Local Hero: Katy Heine

My local hero is my wife, Katy Heine. Katy has been dancing in the Ithaca area since the early 1980s and has been calling since just a few years after that. She is one of the founders of Ithaca's CDSS member Hands Four Dancers of Ithaca and she's been a primary organizer of HFDI events ever since. Many people don't know that she has also written several contra dances. In recent years her repertoire has included English Country Dancing, both as dancer and caller, and she has picked up her guitar lately too.

Katy is a planner, and this shows in her efforts to organize our dances and when she is calling, always working out dances in advance, talking with the bands she's with about what they, the dancers, and the choreography might all need and want.

Contra dancers throughout central New York know Katy and her calling, and the behind the scenes work she does is an even bigger part of her contribution to our entire dance community.

    - Submitted by Phil Syphrit