having won the silver medal in the junior division at the 1982 USA International Ballet Competition, the following year she won the same event in Varna, Bulgaria, becoming the youngest ever to be awarded the gold medal. In 1984, at the age of 15, she joined the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet) as a senior principal dancer, and performed with that company for two seasons. During her time in England, she performed roles such as Swanilda in Coppelia, and the principal roles in Etudes, Nutcracker and the Don Quixote Pas de Deux. At the age of sixteen, Sir Frederick Ashton chose her as the first cast and personally coached her for the role of Juliet in the revival of his production of Romeo and Juliet. She performed Juliet in the premiere of this production in London in July, 1985, at a royal gala attended by the late HRH Princess Margaret.

After returning to the United states in 1986, she entered Princeton University. She graduated Magna cum Laude from Princeton University in 1990 with a degree in Art History. She was also the recipient of the Senior Thesis Prize in the Department of Art and Archaeology for her thesis on French Impressionism. During her time at Princeton, she continued her ballet training exclusively with Wilhelm Burmann, who remained her private ballet coach for the rest of her dancing career. Also during her college years, she performed as a guest artist in Japan, Canada and with several local companies in the New York area such as the Eglevsky Ballet and Connecticut Ballet. In addition, she trained with John Curry and made some sporadic skating appearances during her time at university.

Following her graduation from Princeton, she worked as a principal ballerina with Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and the Vienna State Opera Ballet. In Monte Carlo, she danced (among other roles) the leading roles in George Balanchine's Theme and Variations, Tarantella, Rubies and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. Roland Petit created a principal role for her in Mozart et la Danse in 1991. In Vienna, her roles included (among other roles) Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee, Kitri in Don Quixote, Juliet in John Cranko's production of Romeo and Juliet, the title roles in Giselle and in Sir Kenneth Macmillan's production of Manon, as well as the title role of Raymonda in revived excerpts of Rudolf Nureyev's production of Raymonda. She also performed the leading role of Marie in Yuri Grigorovich's production of the Nutcracker. She returned to the United States in 1997, where she resumed her skating career.

In addition to her work with Curry, Healy was coached as a skater by Glyn Watts and Richard Callaghan, and passed the United States Figure Skating Association's gold-level ice dancing test.

She has been married to World and Olympic figure skating coach Peter Burrows for ten years and currently works as a skating coach and choreographer in Monsey, New York and in New Hyde Park, NY. She was a regular performer and choreographer for the Ice Theatre of New York until 2005. Ice Theatre commissioned two original works from her and she restaged Jean Pierre Bonnefoux's work Ice Moves for the Company. She has also appeared in shows such as An Evening with Champions, the Equal Challenge of Champions and the Vail Figure Skating Festival.