Lydia Layden is a recent graduate of Indiana University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance and minors in Arts Management and Advertising based in New York City. She has extensive experience in both professional and academic performance, showcasing her versatility and artistry across styles such as contemporary, modern, ballet, afro-cuban, improvisation, tap, classic jazz, and commercial jazz.

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Choreographically, "Marmoreo", a piece that creates an art gallery on stage by sculpting and deconstructing bodies, performed at Still Inspired Future Artists Dance Festival in Chicago, IL. 

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Lydia has attended the Doug Varone Winter Intensive 2026, Dance Italia in July of 2024, LINK festival in May 2024, and as well as taken from a variety of teaching and working artists around NYC and the Midwest. At LINK, she performed in works by Lindsey Matheis and Eric Handman, and she was also fortunate enough to perform backup for Todrick Hall in Velocity's MVA showcase in July of 2021 before attending college. 

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While attending Indiana University, Lydia has danced in pieces created by Beatrice Capote, Liz Shea, Christian Claessans, and Selene Carter. She also frequently took advantage of numerous student performance opportunities. These student performance opportunities ranged from a number in a variety show, or full length evening shows. Some of these works were later taken and performed at festivals such as Koto by Picabo Saunders which was performed at Trifecta Dance Festival. 

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She was also the Vice President of the Movement Cooperation, MoCo. MoCo is a club at IU which aims to bring accessible dance classes to students across campus. MoCo provides spaces for students wanting to take dance class on campus by providing a variety of class levels and styles in order to allow students  to move and grow in a new way. MoCo also offers a platform for aspiring dance students and other clubs on campus that want to share their culture through dance. 

 

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