Ms. Larsen received her dance training at the School of American Ballet, the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and the New York School of Ballet. Over the course of her nearly two decades as a professional dancer, she was a member of Pacific Northwest Ballet, a soloist with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and a principal dancer with Alberta Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre.
Ms. Larsen retired from performing in 2010 to focus on teaching, coaching and writing about dance. She was a founding member of Incoroporamento, a collaborative trio combining dance, poetry, and music, producing several performances to critical acclaim, and has taught and coached widely across the country and been a guest teacher for schools in Japan and Canada.
She is a regular contributor for Pointe, Dance Teacher, and Dance Spirit magazines, and her essay “Why I Dance” appeared in Dance magazine in 2009. Her writing has appeared in Dance/USA’s In the Green Room, Oregon ArtsWatch, the Dancing Times, as well as the Threepenny Review, Page & Spine, and The Maine Review. Her memoir, Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life, was published by the University Press of Florida in 2021.
She lives in Asheville, NC.