After receiving a BFA at Butler University in Indianapolis, Sydor “fell in love with contemporary movement” and moved to New York City . In 2007 Sydor was cast in a show at St. Mark’s Church, a 350-year-old storied arts venue. The show received acclaim and led to a four-year touring gig in Europe with the electroclash performance troupe Fischerspooner.
Simultaneously, Sydor landed her first job at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, where she continues to perform as a dancer. She’ll be dancing in two operas in New York next season, Puccini’s “Turandot,” and the holiday presentation of “The Magic Flute.”
Sydor, 42, lives in Oakwood with her husband, Daniel, who works for Razorfish, a pharmaceutical advertising agency and tours as a freelance jazz bass player. Their son, Luca, is 4½ .
HOMECOMING
In March 2020, when COVID-19 hit, the Met Opera stopped, as did Sydor’s teaching job at Rutgers University. She and Daniel packed up their cats and got out of Brooklyn. They sheltered in place with family in Miamisburg until October 2020, when they moved into their house in Oakwood. Sydor let Dayton Ballet School know she was back and started teaching the teen and professional dancers. She proposed creating original choreography, and her piece “I’ll Meet You There” debuted at the Dayton Ballet’s 85th Anniversary presentation. She also teaches in the Musical Theatre department at Wright State University.
COFFEE & ‘CARLATES’
Sydor’s day starts at 7:30 a.m. with her two cats and Luca, who has climbed into bed in the middle of the night. She has a coffee with oat milk and eats Luca’s “leftover waffle” before rushing him off to preschool. In 2012, Sydor received her Pilates Mat Certification, and on her way to the Victoria Theatre, she teaches a private group Pilates class over Zoom. She does the session from her car through her phone, calling it “carlates.” She verbally walks clients — a group of art gallerists in NYC — through the class.
BUTTERFLIES
At 9 a.m., Sydor parks in front of the Victoria Theatre and dashes upstairs to teach the Ballet Company — in the same room where she once studied as a child. This warms them up for their day of rehearsal. “My favorite thing that I do right now that really energizes me the most is teaching the Dayton Ballet dancers once a week. Really trying to wrap my head around what they need and learning from them. It’s that thing that gives me butterflies. It makes me nervous and excited at the same time.”
JOY THROUGH MOVEMENT
By 11 a.m., Sydor heads back home for a turkey sandwich and a seltzer. After lunch, Sydor teaches a Pilates session for a woman in Denver, one of her newest pandemic Zoom private clients. “It was glaringly obvious the difference in equity and finances,” says Sydor, of when COVID-19 hit and she started teaching remotely, instructing Rutgers dancers from her living room. “A lot of mental health issues started popping up (for my students) because they were home with their family. It helped me grow in my teaching because sometimes the technique and form is not what it’s really about. Maybe we just need to come in and sense and feel our bodies and move through space and feel joy through movement. Some people need movement as therapy.”
QUICK TWITCH
Sydor stays in shape by working out with personal trainers at Present Tense Fitness in the Oregon District. “They’re a team of strength coaches that specialize in dancer populations. It’s helped me also understand my body after having a child and I lost some of my quick power. When you pick up a weight, a chemical reaction happens in your body, it’s like a ‘quick-twitch’ muscle fiber. So even though you’re not jumping, you’re still training your muscles to do something like that. They are a godsend to professional dancers here in the city. What they do is they offer a certain amount of time slots per week free to those professional dancers. A lot of DCDC dancers have a 7 a.m. session they go to before they dance. For a writer, you give them a computer. For a dancer, you give them cross-training.”
‘C’ IS FOR COOKIE
Sydor picks up Luca from school at 3:30 p.m. and takes him to Ashley’s Pastry Shop in Oakwood. “He’s gotta get a cookie with lots of icing. They know us there now. I’ll get a Diet Coke, wah wah wah (mimics a sad trombone sound effect and laughs). If it’s nice out, we’ll go over to Orchardly Park or play Legos.”
‘HERE I AM’
“Daniel gets off at five. I have one more private Pilates class. This woman is on the West Coast, in San Francisco. There’s something so refreshing, very transparent, no formality, just here I am. Those connections are very essential for me. After that, Daniel goes to work with a personal trainer.”
DINNER & BUBBLES
“I’m on dinner and bath. Sometimes dinner happens in the bath, depending on how much time we have. I’ll have a glass of wine. Luca likes a really long bath. We like pasta and grilled cheese. Informal.”
NETFLIX & CHILL
After books and bed, Sydor sneaks out and finishes planning her classes at Wright State, where she teaches ballet three times a week, and watches Netflix. “I’m watching ‘The Last of Us.’ I just finished ‘The White Lotus.’ It’s a satire on class, it’s unbelievable. I go to sleep between 10 and 11. I usually don’t have any trouble falling asleep.”
LOOKING AHEAD
“The next thing I’m looking forward to is the Dayton Dance Initiative” — an independent collective of professional dancers who meet in the off-season when dancers are contractually out of work. “It’s growing — we have 22 dancers now. I’ll be choreographing for that, and maybe dancing.” About her move back to Dayton from New York and her involvement in its dance community, Sydor reflects, “I really want to be thoughtful about everything. I don’t want to take anything for granted. I want to earn everything, all the opportunities that I’m given.”
You can reach this writer at hannah.kasper@gmail.com.
Credit: Ron Valle
Credit: Ron Valle
About the Author