Lydia Acker was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, which is where she began her formal dance training. For fourteen years, she trained at International Ballet in Greer, South Carolina under the direction of Vlada Kysselova. She performed many principal roles including Swanilda in Coppelia, Gamzatti in La Bayadere, and the soloist in Markitenka Pas de Six. After graduating high school, Lydia attended the University of South Carolina where she spent four years as a member of the UofSC Dance Company. She recently graduated from the South Carolina Honors College at UofSC with a B.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography and a minor in English. At UofSC, Lydia had the honor of performing in multiple George Balanchine works, including Serenade as the Russian girl, Western Symphony, Raymonda Variations, and Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, all staged by Stacey Calvert. She also performed as the Lilac Soloist in Jerome Robbins’s Antique Epigraphs staged by Jenifer Ringer, in Antony Tudor’s Fandangostaged by Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner, as the Mazurka Principal in Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides, in excerpts from José Limón’s A Choreographic Offering, and in many classical and contemporary original works. Lydia has attended various summer intensive programs on scholarship, including the School of American Ballet, Chautauqua Institution, Cincinnati Ballet, and BalletMet.

This is Lydia’s first season with Ballet Idaho.

Generously sponsored for the 22.23 Season by James Fullinwider and Claire Fenton.